Lingaadvaitism

Lingayatas are the followers of the philosophy and the practices put forward by Basavanna and his contemporaries of the twelfth century of Common Era. The twelfth century Philosophers did not give a specific name either to the new religious faith which has been referred to as Lingayatism, or to its philosophy which is being called here as Lingaadvaitism.Basavanna founded an Academy of Philosophers and Scholars in the city of Kalyana in Karnataka, India. Discourses concerning religion and society were held at this Academy. Philosophers and Scholars came from all over India. Allama Prabhudeva was the leader presiding over the deliberations at the Academy. A new Philosophical System was developed, and practical implementation of the idea was carried out.The philosophy and practices of this new religious faith have been documented in the vachanas. The Kannada word 'vachana' is a rhythmic prose. Vachanas were widely used by this common religious faith to propagate knowledge and the right way of life among the masses. Due to disturbed conditions that ensued, the vachana literature was scattered, and some of it was lost. During the Vijayanagara Empire in the 15th century, the Veerashaiva scholars systematically collected the retrievable portions of the vachana literature, and compiled some of these vachanas into the form of a scripture known as Shunya Sampadane.The vachana literature is the basic scripture of the Lingayatas/Veerashaivas. Of all the important texts, Shunya Sampadane is the only one that has based its explanation of the Advaita Philosophy of Lingayatas/Veerashaivas on these vachanas.In this present book, the essence of the advaita philosophy has been extracted from the vachanas. The philosophy that has been brought out is the Linga-advaita Philosophy. It cannot be anything other than Lingaadvaitism.