Ritha Devi devoted a program to Odissi, one of the traditional dance forms of India, on Sunday afternoon at the Uris Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Miss Devi, an Indian-born dancer who has taught at New York University, specializes in Odissi, which comes from Orissa, a state in eastern India. She made the works she choreographed and performed in this style visually enchanting and spiritually fervent.

Odissi emphasizes sculptural poses, supple torso movements and flowing gestures for the arms. At times, the tempo in Odissi dances becomes slow, yet it is never indolent. And although the dances can turn lively and include quick turns, movements never grow harsh except when the dramatic situation demands it. ''Laya-Lasya (Pancha-Jaati) Pallavi,'' a plotless work, was especially attractive.

Odissi appeals to the soul as well as to the eyes, for like all the great Indian dance forms, it has religious significance. The program opened with ''Navadurga,'' an invocation to Durga, a mother-goddess, and it concluded with ''Devi-Stotram,'' a prayer to the same deity. In these sacred solos, Miss Devi bowed reverently and stepped slowly, twisting her body from side to side. But when she raised her hands, she took care to hold them before her as if she were bearing a precious offering.

Miss Devi also offered examples of Odissi as a narrative form. In ''Draupadi,'' a solo dance-drama about a woman who was gambled away by her five husbands, Miss Devi portrayed the heroine, the villain who claimed her and the god who rescued her, indicating each of the characters by means of key gestures. Similarly, in excerpts from ''Vasanthasena,'' another solo dance-drama, she was a woman of noble bearing, a handsome prince and an obese, swaggering drunkard.

She was accompanied by an ensemble that included Ghanashyam Panda, vocalist; Dhaneshwar Swain, percussionist, and Mohinimohan Patnaik, a flutist who composed scores for ''Laya-Lasya Pallavi'' and ''Vasanthasena.''