See, how they live together, The snake and basket You have no notion when It may kill you, No notion when he bites O Kala Sagama Lord, If I can worship Thee Day after day, That the charm. In some cases the mahajanas chose a leader and worked under his guidance.Īlthough the Brahmins of that time were educated and learned, the ideals in the scriptures was not translated into practice.ī says scriptures show one way and the Brahmins follow another.The consecrated body, come To gratify Lord Kala Sagama, Must not suffer. They worked as a team and looked after the activities of the agraharas. The members of the Brahman community who controlled an agrahara were called Mahajanas or great people. The Vedas were taught there with their six angas, Smritis, Puranas, grammar etc. The agraharas became great centres of learning and housed great scholars. These donations helped the Brahmans to focus their attention to study and teaching. Kings and rich people donated villages to Brahmans called agraharas. They were educated and considered to be the repositories of learning and culture. It seemed rigid with the Brahmans at the top of the hierarchy and the Holeyas or outcastes at the bottom. Social Background The society at that time was based on the caste-system. In Telegu, P Somanatha wrote the immortal Basavapuranamu which was translated into Kannada by Bhimakavi in 1369 a.d. These Vachanas give us a glimpse of his personality and enable us to understand his mental and spiritual evolution.Ī whole literature based on stories pertaining to B and his contemporaries has grown in Kannada. The second source of information are the Vachanas or short compositions in poetic prose by B himself and of his contemporaries. The greatest name in the history of Virasaivism is that of Basavana.Īlthough we do not have any biography of his, we are fortunate to have a long narrative entitled Basavarajadevara ragale composed in Kannada language by Harihara (1230 a.d.). The names of three of the five acharyas, Visvarashya, Panditaradhya and Ekorama are mentioned in the Basava Purana. They are said to have established five mathas in India Kedarnath in Uttaranchal, Ujjayini in the centre (M.Pradesh), Srisailam in the south (A.Pradesh), Rambhapuri in the west and Kashi in the north. These five teachers are said to have incarnated in the Kali-yuga as Revanasiddha, Marulasiddha, Ekorama, Panditaradhya and Visvaradhya, and expounded the ancient system of Lingayat. This essay is based on inputs from the said book and the History and Culture of the Indian People by the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.Ĭhapter 8 is titled Ravis comments where he shares his own experiences and observations on the current state of the Lingayat community and some of its prominent members. Ravi was nice enough to send me a photocopy of a book on Basavanna.
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