A Married Woman is an English translation of Bina Thakur's Sahitya Akademi award- winning collection of Maithili short stories, Parineeta. The stories of Bina Thakur revolve around the theme of a dilemma. It's the dilemma of a directionless and emotionless middle-class. The ambience and characters of all the twelve stories of her collection, A Married Woman have been drawn from this middle class that dwells in its own self- centred world. This class wants to climb up the top of the Himalayas or to land on the moon within no time. At present, this provides a fertile land for the stories. Bina Thakur has selected an appropriate domain for her stories.

Bina Thakur (b. 1954) got her M.A. in 1975 and Ph.D. in 1985. She became Professor and Head of the Department of Maithili in L.N.M.U., Darbhanga. She was the Convener of Maithili Advisory Board of Sahitya Akademi. She has also been a member of many Maithili literary organizations like Maithili Sewa Sansthan, Darbhanga, Chetana Samiti, Patna and Karna Goshthi, Kolkata. Maithili Rama Kavyak Parampara, Vidyapatik Utsa, Itihas Darpan, Bharati (Novel), Vanini, Maithili Geet Sahityak Vikas aur Parampara, Parineeta, Aalap are some of her famous Maithili works. She has got many prestigious awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award.

What is the relevance of literature and what is its utility in the context of time? This question is most important and pertinent in our times. In fact, the edifice of the present is constructed on the plinth of the past. And from this perspective, history plays a significant role in human life. However, this happens through two modes: in the first, the past already had answered many questions, thus resolving many issues of the present and in the second, many issues of the past have got entangled over the span of time to appear in more complex forms before us. Naturally, the second situation makes me uncomfortable.

Again, the issue of literature in the context of time appears before us. As we know, literature and the society are closely associated. It is said that literature is the mirror of the society. By this argument, society may be called the mirror of literature. But it is also true that society and literature walk together like two parallel lines. As society goes through changes, so does literature. There is nothing awkward in this. Literature finds its identity through the language that creates it. Truly, it is necessary to understand literature by getting acquainted with the language-literature equation of the particular literature. And the literature has language-related features. Language is the determinant of literature but the identity of literature isn't solely dependent on the language. Other factors also determine literature, such as aesthetics, morality, aspects of civilisation and history.

It is a historical need to pay attention to some other aspects also, not for Maithili literature only but for giving an image to Indian literature. In West European countries, terms like nation-state and national literature were the outcome of historical movements. But Indian literature had already acquired its unification from the point of civilisation and historical aspects, much before acquiring the nation-state status. Besides the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana, the concept of India is elaborated in other such books and in the works of Vidyapati, Shankaradev and Amir Khusrau. Despite some changes in political boundaries, the concept of India remained intact.