[2][3] Anagnostaras was born in 1760 at the village of Poliani (now part of the municipality of Kalamata in Messenia); his family originated from the Leontari area of Arcadia.

[3][4] In Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792, he appeared in the Ionian Islands, together with Christoforos Perraivos and Tzanetos Grigorakis, to serve with the rank of major under the commands of the Greek-Russian general Emmanouil Papadopoulos.

[6][7] At Odessa in 1817, he was initiated into the Filiki Etaireia by Nikolaos Skoufas, became a "priest" and in March 1817 he was sent to Moscow to meet Athanasios Tsakalov,[8] who sent him to the islands of Hydra and Spetses to search for "neophyte" members.

On 30 September 1821, along with Theodoros Kolokotronis, Kyriakoulis Mavromichalis and Panagiotis Giatrakos, he signed an agreement to confirm the position of the Peloponnesian Senate's members, and they came to rupture with Alexandros Ypsilantis, who eventually retreated.

[4] In March 1822, Anagnostaras along with Panagiotis Kefalas and Giatrakos' family supported Georgios Kountouriotis to form a new government at Myloi.