Bhownaggree was born the son of a merchant in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and was educated in Elphinstone College and the University of Bombay. He became a journalist after finishing his education. At 22, he was appointed, on the death of his father, to succeed to the Bombay agency of the Kathiawar state of Bhavanagar. Bhownaggree went to Great Britain in 1882. Called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1885, in the following year the Maharaja appointed him judicial councillor, a post in which he introduced far-reaching reforms.