Doddabele Lakshmi Narasimhachar was born on 27 October 1906 in Chikkanayakanahalli in Tumkur district. His father Shamayya Iyengar was a clerk in the Sub-Registrar’s office. His mother Lakshmamma was daughter of Annaswamy Iyengar who was known for his rendition of Mahabharatha (Bharathavachana). D. L. Narasimhachar spent most of his childhood at Annaswamy’s Iyengar’s house and he had mastered “Jaimini Bharatha” by the age of 12 years! His family had migrated from Salem during the Vijayanagar Empire’s reign.

D. L. Narasimhachar had his schooling at Pavagada, then at Madhugiri and Sira. He learnt Sanskrit through private tuition. While in school, he was an avid contributor to the school magazine “School Folk” which was started by Principal Krishnaswamy Iyer. His earliest articles were an English article titled “The Story of a Cotton Seed” and a Kannada article titled “Dodda Manushyaru Yaaru?” In his school years, he had read works of Raghuvamsa and Champunarayana. During these school years, B. M. Srikantaiah once paid a visit to D. L. N.’s school and took a class on “Stories from Aeneid”. This class captured D. L. N.’s attention and fostered an ardent devotion to B. M. Srikantaiah under whose aegis he would later complete his Master’s qualification.

D. L. Narasimhachar joined Central College, Bangalore in 1927 for his Bachelor’s Degree. His chosen subjects here were Chemistry and Physics. As he scored high marks in Kannada, he joined M. A. Course (in Kannada) at Maharaja College, Mysore. Here, his classmates included K. V. Puttappa, K. V. Raghavachar, Anantarangachar and K. Venkataramappa. While at Maharaja College, he came under the tutelage of B. M. Srikantaiah, Rallapalli Anatha Krishna Sharma, C. R. Narasimha Sastry, T. S. Venkanayya and A. R. Krishna Shastry. During his free time, he would frequent Oriental Research Library to peruse old Kannada manuscripts. D. L. Narasimhachar completed his M. A. in 1929 and was awarded the H. V. Nanjundaiah Gold Medal.

D. L. Narasimhachar was among the first to secure a research grant set aside for the Kannada Department. The Research topic was on the period during which Veerashaiva Literature developed in Karnataka. His first job was as a resident lecturer at Oriental Research Library. Concurrently, he was taken in as a part-time lecturer at Maharaja College in the Kannada Department.