Krishnashastry has remained popular four decades after his death through his work Vachana Bharata, and his narration of the Hindu epic Mahabharata in the Kannada.

[citation needed] His parents were Ramakrishna Shastry, grammarian and principal of Sanskrit school in Mysore and Shankaramma, a homemaker; she died of disease when he was ten.

Due to poverty, he was compelled to study Kannada and Sanskrit for his Bachelor of Arts degree (1914) though he wanted to pursue a career as a scientist.

Krishnashastry brought out many of nuances of great Sanskrit plays of Kālidāsa, Bhavabhuti and Bhasa during his translations to Kannada.

Krishnashastry's biography of Bankim Chandra Chattarjee, a noted Bengali novelist earned him a Central Sahitya Academy award.