Later tradition imagines Nandi Timmana as one of the so-called asta-dig-gajas, the eight elephants of the cardinal directions, who supposedly graced the court of Krsnadevarāya at the apogee of the Vijayanagara period.
The tradition asserts that the poet arrived in the court as a gift from the family of Tirumaladevi, Krsnadevarāya's senior wife.
[1] He was a Saiva and was a disciple of Guru Aghora Siva, yet some of his works are based on Vaishanavism because of imperial patronage.
His uncles Nandi Mallaya and Ganta Singana (known as Malaya Maruta) were a famous poetic pair in the court of Viranarasimha Raya, half-brother of Krishnadevaraya.
Timmana completed Kannada poet Kumaravyasa's incomplete work Mahabharatha, and presented that as “Karnataka Krishnadevaraya Bharatha Kathamanjari” to the king.