Allama Prabhu
Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Allama Prabhu was a Virashaiva (Lingayat) mystic-poet of 12th-century Karnataka. He lived at the same time as Basavanna. He wrote vachanas, short sayings in Kannada, full of riddles and paradoxes. In them he rejected empty ritual and pointed to direct experience of Shiva. Tradition honours him as the most deeply spiritual teacher of the movement.
Example
Lingayat tradition says Allama Prabhu presided over the anubhava mandapa ("pavilion of experience") at Kalyani. This was the gathering started by Basavanna, open to men and women of every caste and background. His vachanas end with the name Guheshvara, his name for Shiva.
Don't confuse with
- Basavanna: a Brahmana minister at the Kalachuri court and the leader who organised the Lingayat movement. Allama Prabhu was remembered more as a wandering mystic than as an organiser.
Related concepts
- Adi Shankaracharya
- Advaita Vedanta
- Shankaracharya mathas
- Ramanuja
- Vishishtadvaita
- Madhvacharya
- Haridasa movement
- Purandara Dasa
- Kanaka Dasa
- Annamacharya