[3][4] Surendra Jha 'Suman' was born on 10 October 1910 in Ballipur Village of District Samastipur, Bihar.
[1] He was educated at Dharmaraj Sanskrit College, Muzaffarpur and was a graduate in literature (Sahityacharya) and was also a Kavyatirtha (Bengal).
He retired as a professor and HOD, Maithili Language in LNMU University Darbhanga, Bihar.
As a writer, both in the realm of prose and poetry, He had a superb command over several languages and this qualification brought him a reward from the then President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
His choice of words, alliterations, metaphor and similes, use of prosody and description of seasons, have been unique in modern Maithili literature.
His Payasvini (1969),[5] a collection of 25 poems about beauty of nature, colourful imagery and simplicity of rural life has won for him the Sahitya Akademi award for 1971.
Sumanji's poetry Dattavati (1962)[5] describes the Sino-Indian War and contains patriotic fervour as in Bharat vandana (1970) and Antarnad (1970).
The favourite topics of Sanskrit poets are treated with new imagery in Asadhasya pratham divase, Yamuna, Asuryampasya and Sharad.
His Lalana Lahari (1969) is a vivid description of the peculiar characteristics of love making by girls of different provinces of India[1] His song in praise of the Ganga in Gangavtaran (1967) has been termed superb.
[1] His contribution as a journalist, editor and publisher is remarkable which started with setting up of Mithila Press in 1948, dedicated to his quest of spreading awareness of Maithili language, culture and literature.
[1] His calibre as an editor can be seen in the Mithilank of Mithila Mihir published in 1935.He has also edited: – Swadesh first a monthly and then a daily.
[1] He successfully edited Prachi, a periodical published by Sahitya Akademi, regional office, Kolkata.
It consisted of English translation of literature published in eastern India, namely, Assamese, Bengali, Maithili, Meitei, Nepali and Oriya.
He compiled Maithili Prachin Geet (1977) a research work with Dr. Ramdev Jha.His other research work includes, a critical study:- Surendra Jha 'Suman' was a Member of Sixth Lok Sabha from 1977 to 1979 representing Darbhanga Parliamentary Constituency of Bihar.