Lingayats of the past to Lingayats of the present: An identity in crisis

Introduction

The twelfth century was a period of eventful social transformations in the Deccan, which covers present-day Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and parts of Maharashtra. The caste-based division of Indian society has its roots in the Vedic traditions, although challenged through its existence from the period of Buddha. The fall of Mahayana Buddhism in the late 8th century consequently allowed the rise of Brahminism and the unequal caste order. As the caste system entrenched itself among the commons of society, it brought the ills of exploitation and imposed inequality. In counter-response to the eroding moral and ethical values, the earliest of the equality-based socio-religious movements recorded in Deccan history was spearheaded by Basavanna and his Sharanas (followers), called the 'Vachana Movement' or 'Sharana movement', or as popularly noted today, the lingayat movement.

What is Vachana?

The popular form of engagement among the Sharanas was Vachanas—an oral and written form of expression—which could be poetry or prose. Vachana, a distinct form of literary tradition, was majorly written in Kannada, the common public language of the times. Vachanas form a unique mode of engagement in Kannada literary history that brought literature to the houses of oppressed and depressed masses and was central to the spread of the Lingayat philosophy. Vachanakaras, comprising mostly of depressed and downtrodden castes, women and other outcastes, have inspired the literary, musical, and folk discourses of Karnataka. More than 700 vachanakaras, including more than 300 women vachanakartis, have been estimated. They have become the backbone of many non-brahmin, Dalit movements, used to negotiate their rights and refuse the hegemony of oppression. In addition to social equality, Vachanakaras held the concept of an enriched society within their philosophical framework. Many of the Vachanakaras today are symbolised as icons of the communities they come from.

Dohara Kakkayya, with his ankitanama (Pen name) Abhinava Mallikarjuna, a Dohara (Untouchable caste) identified with the occupation of leather tanning, writes:

"You made me take birth in a low caste, oh linga my father.
I am ruined.
I touch you, and yet I don't; I may not touch you with my hand.
Don't I touch you with my mind?
Abhinava Mallikarjuna"

The women vachanakartis encouraged education, questioned orthodoxy and caste oppression and dissented from the gendered roles of patriarchy. In another vachana, Akka Mahadevi, with her ankitanama (Pen name) as Channamallikarjuna, writes:

"Sagging breasts untied hairs, I am a woman with sunken cheeks and withered arms.
Brothers, why do you leer at me?
I'm a woman who has lost caste and pride and become a devotee.
Fathers, why do you stare at me?
I'm a woman who, uniting with Channamallikarjuna, has lost caste and pride."

The Vachanakaras also expressed the phenomena of gender fluidity through an intimate expression of love with the self and the god. Urilingadeva, with his ankitanama (Pen Name) as Urilingadeva, assumed the role either as a woman or man expresses:

"How do I describe my beloved's love making?
It is uncommon, my friend,
As Purusha and Shakti,
Or as Shakti and Purusha,
He enjoys his union with me.
Listen, my friend.
He is too lustful, this Urilingadeva."

Goggave, a vachanakarati with her pen name as Nasthinata, challenging the question of duality, writes:

"If breasts sprout they call it a woman,
If moustache grows they call it a man,
The knowledge of this duality,
Is it man or woman, Nasthinatha?"

When writing and knowledge were religiously sanctioned as the authority of few, Vachanas remain the living testimony of the subaltern dignity, identity, and cultural celebrations of knowledge and resistance.

What is Kalyana?

The popularity of this movement was due to its acceptance of people from different castes, faiths and sects. This is revealed in one of the "vachanas" by Akka Mahadevi, who says, "It is impossible to say who should and who should not enter Kalyana…One ought not to enter Kalyana without being pure inside and outside". Kalyana, also called Basavakalyan, located in Karnataka, in its objective, means welfare and was also a place of enlightenment. Allama Prabhu, the first head of the public parliament known as Anubhava Mantapa (Altar of experience), denotes Kalyana as a lamp. It is this place to oversee the earliest of the egalitarian movements that strived for a casteless and equal society. The Lingayat movement was born antithetical to the prevailing Vedic Brahminism and onslaught of Manusmriti, providing refuge to oppressed castes, women and other marginalized with its tenants of equality and brotherhood. In times when discrimination was a way of life, Basavanna and his devoted Sharanas (followers) embraced everyone, welcoming, 'he is ours, he is ours'. The dogmatics of Vedic Brahminism were radically refused, the birth-based occupation was rejected, and sharanas preached the dignity of work and workers. Vachanas became the guiding path of lingayats who refused the authority of Vedas, Shastra, Smritis, and the Upanishads. Allam Prabhu, in one of his vachana, compels society to reject the divinity of these texts, arguing that:

