Chakravarti was born on 1 July 1893 in Krishnanagar in the Nadia district of Bengal Presidency, India.
[2] After obtaining his PhD from Cambridge, he was tasked by Paul Pelliot with editing and annotating the oldest Brahmi inscriptions found in Central Asia.
In 1938, he excavated some (exact number unknown) of the 100 Chaitya caves in Bandhavgarh National Park.
In 1948, Chakravarti succeeded Mortimer Wheeler as the Director General of the ASI serving in this position till 1950.
[6] Following his retirement, Chakravarti was appointed as an advisor to the Department of Archaeology, Government of India and served till 1952.