Basava Jayanthi – Akshaya Thrithiya

Vaishakha Masa is a very special month for Bharatha Khanda as we have great social reformers born in this hottest month of the Calendar. Basava Jayanthi is followed by Ramanuja Jayanthi, Shankara Jayanthi and then Buddha Poornima.

All of them have profound impact on Kannadigas and Kannada Nadu. Basavanna, the founder of Veershaiva philosophy, had his Karya Kshethra mainly around northern Karnataka around Krishna and Bhima river delta. Ramanujacharya, the founder of Vishishtadwaitha philosophy, did great penance on the banks of Kaveri near Talakadu for more than a dozen years producing majority of his works here. Shankara, the founder of Advaitha philosophy, established Sharada peetha in Sringeri the first of such 4 he established across South, North, West and East of India (3 others at – Kashi, Dwaraka and Puri respectively). Buddha’s followers have established many viharas in the caves across northern & coastal Karnataka.

Madhwacharya the founder of the Dwaitha vedantha, hails from Udupi, in the coastal Karnataka. Thus, the sprouting of majority of Hinduism’s philosophical branches find root here in Karnataka. Kannadigas must take great pride in all of this. Despite so many philosophical divergences, we find utmost peace here. One should ask why and seek the truth with pure conscience. 

Who is Basavanna/ Basaveshwara?

Basavanna is 11^th century great poet, proponent of Veerashaiva philosophy which lead to establishing Lingayat community. He was a great social reformer. He played a key role in establishing “Anubhava Mantapa” – a parliament of all shiva sharanas (devotee of Shiva) with no bar of caste, creed. Allama Prabhu who was from a lower caste was made the head of that parliament. Madara Chennaiyya, Jedara Dasimayya, Madivala Machideva, Haralayya and many such shiva sharanas from the lower caste also made that parliament. There were many from Brahmin, Vaishya caste also. It had women representation headed by Akka Mahadevi.

Basavanna was born in Bagevadi near Bijapur (Today it is called Basavana Bagevadi) in an orthodox Brahmin family. He was moved by the plight of the discrimination against the lower caste in his locality. He rebelled against the orthodox rituals and ran away from his family to take shelter in Sangameshwara temple at the confluence of Krishna, Malaprabha and Ghataprabha. It is called Koodala Sangama (Near today’s Bagalkote). He met a great Guru by name Jathaveda Muni there. Under his tutelage he learnt the great depths of the Dharma.

He later moved to take an administrator role in the newly established Capital Kalyana (Now it is called Basava Kalyana near Bidar). Through his shrewdness & honesty he climbed the rungs of administration and became the main treasurer under the King Bijjala. His house became known as ‘Maha Mane’ where ‘Anna Dasoha’ (Free Meals) was always being served to all the Bhaktha who were visiting Kalyana for whatever purpose.

While he had a great hold on the state administration and being highly influential in the court, he also strived hard for social equality. He took up the path of Shiva Bhakti to propagate the message of love & respect to each other. He asked the Sharanas not to give up their caste based profession, but instead feel pride in it and find Shiva in their servitude of their work.

Monotheism – Veerashaiva?

Veerashaiva is clearly Monotheist. Sharanas were ardent devotees of Shiva & Shiva only.

In one of the verses Akka Mahadevi captures the essence of their One God theory:

Shiva is my God; Shiva is everyone’s God. Every God is Shiva. So denigrating any God should be prohibited (Paradaiva Nindane Koodadu).

So this clearly shows that a Shiva Sharana should respect other Gods and other devotees. This philosophy easily creates harmony amongst multitude of existence. A legend goes that once Shiva himself appeared before Basavanna and asked him –“are there other Shiva Bhakthas?” Then Basavanna answered there are none but only himself. Shiva was perplexed with his arrogance. But Basavanna continued to tell that all are Shiva only and he is the only Bhaktha. This humility moved Shiva and he embraced Basavanna.

It is interesting to note, the raise of Monotheism in a big way in the west at around the same time.  While Christianity had the political patronage in the Roman empire, the Egyptian and Arabic empire were over taken by the Islam.

In these western Monotheism, there is a concept called “False God” & “True God”. Discriminating thus, these religions through the political patronage, started denigrating & ridiculing other Gods and their ways of worshipping. Thus the indigenous communities, tribes, Pagan systems were systematically wiped out & converted to single religion in these areas. This also lead to the downfall of many civilizations like Greek, Aztec, Egyptian, Persian etc.,. In Persia (today’s Iran) for example, the Zoroastrians were persecuted & denied basic rights. Some of them migrated to India and were given shelter here. Today they are called Parsees. Their population is very small. But their contribution in ‘Building India’ is significant. Homi Bhaba in atomic science, Tatas in Business, Nani Phalkivala in legislation etc., The list is big.

Revolution in Kannada Literature

“Vachanagalu” is a great revolution in the Kannada literature. It freed up anyone to create devotional poems. During those days, the court poets had very strict grammatical Kannada literature to follow. Chandassu, Vyakarana, Memaamse were very strictly followed on the Sanskrit lineage of language orthodoxy. And only those who were recognized in the court by the king and certified by his court scholars were allowed to compose poems. And only such devotional songs were sung in the temples.

Basavanna along with other veerashaiva sharanas broke this mold. They brought in the concept of Ishta Daiva Ankitha to the verses. Ishta Deva is personal god. Ankitha is signature. So by looking at the verses you can make out who is the author of the verses. For example, Koodala Sangamadeva is that of Basavanna & Channamallikarjuna deva is that of Akka Mahadevi, etc.,

The Vachana Kranthi made framing the verses very easy, reciting became very popular. It gained such a great momentum with the thrust from Basavanna and his Anubhava Mantapa that it sustained for very long and created great many Sharanas across all castes. Not only that, it even inspired Krishna Bhakthi movement leading to the creation of Haridasa Sahithya subsequently during Vijayanagara period around 15^th century. It broke the mold of the strict Sanskrit language based recitation during Pooja. Women could sing Haridasa Sahithya and serve devotional songs to the god while doing pooja. And this tradition continues till date.

Sharana Sahithya started much earlier than Basavanna. It finds its roots sometime around 8-9^th century. But it gained great momentum during Basavanna’s time & much credit goes to him & his perseverance. It still did not get political patronage during his time only in his own king’s court. Some researchers say (arguably), even during Vijayanagara period it did not receive the kind of patronage Haridasa Sahithya gained. You will see continuity in Haridasa Sahithya since then through till even today. But Sharana Sahithya had long break during 16^th to about 20^th century. Only during recent times there is a lot of research done and revival done. Many Lingayat mathas are encouraging it further now and poets are regaining the lost literature and new creations are coming up.

Today’s government could do a lot more. Because any great Culture requires the political patronage to survive and thrive. Government is only interested in robbing the Hundi of temples today to pay for minorities and dolling out freebees. But if they pay back for Sangeetha and Sahithya, then we can revive all of these lost glories.

I wish Basavanna will come back & create another Kranthi!!!!!

By reading this blog am hoping the reader will get inspired to do some more research in Vachana Sahithya, Sharana Sampradaya, Jangamas, Mathas, undertake a tour of all places mentioned here & contribute a little “interest” back to a great culture.