Pandit Binayak Mishra was born in Narsinghpur village near Sharankul in the erstwhile Puri district. His father's name was Krushna Chandra Mishra. At the age of 15, Binayak completed his Middle English School education but could not proceed further due to penury of his family. So he took teacher’s training in Cuttack. Later, while studying at Cuttack College he came in contact with Ratnakar Pati. Though he was interested in psychology, the family's persisting financial problems deprived him of the opportunity of higher education. Sometime later, he joined at the Nilgiri Minor School as a teacher.

His next job was in the Odia department at Calcutta University. Vijay Chandra Majumdar, who previously was a royal employee at Sonpur, was also working at the University. He had written the biography of Sonepur Maharaja in Bengali. Under his influence, Maharaja Bir Mitroday Singhdeo opened a Post Graduate department of Odia at the Calcutta University and made donations for research. There Vijaychandra Majumdar was compiling ‘Typical Selections from Odia Literature’. He needed an Odia scholar to help him in this work. Here Vinayak Mishra came in handy who edited the whole compilation. 

Vinayak Mishra first joined Calcutta University as an assistant professor. Study was his life. Apart from study, he spent time in astrological discourses, studying horoscopes and distributing homoeopathic medicines.

At that time Pandit Nilakantha Das was professor in the University in the Odia department. Under his influence, Binayak came to Odisha to join the non-cooperation movement.

Pandit Binayak Mishra has written two important books—'History of Odia Language' and 'History of Odia Literature'. In these books he has elaborately discussed the geographical details of Odisha, mythology, variety of Odia words, alphabets and sounds, grammar, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, gender, speech, cases, the ‘kridanta’ and ‘taddhit’ methods of  forming words, and compound words. He has also authored books titled 'Odia Sahitya Prakash' and 'Odia Chhanda Sahitya'.

The books published in English, 'Orisha under Bhowma Kings', 'Dynasties of Mediaeval Orisha', are based on his historical and analytical approach. His article on Alekh Dharma was published in the journal Modern Review in which he has determined the influence of the Mahayan sect of Buddhism on this faith.

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