He was born in the village Chala in what is now Shida Kartli region (then under Russian rule) to a prominent Georgian aristocratic family.

Amilakhvari spent the first three years of his military career fighting the recalcitrant mountainous clans during the Caucasian War and was wounded at the action of Chakpak on 31 August 1853.

After another three years of his service in Chechnya (1856-1859), Amilakhvari was promoted to colonel and assigned to command the Nizhny Novgorod dragoon regiment from 1864 to 1873.

In 1871, Tsar Alexander II of Russia sent him to Stuttgart to congratulate King Charles I of Württemberg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his being the chief of Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon Regiment.

He was decorated with numerous Russian and foreign awards, including the imperial orders of St. George, St. Vladimir, St. Anna, St. Alexander Nevsky and of St. Stanislav.