[1] He was born into Kanyakubja Brahmin family on 5 May 1864 in Daulatpur village, now in Raebareli District of Uttar Pradesh.

His father Ram Sahay Dwivedi was a soldier in the East India Company's army and later worked in Bombay as temple priest for the leaders of the Vallabha sampradaya.

[2] Dwivedi received his early education in Sanskrit at his home, and in Hindi and Urdu at the Daulatpur village school.

[2] During his Indian Railways service in Jhansi in the 1880s, Dwivedi earned wide fame as a writer and litterateur.

He was considered as the mentor of Maithili Sharan Gupt, another noted Hindi poet and writer.