Parineeta (Bengali: পরিণীতা Porinita) is a 1914 Bengali language novel written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and is set in Calcutta, India during the early part of the 20th century. It is a novel of social protest which explores issues of that time period related to class and religion.
Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers around a poor thirteen-year-old orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters, and the expense of paying for their weddings has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbour, Nabin Roy, by mortgaging a plot of land with him. The two neighbouring families share a very cordial relationship, although Nabin Roy does covet Gurucharan’s mortgaged plot. Nabin Roy’s wife, Bhuvaneshwari, dotes on the orphan Lalita and showers love upon her; the latter reciprocates even to the extent of addressing Bhuvaneshwari as ‘maa'(mother). Roy’s younger son Shekharnath (Shekhar), a 25-26-year-old man-about-town, lately turned attorney, has a joking, bantering relationship with Lalita, his mother’s protégée. The young girl adores him like her mentor, and for some strange reasons, ratifies and accepts his possessive attitude towards her.