Profoundly influenced by Gandhian thought, Pathak wrote criticism, poetry, drama, metrics and short stories.

Ramnarayan Vishwanath Pathak was born on 8 April 1887 in Ganol, a village in Gujarat (now in Dholka Taluka, Ahmedabad district).

Then he joined Wilson College, Mumbai (then Bombay), and in 1908 completed a Bachelor of Arts in logic and morale philosophy, for which he received a fellowship.

In 1911, he completed a Bachelor of Laws from Bombay University and worked as a legal advocate in Ahmedabad and Sadra for seven years.

During the non-cooperation movement in 1920, he was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi which led him to join Gujarat Vidyapith along with Rasiklal Parikh as a professor in 1921.

[4][2] Pathak was a prolific writer of criticism, poetry, drama, metrics and short stories, and also edited and translated works of others.

[3] His literary career began with a critical article, "The poems of poet Balashankar Ullasram Kantharia", published in the first issue of Sabarmati in 1922.

The first of these suggests that modern education degenerates human values; the second is of love between two members of the lower castes considered to be his most memorable characters; the third reflects his subtle sense of humor.

[1][3] Pathak did extensive research in metres of poetry published as Brihat Pingal, for which he was recognized with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1956.

[3] He co-translated several works including Mammata Bhatta's Kavyaprakash 1-6 (with Rasiklal Parikh, 1924), Dhammapad (with Dharmanand Kosambi, 1924) and Chumban ane Biji Vartao (as Vama in second edition, with Nagindas Parekh, 1928).

[3] Umashankar Joshi honoured him as Sahitya Guru of the Gandhian era and Yashvant Shukla considers him "the highest peak of Gujarati short stories".