Prince Grigol Dadiani was a member of the Georgian noble Dadiani family of Mingrelia. He was a son of Levan V Dadiani, Prince-regnant of Mingrelia, and member of the regency council for his nephew, Niko I Dadiani. As an officer in the Imperial Russian service, he took part in the Russo-Turkish, Crimean, and Caucasus wars, and retired with the rank of General of the Infantry. He was also a literature enthusiast and himself a poet of some talent, writing in the spirit of Georgian Romanticism under the pen name of Kolkhideli.

Levan V Dadiani, of the House of Dadiani, was Prince of Mingrelia, in western Georgia, from 1804 to 1846. Succeeding on the death of his father Grigol Dadiani, he ruled—initially under the regency of his mother Nino from 1804 to 1811—as a loyal subject of the Russian Empire. Levan Dadiani took little interest in the details of government and resigned in favor of his son, David Dadiani, in 1840, remaining a titular Prince of Mingrelia until his death.