[9] The Aihole inscription (634 CE) of the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II (a brother of Kubja Vishnuvardhana) states that its composer Ravikirti "attained the fame of Kalidasa and Bharavi".
[14] A historically plausible account of Bharavi is found in Avanti-sundari-katha and its metrical summary, the Avanti-sundari-katha-sara, both of which are attributed to the 7th-century poet Dandin.
The king is impressed and asks about the composer of the verse, and the visitor provides the following information: the poet Damodara was the son of Narayana-svami, a Brahmin of Kaushika gotra.
The poet was a vegetarian, and considered meat-eating a sin, but had to eat meat during a hunting expedition of his friend prince Vishnu-vardhana.
[10] Sanskrit scholar M. Ramakrishna Kavi theorized that Damodara was an alias of Bharavi, based on a verse in the metrical version Avanti-sundari-katha-sara.
[19][20] G. Harihara Sastri dismisses the identification of Bharavi with Damodara, stating that Kavi's interpretation is based on a misreading of the verse, and that the metrical version was apparently written by a later writer.
Based on an analysis of palm-leaf manuscript of the Avanti-sundari-katha, Sastri concludes that Dandin's text states that "Damodara, associating himself with Bharavi, the great Śaivite and the fountain of the Muse, allied himself by ties of friendship with the prince Viṣṇuvardhana".
[21] Dandin states that Damodara wrote the Gandha-madana and a treatise on poetics (in Sanskrit and Prakrit) under the patronage of king Simha-vishnu.
During his journey to the royal capital, he stopped by a lake and wrote a verse encouraging the reader to not perform any act rashly.
[23] Yet another legend describes Bharavi as a contemporary of Kalidasa and Dandin, stating that all three poets enjoyed the patronage of king Vikrama in Kanchi.
[26] A. K. Warder considers it the "most perfect epic available to us", over Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacharita, noting his greater force of expression, with more concentration and polish in every detail.
[citation needed] It is thought that Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya influenced the 8th century CE poet Magha's Shishupala Vadha.