Narlikar graduated from Banaras Hindu University, India. He then studied mathematics at Cambridge University, graduating with the highest honors and the Tyson Medal for Astronomy. He continued in Cambridge, obtaining a PhD and then the Sc.D. degree. He was a founder staff member of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge in 1966 and in 1988 set up and became director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India.