Basava (Basaveśvara)

Basava was a 12th-century Kannada poet, devotee of Śiva, and minister in the Kalachuri court at Kalyāṇa who is the central figure of the Vīraśaiva (Liṅgāyat) movement. Through his vacanas — terse, powerful free-verse devotional sayings in Kannada — and the assembly of devotees (the Anubhava Maṇṭapa) he is associated with, he taught a radically egalitarian devotion to Śiva, worshipped through a personal liṅga (the iṣṭaliṅga) worn on the body, and rejected caste hierarchy, temple-priesthood, and ritual purity-rules in favor of ethical work and direct devotion. Whether Basava founded the tradition or led an existing movement is debated by scholars. His traditional dates are c. 1131–1196, and he is said to have spent his last days at Kūḍalasaṅgama at the confluence of the Krishna and Malaprabhā rivers. The Liṅgāyat tradition's own framing should be kept distinct from a neutral account; some Liṅgāyats today regard their tradition as a separate religion.