The Veerashaiva and Lingayat tradition

What the Veerashaiva or Lingayat tradition is

According to Farquhar (1920) Lingayats regard Shiva as supreme and worship him alone; that is the meaning of the name “Veerashaiva”, stalwart Shaiva. Their worship takes two forms: of their own jangama guru, and of the small linga they wear in a case hung at the neck, which gives the other name, “Lingayat”, linga-wearer. According to Bhandarkar the linga in this tradition is not a mere outward emblem of Shiva but Shiva himself.

Farquhar writes that every Lingayat has a guru and belongs to a matha, and that visiting a temple is not a necessary part of his religion. According to Wikipedia Lingayats have also built Shiva temples, with a lingam in the sanctum and Nandi facing it, where worship is led by Lingayat jangama priests. Besides Hindu festivals such as Shivaratri, they keep the birth anniversaries of their teachers and saints.

History in brief

According to Wikipedia, Basavanna was born into a Brahmin family at Basavana Bagewadi in northern Karnataka and studied for twelve years at the Sangameshvara temple of Kudalasangama. According to Bhandarkar he went to Kalyana, where Bijjala ruled (Bijjala’s reign 1157–1167); his maternal uncle Baladeva was the king’s minister, after whom Basavanna himself became minister and spent much from the treasury on the jangamas. According to Wikipedia he set up at Kalyana a hall called the Anubhava Mantapa, where anyone, man or woman, could share spiritual experience and their vachanas in Kannada.

According to Wikipedia, after a quarrel with the king over his rejection of caste, the Veerashaivas were repressed in 1167 and most left Kalyana, carrying Basavanna’s teaching further afield; Basavanna died at Kudalasangama, which is held to be the place of his union with Shiva (aikya-sthala). His nephew Channabasava organised the community and systematised Veerashaiva theology.

The other tradition, described by both Bhandarkar and Farquhar, is that the faith comes from five teachers, Revanasiddha, Marulasiddha, Ekorama, Panditaradhya and Vishvaradhya, who spring from the five faces of Shiva in every age, and that Basavanna only revived it. On this basis Bhandarkar holds that the creed had taken shape about a hundred years before Basavanna; Farquhar writes that the early literature shows the five as Basavanna’s contemporaries, and that the early history is still obscure.

Beliefs and practice

Bhandarkar sets out its philosophy from Mayideva’s Anubhava-sutra: the one Brahman of being, consciousness and bliss, called “sthala”, divides itself by its own power into two: the linga-sthala, Shiva who is worshipped, and the anga-sthala, the soul who worships. That power is called kala in Shiva and bhakti in the soul, and in the end it is through this bhakti that the soul and Shiva are united. Three forms of the linga are named: the bhavalinga (known by faith), the pranalinga (known by the mind) and the ishtalinga (seen by the eye, which is worshipped).

The seeker’s progress is counted in six stages (shatsthala): bhakta, maheshvara, prasadi, pranalingi, sharana and aikya (union with Shiva). According to Farquhar Lingayats worship twice a day before meals, placing the ishtalinga on the palm of the left hand and meditating according to these stages.

The ashtavarana, the eight “coverings” that protect the devotee, are listed by both Farquhar and Wikipedia: guru, linga, jangama, padodaka (water that has washed the linga or the guru’s feet), prasada, vibhuti, rudraksha and mantra. Wikipedia also gives the five codes (panchachara): lingachara (daily worship of the ishtalinga), sadachara (attention to one’s work and duty), shivachara, bhrityachara (compassion for all creatures) and ganachara (defence of the community). “Kayakave Kailasa”, work is Kailasa, is a well-known saying of Basavanna’s tradition.

Jangamas, mathas and the five peethas

According to Farquhar the tradition has five original mathas, whose first heads are held to be the five teachers: Kedarnath in the Himalaya (Ekorama), Srisailam (Panditaradhya), Balehalli in western Mysore (Revana), Ujjini (Marula) and Benares (Vishvaradhya); every village matha is affiliated to one of them. Wikipedia calls them the five peethas: Rambhapuri, Ujjaini, Kedar, Srisailam and Kashi.

The tradition’s gurus and priests are called jangamas. Farquhar describes two kinds: the gurusthala jangamas, who live in the village mathas and perform household rites, and the virakta jangamas, who teach philosophy in the shatsthala mathas. According to Wikipedia the virakta mathas lay special weight on the ideals of Basavanna and the sharanas of his time.

Veerashaiva and Lingayat: the debate over name and identity

Older scholars take the two names as one: Bhandarkar titles his chapter “The Virashaiva or Lingayat sect” and Farquhar also gives both names together; Wikipedia, too, says the terms have been used as synonyms. Even in Bhandarkar’s day there were two streams within: the Aradhyas, who kept Brahmanic rites such as the Gayatri and the sacred thread, and the other Lingayats, who gave them up.

Today there are two views. In one, Lingayat is a separate religion founded on Basavanna and the vachanas, and Veerashaiva a Vedic Shaiva sect; according to Wikipedia, Sri Sharanabasava Devaru of the Charanteshwar Matha said this in 2013. In the other, Veerashaiva and Lingayat are one tradition that honours both the Panchacharya peethas and Basavanna; Veerashaivas opposed the Karnataka government’s 2018 decision to grant Lingayats the status of a separate religion. According to Wikipedia, the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha had itself campaigned in 2000 for “Veerashaivas or Lingayats” to be recognised as a separate religion, so the demand for a separate identity and the question of Veerashaiva-Lingayat unity are two different questions.

According to Wikipedia, in March 2018, on the advice of the Nagamohan Das committee, the Karnataka government recommended to the Centre that Lingayats be given the status of a separate religious minority; the central government declined in December 2018. This page takes no side.

Where the sources differ

• Founder: tradition and most historians name Basavanna; the Panchacharya tradition names five ancient teachers and calls Basavanna a reviver; Bhandarkar holds that the creed existed about a hundred years before Basavanna and that he spread it through his political influence; Farquhar also gives Fleet’s view that Ekantada Ramayya of Ablur was the real leader.
• Basavanna’s dates: Wikipedia (following Carl Olson) gives 1131–1196; Bhandarkar gives Bijjala’s reign at Kalyana as 1157–1167 and Farquhar his accession as 1156. Other dates are also current, so this page says “12th century”.
• The names of the five peethas: Farquhar gives Balehalli, Ujjini, Kedarnath, Srisailam and Benares; Wikipedia Rambhapuri, Ujjaini, Kedar, Srisailam and Kashi. According to Chandan Gowda (quoted by Wikipedia) these five mathas predate Basavanna.

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