 Maitra was born into a Brahmin 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.In his college days he was for a short time a great admirer of Hegel.