Pannalal Patel was born on 7 May 1912 in Mandli village (now in Dungarpur, Rajasthan) to Nanasha aka Nanalal and Hiraba, an Anjana Chaudhari family. He is youngest among his four siblings. His father was a farmer and used to recite Ramayana, Okhaharan and other mythological stories for his village. This earned his house a nickname "abode of learning". His father died during his childhood and his mother Hiraba raised the children.

His education progressed with many difficulty due to poverty. He could study up to the only fourth standard at Sir Pratap High School, Idar. During school days, he befriended his schoolmate Umashankar Joshi. For a brief period, he worked as a manager in a liquor manufacturing company in Dungarpur. He wrote his first novel while working as a domestic help in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

In 1936, he accidentally met his old friend Umashankar Joshi who persuaded him to write. He wrote his first short story Sheth Ni Sharda (1936). Later, his stories published in many Gujarati magazines. In 1940, he received recognition for his first novel Valamana (The Send-off), followed by Malela Jeev (1941), Manvini Bhavai (1947) and many other novels. In 1971, he started a publishing company Sadhana in Ahmedabad along with his two sons. During the later years, he mostly wrote novels based on Hindu mythology and epics.

He died on 6 April 1989 in Ahmedabad following brain hemorrhage.