Today, on May 9, Basava Jayanthi is being celebrated across the state. The tragedy is that most Lingayats, who say they admire Basavanna, neither follow his religious teachings nor live according to the credo propagated by Basavanna and other Sharanas. Let’s take B.S. Yeddyurappa, who is considered as the strongman of Lingayats in the state, as an example. Basavanna proscribed worshipping idols and fire. But one would be hard put to find a single idol that Yeddyurappa has not prayed to; and no one has kept score of the yagnas and homas he has performed.

 

The revolution that Basavanna led in the twelfth century is unique in Indian history. Many, many years after Buddha, it was Basavanna and his contemporary Sharanas who launched a very strong spiritual, social and religious rebellion against Brahminical hegemony.

 

Hundreds of years before German philosopher Friedrich Engels said “labour created man’’, Basavanna had declared “Work is worship’’. By doing so, he exalted physical labour into a religious ideology and gave a severe blow to a society which looked down upon different professions since labour was intrinsically woven in the fabric of caste.

 

Born into a Brahmin family, Basavanna was taught the Vedas, Shastras and the Upanishads. But he rejected both his caste and its scriptures and said that the spiritual experience of the labouring classes would be the well-spring of his social movement. In fact, most of the things that Basavanna did was to turn Brahminical beliefs on its head.

 

Basavanna founded the Anubhava Mantapa (hall of spiritual experience) where people of all segments—be he a cobbler or she a sex worker—could articulate their thoughts. In his times, women were not only considered ‘second class’, they were also denied the right to offer worship. Basavanna, however, gave women equal status in his movement. In order to take the social movement closer to the people, Basavanna and all the other Sharanas voiced their concerns in simple Kannada so that even lay people could comprehend them. Basavanna asked everyone to not only share their lived experiences, but to also share the fruits of their labour. This had a two pronged purpose. Sharing the fruits of their labour and participating in community dining encouraged a feeling of kinship overcoming caste and class barriers.

 

Thousands of people were attracted to Basavanna since he stressed on egalitarianism, humanitarianism and rationalism which were sorely absent in a Brahmin-dominated society. It is for this reason that the Sharana movement is not only recognised as the first major revolt of the working classes for social equality but also as the first anti-priestly struggle after Buddhism.

 

Basavanna’s most famous vachana says:

 

The rich

Will make temple for Shiva,

What shall I, A poor man do?

My legs are pillars,

The body the shrine,

The head of cupola of gold.

 

(translation A K Ramanujan)

 

Since temple entry to non-Brahmins was prohibited, through this vachana Basavanna turned both idol worship and temple entry into erroneous issues. Since Basavanna had declared that the Ishtalinga (which is worn around the neck near the heart) is one’s innate god and that everyone is a ‘mobile temple’ the shudras and the untouchables found it unnecessary to worship idols in temples.

 

The concept of heaven, hell, punya, paapa, rebirth, moksha, etc. are all products of the ‘Karma’ philosophy and form the basis of Brahminism. The Sharana movement rejected all such concepts and stressed on good conduct. They not only disapproved of animal and human sacrifice (even the symbolic sacrifice of coconuts and pumpkins were frowned upon) as part of rituals, they also strove to fight against superstition.

 

Basavanna empathised with the oppressed ‘lower castes’ in one of his vachanas where he said, “I am born to the servant of Madara Channaya and the tanner maid of Kakkayya.’’

 

Even today, ‘dishonour killings’ take place when individuals from different castes or communities dare to fall in love with one another. But nearly 900 years ago, Basavanna had encouraged inter-caste weddings. That the wedding plans of a cobbler boy Sheelavantha and a Brahmin girl Lavanya ended in tragedy is another matter.

 

The fact that Basavanna, other Sharanas and their followers had dared to even think of such an inter-caste union is remarkable indeed.

 

Basavanna was clearly way ahead of his times. When there existed great discrimination on the basis of caste, gender and class, Basavanna and his contemporary Sharanas strived for an egalitarian society. When blind faith was the order of the day, they spoke about rationalism. When feudalism was the accepted structure of society, they spoke about a shared existence. No wonder, Basavanna is considered by many as India’s ‘First Free Thinker’.

 

Basavanna had said, “Things standing shall fall, but the moving ever shall stay.’’ It is disheartening to note that today his supposed followers are doing their very best to destroy both Basavanna and his philosophy. Because they are celebrating Basavanna in the static form of busts and statues while simultaneously ignoring his teachings. It’s not enough to celebrate Basavanna’s birth anniversary. The ideals of the revolutionary Sharana movement should be propagated. Because those ideals are very similar to the resolve we have made in the preamble of our Constitution: to make India a sovereign, socialist, secular and a democratic republic.

 

(Gauri Lankesh was a journalist turned activist from Bangalore, who was murdered by assailants outside her home on September 5, 2017.)