"The Vedas are Brahma's play of hypocrisy,
The Shastras are Saraswati's play of vanity,
The Agamas are the sages' play of fools,
The Puranas are the ancients' play of folly.
Thus, who knowing and negating these, go beyond,
And stand with the truth of Guheshwara,
He is the truly liberated one."

In the same current, Basavanna, with his ankitanama as Kodalasangama, proclaiming himself as son of Madara Channaya, a cobbler, writes:

"I shall raise my sword against the Vedas,
I shall shackle the Shastras,
I shall skin the back of Tarka,
I shall cut off the nose of Agamas
See lord,
Most generous Koodalasangamadeva,
I am son of Madara Channaya's house"

The concept of idol-temple worshipping was replaced by Ishta-linga - the phallic representing one's inner conscience. This concept finds profound expression in the words of Allama, who writes:

"When there is a temple within, why need another.
There is no place for two.
Guheshwara,
If you are stone,
What will I be?"

Women conducted rituals, headed lingayat mutts and exercised agency in marriages. The wide practice of ceremonies, rituals and rites was questioned and rejected based on rationality. The choice of inter-caste marriage and inter-dining, called Dasoha, was insisted on among the followers. Syncretism and communal harmony were fundamental to Lingayatism, and Muslim participation was significantly noted in its history. Recently, Murugharajendra Mutt in the Gadag district of Karnataka, made headlines for the appointment of a Muslim as its seer (head). The Ashtoor festival that commemorates in March/April every year is another noted syncretic traditional festival between Lingayats and Muslims in the Kalyan Karnataka.

Lingayatism: Corruption and its Struggle for Religious Sovereignty

The rise of Lingayatism, however, didn't fall right with the caste-ridden hegemonic order; it terrorized the oppressive caste groups. What unfolded eventually is recorded as the fall of Kalyan in history. The Jain King, Bijjala, succumbing to the demands of Vedic Brahmins post an inter-caste marriage, ordered attacks and confined thousands of sharanas, burning vachana literature, and leading to the banishment of Basavanna from Kalyan. Many Vachanakaras were exiled. The late Prof. Dr MM Kalburgi reminds us that like Buddhism and Jainism, the egalitarian religion of Basavanna toppled to counter-revolution by Vedic Brahminism.

The fall of Kalyan disrupted the philosophical and intellectual ethos of the Lingayats. Literature and any reference to the movement were erased through the course of history. The later influx of Veerashaiva Aradhya Brahmins, a Shaivic sect from the region of Andhra, corrupted the identity of Lingayats. This intellectual vacuum allowed the Veerashaiva Panchacharyas, who originally were inclined toward Brahminical belief, to propagate Lingayats and Veerashaivas as one. The Sharanas, the community leaders, and their unique philosophical and spiritual discourse were eventually co-opted into the Brahminical fold. With this, over centuries, the identities of Lingayat and Veerashaiva became identical, and the Lingayats were distributed into the vertical hierarchy of the caste system. Thus recasting an independent religion into a caste group. The higher caste groups among the lingayats mimicked the Brahminical code and enjoyed several royalties from the kings and rulers. Several higher caste groups became administrators, zamindars, and feudal lords across the period.

