Bhadase Sagan Maraj was born on the 29th of February 1920 into a Brahmin Hindu Indo-Trinidadian family in Caroni Village in the county of Caroni in central Trinidad. His parents were Baboonie and Matthew Sagan Maraj. His father, Matthew Sagan Maraj, was a devout Hindu, the "mukhiya" (village head) of Caroni Village, and a leader in the Hindu and Indian community of central Trinidad. At the time there was much tension between Hindu and Muslim Indo-Trinidadians in Caroni, and when Maraj was thirteen years old his father had been shot and killed by a Muslim gang while he was on his hammock on the porch of his home reading the "Bhagawad Gita". His uncle was also killed when a Muslim gang had tied him to a stone and threw him into the Caroni River. After his father's death, Maraj went to live with his "aaji" (paternal grandmother). Many attempts were made on Maraj's life, so he took up wrestling and by the age of twenty he became an accomplished wrestler. He had attended the Caroni Canadian Mission School and the Pamphylian High School in Tunapuna.