Basavaṇṇa
12th century · Kalyāṇa, Karnataka · Liṅgāyata (Vīraśaiva)
Basavaṇṇa (Basaveśvara) was a poet, mystic and social reformer, and a minister at the court of the Kalachuri king Bijjala at Kalyāṇa in northern Karnataka. He is the central figure of the Liṅgāyata (Vīraśaiva) tradition, whose members wear a small iṣṭaliṅga on the body as a personal emblem of Śiva.
His vacanas — short, direct poems in everyday Kannada — reject caste, empty ritual and temple pomp, and call for honest work and devotion: “kāyakave kailāsa”, work is worship. His Anubhava Maṇṭapa was a hall where saints of all backgrounds, women and men, met to discuss spiritual life.
12th century · Karnataka · Vacanas · Anubhava Maṇṭapa · “Kāyakave kailāsa”