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Ram Gharib Chaube was probably born in the late 1850s into the traditional learned Chaube family. He graduated from the Presidency College, Calcutta, and was learned in both Indian tradition and the British colonial system of education, being fluent in dialects of Awadhi and Bhojpuri, as well as Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit and English. He became Mirzapur's distirct collector of revenues and whilst there met William Crooke, who was keen to document Indian folklore. Impressed with Chaube's abilities, Crooke asked that Chaube help in his work. Chaube probably continued to work with Crooke until Crooke's departure for England in 1896. The material in these papers, therefore most likely dates from this time. Crooke continued to correspond with Chaube after his return to England. However he does not seem to have acknowledged Chaube's contribution to his work.

After Crooke's departure Chaube also worked for V.A. Smith, and G.A. Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India. However he constantly struggled to earn enough money and satisfy his academic interests. He died in 1914 in Gopalpur.

The life of Crooke and Rame Gharib Chaube has been well documented in In Quest of Indian Folktales: Pandit Ram Gharib Chaube and William Crooke by Sadhana Naithani (Indian University Press, 2006) from which these biographical details have been obtained.

Ram Raz was born in Tanjore in 1790. He mastered English while working as a clerk with the 2nd Battalion of the 16th Madras Native Infantry Regiment. He then became a vakil. Around 1815 he was a clerk in the office of the English Military Auditor General. He helped translate Tipu Sultan's code of regulations for revenue officers from Marathi to English. He was appointed head English master at the college of Fort St. George in Madras and subsequently was appointed to the position of Native Judge in Bangalore, Mysore state, where he worked for 23 years. He became a Corresponding Member of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1828 and his paper, On tiral by Jury was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol.3, 1836, pp. 244-57.

From about 1825 onwards, at the suggestion of Richard Clarke, Madras Civil Service, Ram Raz began preparing material for a translation of the Silpa Sastra - the Hindu treatise on art. He commissioned accurate drawings from Indian artists working for the Survey Department, Madras. The work was completed by the end of 1831 and together with the translation were sent to the Royal Asiatic Society. They were received in July 1832 and it was agreed to publish the work. However, Ram Raz died circa 1833 and failed to see the publication which was printed in 1834.