HUGH and COLLEEN GANTZER visit Kudala Sangama in Bagalkot and are awed by Basava, a remarkable religious leader who fought social evils in the tradition-bound society of the 12th century
Great spiritual reformers evolve when they are needed. In quest of the power-centre of one such great soul,we entered the enormous, green grounds of Kudala Sangama at the confluence of the Malaprabha and Krishna rivers. It looked like a huge, well-organised, university campus with clipped hedges,broad avenues, buildings standing in their own, verdant, spaces. People walked around in quiet conversation;some cyclists pedalled slowly. There was a distant sound of amplified religious music. As we got closer to the source of the music, the groups of pedestrians began to swell, all heading in one direction. They flowed into the grounds of a place identified by one of the crowd as the “Anubhava Mantapa of Her Holiness Jagadguru Mataji Mahadevi, principle disciple on earth of Lord Basava.” We got out, visited a bookstall,and bought a booklet about Basava — also addressed as Basaveshwara and Basavanna — written by Mata Mahadevi. Then we went for lunch in a restaurant run by the religious organisation that owns this enormous spiritual complex. It was an efficient, clean, canteen offering simple vegetarian fare, served piping hot. Over lunch we learnt more about the remarkable religious leader who had created a ‘nonvedic religion’ that weaned people away from ‘polytheism to monotheism’ and ‘developed an aversion towards caste hierarchy and the division of society into different groups, superior and inferior.’ Most remarkably, all this happened in the traditionbound 12th century. The growing band of believers who follow Basava’s teachings today call themselves Lingayats.They identify themselves by wearing an oval pendant called an Ishtalinga. By the adoption of Ishtalinga worship, temple and priestcraft were directly attacked.The privilege of worshipping God, a preserved monopoly of a few,was granted to (all) those who were desirous of worshipping God.
Like most religious reformers,both before and after him, Basaveshwara fought against the existing evils in society. His followers believe that as a spiritually advance human being, he had acquired the power to release his soul from his body.The place where he did so is now sanctified by a remarkable shrine called the Aikya Mantapa built like a great caisson. It is, in fact, a watertight chamber resembling a reversed tower plunging into the reservoir of the Alamatti Dam, holding back the merged waters at the confluence of the Krishna and Malaprabha rivers.Viewed from the top down, it looks like the spiralling, plunging, heart of a huge conch-shell holding the pearl-like Samadhi of Basaveshwara at its core. We drew ourselves away from the downward spiralling focus of the Mantapa and blinked to adjust to the wide open spaces of the Kudala Sangama. We walked across to the old Sangameshwara Temple. It’s impressive and was built, in the Dravidian style of the Chalukyas, in the 11th century.Unusually, there are two small Nandis looking at the enshrined Shivalingam.We were also surprised to notice that the face of Shiva on this lingam has a moustache, just as Shivalingams in Maharashtra often do. Basaveshwara probably worshipped in this temple when he was a disciple in the hermitage of Jataveda Muni in the 12th century.He returned to this temple, in great sadness, when he ceased being prime minister to his assassinated king Kalachuri Bijjala.
Though we were unable to read it, we were told that there is a plaque on the lintel of the temple quoting one of Basava’s sayings: ‘Dayave Dharmada Moolavayya’ — ‘Compassion is the core of religion.’ Interestingly, Mata Mahadevi quotes a scholar who says that Basava was ‘Compassionate like Jesus.’ This reference to Jesus was unusual.The leaders of one faith seldom refer to that of another. We decided to learn more about the Lingayats and so,when we got back to our cottage in the Himalayas, we researched Lingayats on the internet. It was quite a revelation. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lingayats reject the authority of the vedas, the transmigration of souls, child marriage, and ill-treatment of widows. In another reference, they also differ from orthodox Hindus by accepting a single prophet, Basava, as the founder of their faith and oppose sacred Hindu rituals connected with homa, yajna and sacrifices in general. Moreover, they do not believe in astrology, vastushilpa and horoscopes. Most surprisingly for us, early in this century, according to a press report, some Lingayats asked the government of India to recognise their faith as one distinct from Hinduism. The mind often establishes strange linkages. When we shut down our computer, one of us unexpectedly recalled something we had seen in Kudala Sangama.We had walked down to the edge of the reservoir. Motor boats with pink canopies and white seats bobbed in the water awaiting tourists. But an ominous sign delivered a socio-spiritual warning:‘Deep water. Do not venture for swimming. Be careful about crocodiles.
COMMENT