Shivarudrappa was born on 7 February 1926 in Issur Village, Shikaripura Taluk, in Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

[citation needed] Shivarudrappa gained his BA in 1949 and MA in 1953 from University of Mysore, having secured gold medals on three occasions.

Shivarudrappa secured a doctorate for his thesis "Saundarya Samīkṣe" (Kannada : ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ ಸಮೀಕ್ಷೆ), written under the guidance of Kuvempu, a pioneering work in the field of literary aesthetics.

In 1963, he joined Hyderabad's Osmania University as a reader, eventually becoming the head of the Kannada department.

In 1966, he moved his headquarters to Bangalore University, where he served as Director until his retirement from the government in 1986.