Indra Dugar was born in 1918 in Jiagunj, a town on the banks of the Hooghly River in Murshidabad, West Bengal. His family, Jains, who had migrated from Rajasthan a couple of centuries ago, held art in high regard. He was introduced to painting at an early age by his father Hirachand Dugar (1898-1951), a respected artist and one of the first students of Kala Bhavan at Rabindranath Tagore's Vishwa Bharati University in Santiniketan.

According to Dugar, his father's role in shaping his artistic career was vital. "My father, Hira Chand, was the melodious music. I am just a very faint distant echo [...] He is a key that would, as it were, open the small lock of my humble treasure chest...