At an early age he wrote
Bhogini Dhandakam, a poem written in the praise of king Sri Singa Bhoopala's concubine Bhogini. This was his first poetic venture which had the seeds of his great poetic talents.
Bhogini Dhandakam is the earliest available
Dhandaka (rhapsody which uses the same gana or foot all through) in
Telugu. His second work was
Virabhadhra Vijayamu which describes the adventures of Lord Virabhadhra, element of Lord Shiva. The main theme was the destruction of 'Daksha Yagna' performed in the absence of Lord Siva by Daksha Prajapathi. As a young man, he was a devotee of Lord Siva. Later, Pothana became a devotee of Lord Rama and more interested in salvation. In the view of Pothana, there is no difference between Siva and Vishnu and the same was reflected in his padyam "ChethuLAranga Sivuni Poojimpadeni Nooru Novvanga hari keerthi salupadeeni dhayanu satyamulonuga thalupadeni kaluganetiki thallula kadupuchetu". One early morning during a lunar eclipse, on the banks of river Godavari, Pothana was meditating on Lord Siva. At that auspicious moment, Supreme Lord Rama appeared dressed like a king and requested Pothana to translate Bhagavatam into Telugu (Andhramu) and dedicate it to Him. This inspired him to translate
Vyasa's Sanskrit Bhagavatam into Telugu as
Sri Andhra Maha Bhaagavatamu.
Persecution The Padma Nayaka king of
Rachakonda (in present-day
Nalgonda District) wanted Pothana to dedicate ‘Sri Maha Bhagavatam’ to him. The king himself is a scholar and wrote many works including Rudranavasudhakara, a well known
Sanskrit drama. But, Pothana refused to obey the king's orders and dedicated the Bhagavatamu to Lord Rama, whom he worshiped with great devotion. It is said that Pothana remarked, ‘It is better to dedicate the work to the supreme Lord Vishnu than dedicate it to the mortal kings.’ He was of opinion that poetry was a divine gift and it should be utilized for salvation by devoting it to the God. It is known that Pothana was patronized by this king in his early career, Pothana dedicated his first great work to this king, the king himself was a scholar, his contemporary reputation was immense. It was common practice for many poets of the time to dedicate their devotional works to God himself and not necessarily to their patron-kings. The poem containing the derision against the "
Karanata Kiraata Keechakulu" is a
chatuvu (apocryphal) attributed to Pothana with no proof that he actually wrote it. Even if he did, it is unclear who the Karanata villains were, very likely the rulers of Karnaata Samrajyam (the contemporary term for the
Vijayanagara empire) who were raiding Rachakonda at the time. The Rachakonda kingdom was under intense turmoil at the time, under attack by the Bahamanis from the west, Karanata (Vijayanagara) empire from the south and the
Reddy Kingdom from the east. Rachakonda and its king ceased to exist by the mid-15th century, absorbed into the
Bahmani kingdom. There is yet another version about his birthplace. He indicated in one stanza that he belonged to 'Ekasila Nagaram', meaning single stone city which was also called as Orukallu later changed to Orugallu (Warangal) in usage, Orukallu meaning single stone.Oru means one ( in Tamil) and Kallu means stone.
Style He was quite fond of using rhythm and repetition of sounds giving a majestic grace to the style of writing. He was very skillful in using Alankaras (figures of speech) like similes and metaphors. Pothana imparted the knowledge of the divine to the
Telugu people along with lessons in ethics and politics through Sri Maha Bhagavatamu. He lived for sixty years. == Significance ==