Śiva's saints : the origins of devotion in Kannada according to Harihara's Ragaḷegaḷu

Comprising more than twelve million people and renowned for their resistance to Brahminical values, the Virasaivas are a vibrant and unorthodox religious community with a provocative socio-political voice. The Virasaiva tradition has produced a vast and original body of literature, composed mostly in Kannada, a Dravidian language from south India. Siva's Saints introduces a previously unexplored and central primary work produced in the early thirteenth century, the Ragalegalu . This was the first narrative text written about the incipient devotional tradition dedicated to the god Siva in the Kannada-speaking regions; through stories of the saints, it images the life of this new religious community. The Ragalegalu inaugurated a new era in the production of devotional narratives accessible to wide audiences. Gil Ben-Herut challenges common notions about this tradition in its nascent phases. By closely reading the saints' stories in this text, Siva's Saints takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly-held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early bhakti (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less-radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today. In contrast to the narrowly sectarian and exclusionary vision that shapes later accounts, the Ragalegalu is characterized by an opposite impulse of offering an open invitation to people from all walks of life, and their stories illustrate the richness of their devotional lives. Analysis of this seminal text yields important insights into the role of literary representation of the social and political development of a religious community in a pre-modern and non-Western milieu. The Vīraśaiva tradition, which developed over the last eight centuries in the Kannada-speaking region of the Deccan plateau in India, holds a unique place in Hindu society. Its members do not adhere to the hierarchical structures of Brahminical-centered society, and they practice a distinct set of rituals, such as carrying a personal liṅga on their body and worshiping it individually (as well as in groups). The roots of the tradition are linked to a revolutionary community of devotees of the Hindu god Śiva from the twelfth century, headed by the saintly figures Basavaṇṇa, Allama Prabhu, and Mahādēviyakka, whose poetry is the most translated and read literature ever produced in the Kannada language. This book takes a pioneering approach to understanding the origins of Vīraśaivism by focusing for the first time in English-language scholarship on a corpus of hagiographies about the twelfth-century devotees that was produced at a very early stage of the tradition. This untitled collection of narrative poems, commonly called the __Śivaśaraṇara Ragaḷegaḷu__ (“Poems in the __Ragaḷe__ Meter for Śiva’s Saints”), is the first written account of the devotees of the Kannada-speaking region, and its author was an accomplished poet called Harihara. By closely reading the saints’ stories in this text, the book takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early __bhakti__ (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today. Cover 1 Half title 2 Śiva’s Saints 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Note on Transliteration and Translation 14 Introduction 16 “Canonical” Vīraśaivism 18 Śaraṇas, not Vīraśaivas 29 Kannada Devotional Literature in History 36 Interpreting the Stories of the Saints in the Ragaḷegaḷu 44 The Structure of This Book 51 1. The Poetics of Bhakti 56 Poet as Saint 57 Textual Experimentation in the Ragaḷegaḷu 68 The Doyen of a New Literary Era 75 The Complexities Within Harihara’s Legacy 78 A Devotional Literary Turn 86 2. Who Is a Bhakta? 88 Single-​Minded Dedication 93 The Divine Devotee 97 God’s Ungracious Wife 100 Anthropocentric Devotion 104 3. The Society of Devotees 108 Qualifying Bhakti’s Egalitarian Voice 110 Religious-​Based Nondiscrimination 113 Work and Its Felicities 117 Wealth Matters 122 Female Roles and Female Transgressions 126 4. A Bhakti Guide for the Perplexed Brahmin 140 Inverting Untouchability 144 Appropriating Vedic Knowledge 148 Commensality Practices and Dietary Rules 154 Cooking with Onion 157 Animal Killing and Meat Consumption 160 Reeducating the Educated 166 5. The King’s Fleeting Authority and His Menacing Vaiṣṇava Brahmins 170 Kings and Hagiography 175 The Devotee as the King’s Administrator 180 Sectarian Violence at the Court 187 Anti-​Court but Pro-​Treasury 192 Vaiṣṇava Brahmins as the Opponent Other 201 Politics, Patronage, and Devotion 207 6. Jains as the Intimate, Wholly Other 214 A Wave of Mutilation 215 Temple Fights 221 Jains as Śaivas’ Spouses 229 Food Contestations 236 Alienating an Intimate Rival 237 Conclusion 246 Bibliography 254 Index 274 "This book takes a pioneering approach to understanding the origins of the Vīrasaiva / Lingāyata tradition by considering for the first time in English-language scholarship a major collection of hagiographies about the twelfth-century devotees, which was produced very soon after their purported activities. The tradition, which developed over the last eight centuries in the Kannada-speaking region of the Deccan plateau in India, holds a unique place in Hindu society. Its members do not adhere to the hierarchical structures of Brahminical-centered society, and they practice a distinct set of rituals, such as carrying a personal linga (an emblem of the Hindu god Siva) on their body and worshiping it individually (as well as in groups), burying and not cremating their dead, and more"-- Provided by publisher