Bhattacharya was born in
Bhagalpur, part of the
Bengal Presidency of British India. His parents were
Bengalis. Bhattacharya studied at
Patna University and received a bachelor's degree in English literature. He subsequently completed his graduate studies in the United Kingdom. While his original choice was to do so in literature, a hostile attitude from one of the professors prompted him to switch to history. Bhattacharya received Master's (1931) and Doctoral degrees (1934) from the
University of London. As a graduate student, Bhattacharya became involved with Marxist circles, and was also strongly influenced by
Harold Laski, one of his teachers. He was also active in literary circles and had work published in various magazines and newspapers. Some of Bhattacharya's articles were published in
The Spectator, and he developed a friendship with the editor,
Francis Yeats-Brown. During this time, Bhattacharya also interacted with
Rabindranath Tagore. He translated Tagore's poem
The Golden Boat into English in 1930. Both Yeats-Brown and Tagore advised Bhattacharya to write his fiction in English, rather than
Bengali. On completion of his doctoral studies Bhattacharya moved to
Calcutta and soon got married. After a few years, he joined the diplomatic service, serving in the Indian Embassy in
Washington, D. C. as a
Press Attaché, returning to India after completing that service. Bhattacharya accepted an offer to join the
University of Hawaii as a visiting faculty, subsequently moving permanently to
Seattle to take up a chair at the
University of Washington. ==Literary review==