However, it is important to note the process of Brahminisation and its usage of state or ruling power in sustaining its hegemony. This process of systemic social engineering oversaw the violent dismantling of lingayat egalitarian forces, erasure of its art, literature, leaders, and icons, and corruption of its organic history into Brahminical myths and legends. This deliberate social engineering extended to the systemic suppression of lingayat knowledge systems, and their spiritual and philosophical essence subdued deceitfully into the brahminical fold, a clear case of cultural epistemicide. In modern Indian scholarship, Lingayatism was framed through a Brahminical gaze in reducing it to a mere reformative Shaiva sect of the Hindu order. Basavanna and other Vachanakaras were merely seen as social reformers. Nevertheless, this changed with the discovery of century-old hidden Vachanas in the 20th century. Further, fresh scholarship by the likes of Dr. MM Kalburgi, SM Jamdar and Prof. Veeranna Rajur, among others, resurfaced the assertion of Lingayatism as an independent religion with a distinct lingo-cultural identity, original to the land of Deccan and present-day Karnataka.

Hinduvatisation and the silencing of resistance

The Brahminisation of the majority Lingayat fold could not have been possible without the co-optation of mutts, which wields a large influence among communities. Though many mutts represent the subaltern causes and worked in defence of Lingayatism and its propagation, influential Veerashaiva mutts played prominent roles in misleading the lingayat groups. By late post-independence period, this has increasingly culminated towards the hinduvaisation of Lingayats.

Today, as a dominant caste group, Lingayats hegemonize through land and social capital. Lingayats have leveraged an influential power alliance with the national parties and also form one of the largest support bases of the BJP in Karnataka over the past four decades. Despite the contrasting foundational differences in ideologies, the lingayat allegiance to the saffron party describes the extent of Brahminical acceptance and the penetration of Hindutva among the common populace. Many so-called Lingayat mutt seers today are seen participating in the events held by RSS and its affiliated groups. Political elites and mutts seers are often seen hand in glove in support of the saffron party. Moreover, the orthodoxy among the lingayat elites is closest to resembling orthodox Brahminism. The strict adherence to pure-vegetarianism, forget inter-caste marriages - an alliance among lingayat sub-sects is rare, and cultural purity and social superiority are proudly displayed. Temples, rituals, superstition, vegetarianism and brahminical patriarchal sanctions on women are more common in a lingayat imagination than the moral presence of Basavanna, Vachanas or the fundamental tenets.

The rise of Hindutva among the contemporary lingayats represents the culminations of a deliberate historical erasure- the systemic dismantling of their egalitarian foundations, the corruption of their core tenets, and the Brahminical co-option of the community, now culminating in deep ideological alignment with the inwards of BJP-RSS apparatus among the Lingayat social elites. What emerges today is a community in a profound disorder with a shifting momentum towards anti-minority, hyper-nationalist and oppressive discourse characteristic of Hindutva fundamentalism. The brahminised lingayats bear a historical legacy of practicing ghettoization of Dalits and sustaining systemic marginalisation, with their documented role in perpetuating violence and discrimination against Dalits and Minorities, forming a disturbing chapter in contemporary history. This stands in stark contrast to the unifying legacy of the Buddha-Basava-Ambedkar tradition- once a powerful symbol of political solidarity among Kannadigas, now largely sustained only by broader subaltern groups.

The political murders of Guari Lankesh and Dr. M.M.Kalburgi- both prominent Lingayats advocating for religious autonomy and outspokenness against Brahminical Hindutva, made a feeble impact on the larger community morale. Today, only a handful of mutt seers and scholars are brave enough to publicly affirm Lingayatism's historical roots. Those who maintain this intellectual honesty and resistance-seers, activists, intellectuals and scholars face relentless intimidation, death threats, and are silenced from openly expressing their lingayat faith.

Conclusion

The history of Karnataka has a long absence of progressive movements of broader social groups since the Lingayat movement. Nevertheless, contrary to what lingayats represent today, the ultimate question remains: Would the historicity of such a socio-religious movement continue to remain a challenge to bloating Brahminical fundamentalism? The institutional co-optation of an egalitarian community into the Hindu fold so far has proven counter-productive to the struggles of a well-meaning minority striving for an independent identity. The moral dilemma faced by an independent-thinking Lingayat today is far more profound than any other—torn between its egalitarian roots and the growing ideological conformity among Hindutva-aligned Lingayats. Is this identity crisis not the inevitable consequence of cultural epistemicide?