Lingayat | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Lingayatism Summary

Lingayat

The Lingayats are a Hindu sect concentrated in the state of Karnataka (a southern provincial state of India), which covers 191,773 square kilometers. The Lingayats constitute around 20 percent of the total population in that state and are also common in Bijapur, Belgaum, and Dharwar.

The Lingayats do not call themselves Hindus. They are known as Virasaivas because of their single-minded and deeply passionate devotion to Siva (a deity who is venerated both by upper- and lower-caste Hindus, as well as other marginal groups in Hindu society), manifested in a lingam, or male phallus form. Followers carry the lingam either around their necks or across their chests; children may have the image tied to one arm. The Lingadharanachandrika, the religious treatise of the Lingayats, makes it compulsory for all devotees to wear a lingam on their body, even in death.

The Lingayat religious movement challenged the deep-rooted Brahmanic system on which high Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism rested. Beginning in the twelfth century as a miniscule socioreligious movement in north Karnataka and founded by a government minister named Basavanna, the religion gained momentum over a period of time throughout Karnataka.

Basavanna assimilated the tenets of dominant Saivite (Siva-worshiping) religious traditions prevalent during his time in Kashmir, Gujrat, and Tamil Nadu and transformed them so that they retained their functionality within the broad framework of Lingayat religion. The Lingayat religious doctrine emphasizes the mutual dependence between Siva and individual human beings. Siva is believed to have constituted the Parama Sakti (ultimate cosmic force), that is, Siva and the cosmic force are considered to be identical. Lingayat religious doctrine holds that prior to the creation of the cosmos, Siva was absolute self in terms of purity, beyond space and location, beyond pattern, nameless, shapeless, and deedless.

Through this philosophy, Basavanna and other Lingayat preachers tried to combat the polytheistic forces of Brahmanic Hinduism. Basava's monotheism not only dethroned the Vedic deities (venerated by the followers of Vedic Hinduism), but also exposed the falsities of the Brahmanic interpretations of the Hindu scriptures. Consequently, Lingayat religion favored a social order that was devoid of the caste system and social servitude. As a result, it initially countenanced the conversion of men and women from all Hindu castes, including the lowest.

The movement's egalitarianism struck at the core of the Brahmanic tradition: It disavowed caste segregation and hierarchy, the system of fourfold division of society, the multitude of gods and goddesses, ritualism, and the notions of pollution and rebirth. The Lingayat movement, however, went beyond a merely negative critique of the Brahmanic order. It developed its own opposing and parallel structures, involving reinterpretations of monotheism, the guru (spiritual teacher), the lingam, the jangama (itinerant priest), and kayaka (calling).

The Lingayat religious culture, which stresses the principles of individuality, equality, and fellowship, created a political awareness among its followers. Though the Lingayat culture was an apolitical culture in the early decades of the twentieth century, it envisaged a populist style of politics that assigned the community the role of political critic. The communitarian social outlook of the Lingayats found expression in the creation of the state of Karnataka in 1956. Because of their numbers, the Lingayats in the early 2000s decide the political fortunes of the major political parties in Karnataka.