Rajagopalarao was born on August 12, 1876 in Peddapuramu in the district of East Godavari.  He was educated in Peddapuramu, Kakinada, Bejawada, Machilipattanamu, Channai, and Saidapeta.

His close friends were Veereshalingam Kandukuri, Venkataratnamnayudu Raghupati, and Ramakrishnarao Vemuri, because he was also very much interested in reformation and development of the society.  He conducted meetings social reform meetings in Bejawada.  In the beginning he was interested in Brahmasamaja religion, but later he started Arshasamajamu. The main principle of Arshasamajamu is that knowledge is responsible for the human and the world development, hence every scientist and teacher is a rishi (sage), and Gayatri mantra is the savior of the world.

He was also very much interested in literature and research. His interest in literature was due to his maternal grandmother Hanumayamma Ummettala.  He served as a teacher for some time in his early career and then served as a tutor for diamond merchants.

His Telugu works include novels like trivikramavilasamu, lalita, kanakavalli (historic novel), vihangayanamu (first science fiction in Telugu), and stories like ramalimgadu, kalidasu, krishnadevarayalu, streecharitakadambamu, and saraswata vyasamulu- 2 parts. He also wrote small books on social reform history, religious reforms, pasusastramu (zoology), arthasastramu (economics), aharasastramu (nutrition) etc.  His English works include books and essays on grammar, Andhra literary history, Buddhist history etc. He was also the editor of a journal called vyavasayamu (agrculture).

His research resulted in the discovery of madhyakkara meter in the inscriptions of Yuddhamallu in Bejawada.  He published a journal called South Indian Research (1918 -1923). In this research journal he proposed that South Indians belonged to one of the early branches of Indo-Germanic linguistic tree who came into India through the Himalayan mountains of Nepal (contrary to the Dravidian view), and that Telugu is the oldest language of all the South Indian languages.