Vamakhepa was always referred as the `mad saint` in his time, and he was born in the village of Atla in Birbhum district in West Bengal. He had a very strange and mad like nature from his early childhood and his neighbours used to laugh at his strange nature in his childhood. The legend says that whenever he prayed to Kali, the Goddess and Goddess did not answer his question; he had the habit of screaming and rolling on the ground.

Vamakhepa never showed any interest in the traditional way of education and his family also was also not having the ability to afford his studies. The name of Vamakhepa`s father was Sarvanand Chat and he was also well known as a saint. Vama was taken to the burning ground at Tarapith for the first time by his father and Vama took initiation in spirituality from his family guru. He also had his sacred thread ceremony when he was sixteen years old.

The main reason behind people referring Vamakhepa, as `mad saint` was that, he never obeyed rather violated the normative rules of society and religious practices. The legend says that he always used to eat the prasad even before he offered that to the god and he sometimes even sprinkled his urine on the goddess Kali or Tara. Vama got lessons about religions from the famous saint Vedagya Moksyananda and he also got knew about the religious texts like the `Vedas`, `Puranas`, and `Tantras`, form his guru. He left the earthly abode in the year 1911.