 According to an anecdote, Harihara was so against eulogising earthly mortals that he struck his protégé Raghavanka for writing about King Harishchandra in the landmark work "Harishchandra Kavya" (c. 1200).Harihara is credited with developing the native "ragale" metre.The earliest poetic biographer in the Kannada language, he wrote a biography of Basavanna called "Basavarajadevara ragale", which gives interesting details about the protagonist while not always conforming to popular beliefs of the time.