Dutt, Toru (1856–1877)

Indian poet and translator. Born in Calcutta in 1856; died in 1877 of tuberculosis; daughter of Govin Chunder Dutt (a justice of the peace).

Selected works:

A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields (1875); Bianca; or the Young Spanish Maiden (posthumous, 1878); (novel) Le Journal de Mlle. d'Avers (The

Diary of Mille d'Avers, posthumous, 1879); Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (posthumous, 1882).

The daughter of a justice of the peace, Toru Dutt was born in Calcutta to a family of high-caste cultivated Hindus, and her parents were converts to Christianity. She received a broad education at home with her sister Aru . At 13, she and her sister were sent to France to study for a few months and attended a convent in Nice. The family moved to Cambridge, England, in 1871, and the sisters heard lectures that the philosopher Henry Sidgwick and other liberal dons had begun for women. The family returned to India in 1873, and as Dutt resumed her studies she began learning Sanskrit. With a strong affinity for the French character and an aptitude for the French language, she undertook a study of French romantic poetry and produced essays on Leconte de Lisle and Joséphin Soulary as well as a series of English translations of poetry. In 1876, the translations were collected in A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields. Her collection Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan was selected from work left unpublished at the time of her early death, and these English versions of native Indian legends have been said to show strong original power. After Dutt's death of tuberculosis while in her early 20s, her novel, written in French and entitled Le Journal de Mlle. d'Avers, was published in 1879. Dutt is regarded as a pioneer for her writings in an age when few Indian women published.