Internal lineage · sampradāya
Vīraśaiva / Liṅgāyat
वीरशैव · लिङ्गायतVīraśaivaFounder / origin — Basavaṇṇa (12th c. CE)
Devotion to Śiva as iṣṭaliṅga worn on the body; radical social egalitarianism; work as worship (kāyaka).
In twelfth-century Karnataka, Basavaṇṇa and the Śaraṇas rejected caste and temple exclusivity for a personal Śiva carried as the iṣṭaliṅga on every devotee's body. Their vacanas — searing Kannada prose-poems — remain some of the most direct devotional literature in any Indian language. Kāyaka (honest work) and dāsoha (sharing) are as central as ritual.
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