[2] However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology (including the "ways and thoughts and languages of women and children"), an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians.

[4][5] Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876,[6] in a Bengali Brahmin family in Debanandapur, a small village in Hooghly, West Bengal, about 50 kilometres from Kolkata.

[8] Sarat Chandra wrote in the English translation of his monumental book Srikanta: "My childhood and youth were passed in great poverty.

Father was a great scholar, and he had tried his hand at stories and novels, dramas and poems, in short, every branch of literature, but never could finish anything.

"[1] Poverty forced the family to live for long periods in Bhuvanmohini's father's (and later brother's) home in Bhagalpur, Bihar.

He developed an interest in English literature and read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and other novels.

[8] In Calcutta, Sarat Chandra worked for six months translating Hindi paper books into English for an advocate.

Most of his stay in Rangoon was in the Botahtaung Pazundaung neighbourhood where "mistris" (manual workers, mechanics, craftsmen, artisans) lived.

He borrowed books on various subjects, including sociology, politics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, history, scriptures, and other topics from the Bernard Free Library.

He resumed writing after a gap of about eighteen years: "Some of my old acquaintances started a little magazine, but no one of note would condescend to contribute to it, as it was so small and insignificant.

[11] The same year, James Drummond Anderson wrote an article entitled "A New Bengali Writer" in the Times Literary Supplement, which introduced Sarat Chandra to a Western readership.

The first film based on Sarat Chandra's writings, silent movie Andhare Aalo, was released the same year.

The book was proscribed by the colonial British Government of India, a restriction removed after Sarat Chandra's death.

C. Sarker writes: "His father was an utterly restless person—more of a dreamer than a realist ... By contrast Sarat Chandar's mother, Bhubanmohini Devi, was a hardworking lady who braved all the adversities of life with a calm patience.

"[13] Sarkar also writes "The mother (Bhubanmohini) had an unmistakable impact on the mental make-up of the son (Sarat) as could be seen from the dominance of the female characters in his literary creations.

In Rangoon, Sarat Chandra's neighbour downstairs was a Bengali "mistri" (a blue-collar worker) who had arranged his daughter's marriage to an alcoholic.

A Bengali mistri friend, Krishna Das Adhikari, requested him to marry his 14-year-old widow daughter, Mokshada.

The two-storied Burmese style house was also home to Sarat Chandra's brother, Swami Vedananda.

In an article entitled "A New Bengali Writer" in London's prestigious Times Literary Supplement dated 11 July 1918, Anderson writes:[3] "His knowledge of the ways and thoughts and language of women and children, his power of transferring these vividly to the printed page, are such as are rare indeed in any country.

Anderson comments about Sarat Chandra's fondness for the past: "Mr. Chatterjee is much too true an artist to allow his gift of kindly yet scrupulously accurate observation to be distracted by social or political prejudice.

But he is so keen and amused a spectator of the life about him, whether in cosmopolitan Calcutta or in somnolent little villages buried in dense verdure among the sunny ricefields, that it is not without doubts and diffidence that we attribute to him a tendency to praise past times and comfortable old conventions."

Regarding Sarat Chandra's popularity, he noted: "It is of excellent omen that Mr. Chatterjee's art has received such instant and wide appreciation in his own country Let us hope that in other Indian provinces there are rising authors as keenly observant and gifted with a like faculty of easy and natural expression."

Dr Mirajkar[17] informs "the translations of Sarat Chandra created a stir amongst the readers and writers all over Maharashtra.

He has become a known literary personality in Maharashtra in the rank of any popular Marathi writers including H. N. Apte, V. S. Khandekar, N. S. Phadke and G. T. Madkholkar".

Jainendra Kumar,[16] who considers that his contribution towards the creation and preservation of cultural India is second, perhaps, only to that of Gandhi, asks a rhetorical question summing up Sarat Chandra's position and presumably the role of translation and inter-literary relationship: "Sarat Chandra was a writer in Bengali; but where is that Indian language in which he did not become the most popular when he reached it?"

They have been made in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan; in languages Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Multiple Screen Adaptations His romantic drama novel Datta was adapted into the Bengali film as Datta in 1951 directed by Saumyen Mukhopadhyay starring Sunanda Banerjee and Manoranjan Bhattacharyya with Ahindra Choudhury as Rashbehari,[19][20] The 1961 Telugu film Vagdanam by Acharya Aatreya was loosely based on the novel.

In 1957 Bardidi (translate: oldest sister) was made by director Ajoy Kar based on the novel with the same name.

In 1961, Batasari (translation: Wayfarer) was made in Telugu language, produced and directed by Ramakrishna of Bharani Pictures.

Narir Itihas, which was lost in a house fire, contained a history of women on the lines of Spencer's Descriptive Sociology.