Sisir Kumar Maitra (born 19 January 1887, Calcutta, India, died 1963) was Head of the Department of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University.
Maitra was born into a Brahmin[citation needed] family, and as his father - who served as a Professor of English literature at the Dacca, Presidency and Ravenshaw Colleges - was very liberal in his views on social and religious matters, young Sisir was brought up free from social and religious orthodoxy.
Maitra snr was also a great admirer of Rabindranath Tagore, and this was part of the intellectual atmosphere in which Sisir and his siblings lived.
His faith in the supremacy of reason was shaken by the philosophy of Henri Bergson, to which he devoted several years of study.
[citation needed] This work is a comprehensive introduction to Sri Aurobindo's philosophy in the context of mainstream academia.