He was a follower of the Veerashaiva faith (devotee of the Hindu god Shiva), which he attempted to reconcile with the Advaita Hinduism of Adi Shankaracharya.
[1] Tradition has it that Shivayogi was a petty chieftain of Kollegal taluk in modern Mysore district of Karnataka state, India.
[1][2] The Vivekachintamani, written in ten chapters, characterises by subject over 1500 topics including astronomy, medicine, poetics, erotica, musicology and dance-drama (natya shastra).
They are based on religious, philosophical and reflective themes and are quite unlike those composed by the contemporary Haridasas (devotee-saint-poets of the god Vishnu) of Karnataka.
[2][3] The Puratana Trividhi is a short work by him consisting of 77 tripadis (three-line verses) eulogising the 63 Nayanmars (devotee-saints of the Hindu god Shiva) of Tamil Nadu.