Born in Dacca (now Dhaka), which was then part of British India (now Bangladesh), Arun Bose formally trained as an artist in Calcutta at the Government College of Art and Craft Kolkata. He graduated in 1955. For the next 7 years he was active in Calcutta, creating and teaching. Upon his arrival in France he was introduced to printmaking at Atelier 17, under the guidance of S.W. Hayter, and with the help of a French Government Scholarship. He also learned fresco technique at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris simultaneously. Bose moved back to Calcutta from circa 1964 to 1968, before moving on to New York that year. There he studied at the Pratt Graphic Center, and received the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Fund Fellowship in 1968.