The 430 short poems written by her, in a language that depicts her love for her divine lover "Channa Mallikarjuna" ("lit", "Beautiful Mallikarjuna", a name for the god Shiva), and the 15th-century anthology, the "Sunyasampadane", are the main sources of information about her life. Her poetry is characterised by scorn for physical possessions and detachment from worldly affairs. A popular poem written by her describes the life of a silk worm which spins a cocoon, becomes entangled in the threads, and eventually dies because it cannot extricate itself – the silk worm is compared to a person and the silk threads, to worldly desires. In a poem of puns, the poet prays that her god, whom she describes as the "Lord of fragrant Jasmines", may cut through the cocoon of desires so she may become free like a butterfly.