[1] Drawn towards Vaishnava practices, Patra developed a dispassionate attitude (vairagya) towards worldly affairs and started a Sankirtana group called 'Bhaja Gobinda'.

For his mastery over eight disciplines (vocal music, Bina, Mardala, musicology, sahitya-explanation, poetry-music composition and others) he was awarded the title of Astabadhani by the Khallikote rajasabhā after almost a month of rigorous tests, conditions of which included minimal sleep and continuous demanding performances.

[3] Patra is the author of several books on Odissi music, the best-known of them being Odisi Sangita Prakasa (1970) which propounded the theory of 32 melas for scientific classification.

Patra laid great emphasis on singing the songs exactly as the composers had taught them, trying to document them in as much detail as he could, in the process collecting and teaching antique forms of ragas along with ancient compositions dating back to as early as the 16th century and archaic methods of binyāsa or elaboration based on six angas of the prabandha, known as sadanga ālāpa.

His research was mostly in the kingdoms of South Odisha, undivided Ganjam : Paralakhemundi, Ghumusara, Dharakote, Athagada, Khallikote, Chikiti, Surangi, Badakhemundi (Digapahandi), Sanakhemundi, Jalantara, Manjusa, Tekkali (Tikili), Tarala, Jeypore (Jayapura) ; covering parts of present-day Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Nayagarh districts.