Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t35.1

v2.c10.s2.t35.1

Maitreyi Devi (also spelled Maitraye Devi, 1914 - 1990) was an Indian poet and novelist, proficient in Sanskrit and Bengali literature. She used Bengali and English for writing. She was born in West Bengal, and studied in Calcutta University. Her father Surendranath Dasgupta is a master of Sanskrit literary history and Indian philosophy history, having written great works which were handed down to the later generation. Devi was acquainted with Rabindranath Tagore since childhood and became his disciple. At the age of 16, she published her first poems. Tagore appreciated her talents very much and wrote the preface for her poems. She wrote in more than 10 genres of writing, including poems, novels, essays, comments, etc. In 1976, she won the College of Literature award with her Bengali autobiographical novel *‘Na Hanyate’* (1974). The novel was reprinted 47 times and translated into 13 foreign languages within the following 40 years.