[2][3] He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ex officio posts such as the Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi since then.

[4] Born in 1937 in village Mahanga, situated on the banks of Chitrotpala, a tributary of the great Mahanadi,[9] Sitakant Mahapatra grew up reciting a chapter of Odia version of Bhagwad Gita in a traditional household.

He took to teaching for two years at Post-Graduate Department of Utkal University, before taking the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) examination.

He joined the IAS in 1961 as the first Odia to stand first in India in the UPSC examination, and went on to hold several key posts, including Home Secretary, Government of Orissa, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and President, UNESCO's World Decade for Cultural Development (1994–1996).

[12] He has also two books on social anthropology published by the Oxford University Press, these books deal with the ambivalent relationship between the old ritual based society and state-sponsored development, and explores the reason behind developmental programs failing in tribal areas despite state efforts.

In 1974, lyricist and writer Prafulla Kar described the works of Mahapatra as part of the "new poetry" in Odisha expressing a "contemporary consciousness" of Odia culture amidst an increasingly "urbanized and technological environment."