Launched in 1945 by the Delhi-based printing-turned-publishing house Delhi Press, Saritā was among the widely read Hindi monthlies of the 1950s. Munshi Thakur Das established Delhi Press in 1911 exclusively as a printing press, and Vishwa Nath, his great-grandson, was the first in the family to begin publishing with the launch of the English language magazine Caravan in 1940, which, along with Saritā , he edited through the 1950s. Saritā was priced at one rupee, and an average issue ran over one hundred pages and sometimes even around two hundred pages.
Saritā catered to a variety of readers, made evident from its structure. Saritā comprised separate sections not only for different such fictional genres as short stories and one-act plays (ekāṅkī ) but also for the more “serious” nonfiction articles ( lekh ), averaging four to six pieces of each genre. A self-help or assorted section usually followed, including advice columns on how to solve small household problems.
The serialised novel ( dhārāvāhī ) was next; then came all the regular columns: Āpke patr (readers’ letters), Chañchal Chhāyā (film reviews), Nayā sāhitya (book reviews), and Varg pahelī, a Hindi crossword competition with cash prizes. Later, sections added included those on “Photograph,” cooking, and knitting; Pāṭhakõ kī samasyāẽ (Agony Aunt, added in November 1951); Priya mitr (Pen Pal, added in December 1949); and Bāl Saritā (children’s literatur.