Vachana

Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "Turning Tides: The 11th and 12th Centuries"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

Vachanas (literally "sayings") are short, free-verse lines in Kannada, composed by both women and men of the Virashaiva (Lingayat) movement led by Basavanna (1106–68). They are our main source on what the movement believed. They matter because they carried religious teaching in the people's own language, not in Sanskrit. They also attacked caste, ritual and image worship in plain words that anyone could follow.

Explanation

Background: why vachanas came about

• In the 12th century, Basavanna, a Brahmana and a minister in the court of a Kalachuri ruler at Kalyani, left his post to lead a religious movement.
• His followers were called:
• Virashaivas, meaning "heroes of Shiva".

• Lingayats, meaning "wearers of the linga".

• The movement wanted to reach ordinary people, including those pushed to the margins of society.

• Sanskrit texts were controlled by Brahmanas.

• So the teachers spoke and composed in Kannada, the everyday language of the region.

• The anubhava mandapa ("pavilion of experience") at Kalyani was an open assembly. Men and women of every background could speak there. Vachanas came out of this same spirit of open debate [3][4].

Main features

• Form: short, free-verse lines. They do not follow strict metre, and they read almost like spoken sayings.
• Language: Kannada, not Sanskrit.
• Authors: both women and men. This was rare for the period.
• Basavanna is the best-known composer.

• Women composers are also part of the tradition. The best known of them is generally named as Akka Mahadevi.

• Style: simple, direct and often sharp. They speak to the listener as "you".

What the vachanas taught

• Against image worship: Lingayats worship Shiva only as a linga, a plain symbol of Shiva and not a human-shaped image. Men wear a small linga in a silver case over the left shoulder.
• Against empty ritual: Basavanna's famous line says that people feed the stone image but turn away the hungry living devotee. The living person is the real temple.
• Against caste: they rejected caste ranking. They also rejected the Brahmanical idea of "pollution", the belief that birth or touch can make a person impure.
• Equality: all men and women have equal spiritual potential.
• Work as worship: personal devotion and honest labour go together. This idea was later called kayaka.
• Against Dharmashastra rules (the Brahmanical law-books). The movement supported:
• post-puberty marriage, so that girls married as adults and not as children
• widow remarriage
• burial of the dead instead of cremation, because Lingayats believed the devotee unites with Shiva at death and is not reborn.

Results and later life

• The vachanas became the main record of Virashaiva ideas.
• They moved religious authority away from Sanskrit and the Brahmana monopoly and into a regional language.
• They are still honoured today:
• Basava Jayanti is marked every year in Karnataka.
• Basavanna's vachanas have been translated into 23 languages [3][4].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 12th century CE, the same age as Basavanna (1106–68).
• Place: Kalyani, the seat of a Kalachuri ruler, today Basavakalyana, Karnataka. The language and region are Kannada and Karnataka.
• Key people: Basavanna / Basaveshvara and the women and men of the Virashaiva movement. The jangama (wandering monks who begged and taught) helped spread the teaching.
• How we know:
• The vachanas themselves are the main source on the movement.
• NCERT covers them in Class 7, Ch 4 "Turning Tides" and Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions".
• An early-modern study, "Basavesvara and His Times", is digitised on the Government of India's Indian Culture portal [5].
• Government statements on Basava Jayanti and the Bharat Mandapam inauguration mention Basavanna's vachanas and the anubhava mandapa [3][4].

Don't confuse with

• Abhangs: devotional songs in Marathi by the sants of Pandharpur (shrine of Vitthala), from the 13th century. Vachanas are in Kannada, from 12th-century Karnataka.
• Tamil Alvar and Nayanar hymns: the earlier Tamil devotional songs for Vishnu (Alvars) and Shiva (Nayanars) were sung in temples. Vachanas are in Kannada and reject temple images and ritual.
• Ramanuja's vishishtadvaita: this is a philosophy ("qualified non-dualism") built inside the Sanskritic and temple tradition of Shrivaishnavism [2]. Vachanas are Kannada sayings from a movement working outside that frame.
• Dharmashastras: these are the Brahmanical law-books that the vachanas argue against, for example on cremation, caste and child marriage. They are not a Virashaiva source.

Prelims Hooks

• Vachana literally means "sayings". The language is Kannada. The movement is Virashaiva / Lingayat. The leading figure is Basavanna (1106–68).
• Matching trap: Vachanas = Kannada, but abhangs = Marathi (Pandharpur, 13th century).
• Vachanas were composed by both women and men. They are the main source on the Virashaiva movement.
• Basavanna was a minister of a Kalachuri ruler at Kalyani, which is modern Basavakalyana, Karnataka.
• Anubhava mandapa at Kalyani was an open assembly linked to the vachana tradition. Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi is officially said to be inspired by it [4].
• Basavanna's vachanas have been translated into 23 languages [3][4].

Mains Points

• Language as protest: the vachanas took religious teaching out of Sanskrit and put it into Kannada.
• Ordinary people could now hear and judge religious ideas for themselves.

• This was part of a wider bhakti pattern in which regional languages broke the Brahmana hold on sacred knowledge [3][4].

• Religious reform and social reform as one act: the vachanas attacked image worship, caste and "pollution". The movement also backed widow remarriage, post-puberty marriage and burial against the Dharmashastras. This makes the Virashaivas the standard GS-I example of bhakti challenging the Brahmanical order.

• Women's voices and continuity: women composed vachanas, which was rare for the 12th century. With the open anubhava mandapa, they are often cited today as an early model of equality and open debate [3][4]. The modern uses of this legacy are Basava Jayanti and the naming of Bharat Mandapam [4]. They are good examples of how heritage is used in present-day public life.

Related concepts

• Adi Shankaracharya
• Advaita Vedanta
• Shankaracharya mathas
• Ramanuja
• Vishishtadvaita
• Madhvacharya
• Haridasa movement
• Purandara Dasa
• Kanaka Dasa
• Annamacharya

Read more

• Reforming the south: Ramanuja and the Virashaiva tradition