Allama and others

"Speaking of Siva" translations of some vachanas by A. K. Ramanujan gives a good introduction to "vachana-sahitya" and the composers. Four composers and their works are treated here - Basavanna, Devara (Jedara) Dasimayya, Akka Mahadevi and Allama Prabhu.

Each composer has a distinct style. But, some of the vachanas show some resemblance in beliefs between Basavanna and Allama. Their vachanas show non-dualism (advaita) behind their thinkings. In fact, Allama goes a step ahead saying that there is not even "non-dualism" (advaita). He says, there is "nothing", not even "nothing" - an oxymoron approach - very typical of Allama.

Akka Mahadevi speaks of "Chenna-Mallikarjuna" as her eternal consort. She has a concept of personal god. A rebel of the highest order, she throws away even modesty and clothing, those last concessions to the male world, in a gesture of ultimate social defiance, and wanders covering in her tresses. When teased by Allama "Why take off clothes, as if by that gesture you could peel off illusions? And yet robe yourself in tresses of hair? If so free and pure in heart, why replace a sari with a covering of tresses?", her reply is honest:

Till the fruit is ripe inside

the skin will not fall off.

I'd a feeling it would hurt you

if I displayed the body's seals of love.

O brother, don't tease me

needlessly. I'm given entire

into the hands of my lord

white as jasmine.

Devara (a.k.a Jedara) Dasimayya is much before Allama and his contemporaries. His vachanas are directed towards mythological Shiva, unlike Allama. The book states about the contest between the devotees of Rama (incarnation of Vishnu) and those of Shiva.

Basavanna in his vachanas talks about both the Shiva of Allama, and the mythological Shiva, and of course some of his vachanas are more about the "way of life" than any specific god.

Of all, Allama is always the most appealing where he is very abstract in his writings, and he always professes the existence of "nothingness"... the one which existed before everything came into the being. He refers to it as "Guheshwara". Allama's Shiva is the same as Shankara's Brahma. Shankara's Brahma is not the four-headed god and Allama's Shiva is not the inhabitant of Kailasa.

At the end of the book, there is an article on Lingayat (Veerashaiva) culture and about "Shat-sthala" doctrine. Something that does not interest me. These philosophies, practices and rituals are as futile as any other practice in the Hindu religion (let me limit myself to Hinduism).

He is not a Brahmin who does not understand Shankara

He is not a Veerashaiva who does not understand Allama

One who understands and appreciates Shankara and Allama

there is no Brahmin, nor a Veerashaiva

Here is a vachana by Allama, as translated by A. K. Ramanujan:

With a whole temple

in this body

where's the need

for another?

No one asked

for two.

O Lord of Caves,

if you are stone,

what am I?

Reference: 'Speaking of Siva', Translated with an Introduction by A. K. Ramanujan