 Vaishnava authors wrote treatments of the Hindu epics, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata.Breaking away from the old Jain tradition of using the "champu" form for writing Kannada literature, Harihara penned poems in the "ragale" metre in "Siva-ganada-ragalegalu" (1160).His nephew Raghavanka established the "shatpadi" tradition by writing a unique version of the story of King Harishchandra in "Harishchandra Kavya" (1200).