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Hinduism - Who Are The Lingayats?

 

Lingayats are a Kannada-speaking religious group who are devotees (bhakta) of the deity Shiva and dwell mostly in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Lingayat origins may be traced back to the Nayanar poet-saints of Tamil Nadu, who migrated northward in the seventh century.

Basavanna, a poet saint, founded the group, together with Allama Prabhu and Mahadeviyakka.

The original members of the society were motivated by a desire to know God and were impatient with anything that went in the way, whether it was image worship, caste distinctions, or the obligations of family life.

Lingayat culture has been shaped by these early influences.

The Lingayats do not worship with pictures.

The linga of Shiva, which all Lingayats wear as a token of membership in the community, is their sole emblem.

The Lingayats have generally adhered to the egalitarian beliefs of their forefathers.

Although there are no caste divisions in the society, there are higher-status priestly families known as jangamas from whom the celibate monks known as viraktas are often chosen.

In fact, this egalitarian focus has turned the whole Lingayat community into a jati, one of the endogamous social groupings that make up broader Indian society; the difference being that the Lingayats are defined by their religious affiliation rather than their employment.

In contemporary Karnataka, the Lingayats are the most powerful group, both in terms of historic landholding patterns and political power.

A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Siva was published in 1973, and Sivalingayya Channabasavayya Nandimath's A Handbook of Virasaivism was published in 1979.


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