Background
Devi was born in 1914, she was the daughter of philosopher Surendranath Dasgupta and protegée of poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Devi was born in 1914, she was the daughter of philosopher Surendranath Dasgupta and protegée of poet Rabindranath Tagore.
She graduated from the Jogamaya Devi College, an affiliated undergraduate women"s college of the historic University of Calcutta, in Kolkata.
Her first book of verse appeared when she was sixteen, with a preface by Rabindranath Tagore. She wrote Rabindranath--the man behind his poetry. She was the basis for the main character in Romanian writer Mircea Eliade"s 1933 novel Bengal Nights.
In her Na Hanyate (English title, lieutenant Does Not Die: A Romance) novel, written as a response to Bengal Nights, Maitreyi Devi describes the romance and the cultural tensions resulted from lieutenant
Given the cultural constraints, she denies claims of a sexual affair between her and Eliade during the latter"s sojourn in British India.