Basavanna – Social Reformer:

• Basaveshwara was born in Bagevadi (of undivided Bijapur district in Karnataka) during 1131 AD. He is the founding saint of the Lingayat sect.
• Basavanna was a 12th-century philosopher, statesman, Kannada poet and a social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka, India.
• Basavanna spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas.
• His spiritual discipline was based on the principles of Arivu (true knowledge), Achara (right conduct), and Anubhava (divine experience) and it brought social, religious and economical revolution.
• Basavanna rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals.
• Basava championed devotional worship that rejected temple worship and rituals led by Brahmins, and replaced it with personalized direct worship of Shiva through practices such as individually worn icons and symbols like a small linga.
• Basaveshwara is the first Kannadiga in whose honour a commemorative coin has been minted in recognition of his social reforms.

Basavanna and Sharana movement:

• The Sharana movement he presided over attracted people from all castes, and like most strands of the Bhakti movement, produced a corpus of literature, the vachanas, that unveiled the spiritual universe of the Veerashaiva saints.
• The egalitarianism of Basavanna’s Sharana movement was too radical for its times.
• He set up the Anubhava Mandapa, where the Sharanas, drawn from different castes and communities, gathered and engaged in learning and discussions.
• Sharanas challenged the final bastion of the caste order: they organised a wedding where the bridegroom was from a lower caste, and the bride a Brahmin.

Anubhava Mantapa:

• He established the Anubhava Mantapa, which was a common forum for all to discuss the prevailing problems of socio, economic and political strata including religious and spiritual principles along with personal problems.
• This movement shared its roots in the ongoing Tamil Bhakti movement, particularly the Shaiva Nayanars traditions, over the 7th- to 11th-century.
• Thus, it was the first and foremost Parliament of India, where Sharanas (citizens of welfare society) sat together and discussed the socialistic principles of a Democratic set up.
• All those discussions of Sharanas were written in the form of Vachanas.
• Vachanas were an innovative literary form written in simple Kannada language.
• Basaveshwara gave two more very important socio-economic principles. They are:
• Kayaka (Divine work): According to this, every individual of the society should take up the job of his choice and perform it with all sincerity.
• Dasoha (Equal distribution):There must be an equal income for equal work.
• The worker (Kayakajeevi) may lead his day-today life by his hard earned income. But he should not preserve the money or property for tomorrow. He must utilise the surplus money for the society and poors.

Daily CA link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33NtJPGmVlM