[2] As an originator of Odia literature, his work has formed an enduring source of information for succeeding generations.

A story – similar to those told of other Indian poets, such as Kalidasa, supposedly illiterate in early life until helped by the goddess Saraswati – tells that Siddheswara as a boy was once ploughing his father's field and singing so melodiously that the goddess Sarala stopped and listened to his song and endowed him with her power of composing beautiful poems.

He tells us that Maharaja Kapilesvara with innumerable offerings and many a salute was serving this great deity and hereby destroying the sins of the Kali age.

In the final form Sarala Dasa's Mahabharata is a new creation analogous to Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa based on the Ramayana.

The Chandi Purana was based on the well-known story of Goddess Durga killing Mahishasura (the buffalo headed demon) given in Sanskrit literature but here also the Odia poet chose to deviate from the original at several points.

All Sarala Dasa's works were composed with this metrical peculiarity, and so the metre used by him can be regarded as a direct descendant of that used in the folk songs.

The stories he heard the battle scenes which he witnessed, the places that he visited with the company of the army the historical incidents and names that he could know all remained stored up in his mind to be utilized in his writings.