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poet Gaurana rendered it into a dvipada form as required by his patron, to popularise it among the masses.
Poet Gaurana has been encouraged to write this work Navanadhacharitra by Bhikshukavritti Santa Raya, the head of an important Matha in Sreesaila, and at his request it has been dedicated to God Siva Mallikarjuna of Sreesaila. It was this Santa Bhikshukavritti Yatiswara who encouraged the Poet Sreenadha to dedicate his work Sivaratrimahatmya to his own attendant Mummidi Santayya. Hence it is clear that Gaurana was a contemporary of Sreenadha, perhaps a younger contemporary of his.
The first two Chapters of the work while describing the adventurous wanderings of the Saivite Guru Meenanadha, particularly deal with the story of Sarangadhara which is of special interest to the Telugu world, in so far as it clears the doubt regarding the country and the persons in which and about whom the incidents related in this story have taken place. There is a general tradition among the Telugus that this story centres round Raja Narendra, the Eastern Chalukyan King who ruled the Telugu country in the early part of the 11th century A.D. with Rajamahendravaram, otherwise called Rajahmundry, as his capital and who, being a great patron of letters, got Mahabharata as narrated by Krishnadvypayana translated into Telugu by Nannaya Bhatta, his court poet. It is generally believed that it was this Chalukyan King Raja Raja Narendra that being influenced by his jealous second wife, brutally sacrificed his beloved son Sarangadhara by having his hands and feet lopped off in a forest. It is also said that this Sarangadhara afterwards became a Siddha with the help of a Saivite Guru (Meenanadha). Appa Kavi, a grammarian of the 17th century, attributed the preservation of Andhra Sabda Chintamani, a Grammar of the Telugu Language in Sanskrit, said to have been written by Nannaya Bhatta, the court poet of Raja Raja and the author of the Telugu Bharata, to Sarangadhara. He said that Sarangadhara became a Siddha and happened to repeat to a Brahmin the whole grammar he learnt
