Statement bears out the universal tradition which ascribes the book to Vemulavada Bhima Kavi. It has been recently suggested that the author of the book was Gokarna, brother of Bhima who was king of Vardhamanapura during the reign of Pratapa Rudra of Warangal; but this suggestion is entirely unsupported. I hold, therefore, subject to future correction that Vemulavada Bhima Kavi was the author of the book and I also hold, for the reasons detailed in the Telugu preface, that Bhima was a native of Vemulavada (alias Lemulavada) in the Karimnagar District of H. H. the Nizam's dominions and not, as is supposed by some, of a village of that name near Draksharama in the Godavery District.
The only material available for fixing the age of Bhima Kavi is furnished by two stray verses which tradition ascribes to that poet. It is said that the poet went to see king Kalinga Gangu, that he was told that the king was too busy to see him, that the poet got enraged and uttered a curse in the form of an extempore verse and that, as a result of this curse, the king was soon afterwards deprived of his throne and kingdom by his enemies and reduced to beggary. The poet happened to meet the king again while in this plight and, pitying his condition, he delivered himself of another extempore verse which led to the king's early restoration to his throne. Ordinarily, stray verses are
