Page:Tales of Bengal (Sita and Santa Chattopadhyay).djvu/15

Rh land and its life. Their literary careers have advanced together. In 1917, Sita Devi's first original short story—Light of the Eyes—appeared in Prabasi, her sister's first one—Sunanda—appearing in the same magazine a month later. In 1918, they wrote in collaboration a novel, Udyanlata—The Garden Creeper—, a serial for Prabasi. This was given over a column in the Times Literary Supplement, from the pen of the late Mr. J. D. Anderson, who knew Bengali literature as no other European did. He speaks of the book's 'keen observation, sometimes girlishly amused, sometimes tenderly pitying, never harsh or bitter,' which was rendered in 'a style which is in itself a delight to any competent student of Indian letters.' They had excellent material, as he points out, in the contrast afforded between 'the varied life of the great cosmopolitan city of Calcutta, and also of the pleasant old-world existence led by rustic dwellers in the teeming villages of rural Bengal.' The same writer gave equal praise to Sita Devi's Cage of Gold, which appeared first as a Prabasi serial in 1919. It was followed by Santa Devi's serial, The Eternal, in 1920. Both sisters have written reviews and other articles. Santa Devi has painted in water colour. She is a disciple of the well-known artists, Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. Sita Devi has published in The Modern Review translations by herself of her own and her sister's stories.

The two sisters thus present a wide culture, and their writings proceed from lives of unfettered freedom of thought. Other circumstances have helped to give them their detached view of Hindu society. Though born in Calcutta, they lived in Allahabad from 1895 to 1908, and most of their dearest memories cluster about that place. They have also lived for a considerable period at Shantiniketan, Rabindranath Tagore's 'Home of Peace', a place where thought is as liberal as the wide spaces that surround it. Here they found their fullest powers of expression, as nowhere else.