He worked as a clerk in collector's office of Ganjam district and as a teacher at a high school in Vijayanagaram.
He personally supervised the famine-relief measures at Ganjam and reorganized the sanitary administration of Madras city.
On 17 October 1794 he was promoted to the grade of surgeon, having been two years previously transferred to Ganjam.
Navagunjara is also depicted in Ganjifa playing cards as the King card and Arjuna as the minister card, in parts of Orissa, mainly in Puri District and Ath-Rangi Sara in Ganjam District, Orissa.
The newly formed Odisha consisted of six districts namely Cutack, Puri, Baleswar, Sambalpur, Koraput and Ganjam having its capital at Cuttack.