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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. V.
that name in the Bijapur district, there was born & son, who, being an incarnation of Siva's bull Nandi, sent to earth to revive the declining Saiva rites, was named Basava. When the usual time of investiture had arrived, Basava, then eight years of age, having meanwhile acquired much knowledge of the Saiva scriptures, refused to be invested with the sacred Brâhmaņical thread; declaring himself a special worshipper of Siva, and stating that he had come to destroy the distinctions of caste. This refusal, with his singular wisdom and piety, attracted the favourable notice of his uncle Baladêva, "prime minister" of (the Kalachurya. king) Bijjala, who had come to be present at the ceremony; and Baladeva gave him his daughter Gangåderi or Gangâmbå in marriage. The Brahmaņs, however, began to persecute Basava, on account of the novel practices propounded by him. And he consequently left his native town, and went to a village named 'Kappadi,' where he spent his early years, receiving instruction there from the god Siva, in the form of the local god Samgamêśvara.
Meanwhile, his uncle Baladēva died. At the advice of the deceased minister's relatives, Bijjala decided on securing the services of Basava, whose ability and virtues had now become publicly known. After some demur, Basava accepted the office; having the hope that the influence attached to it would help him in propagating his peculiar tenets. And, accompanied by his elder sister Nagalâmbika, he proceeded from 'Kappadi' to Kalyana, where he was welcomed with deference by the king, and was installed as prime minister, commander-in-chief, and treasurer - second in power to only the king himself ;5 and the king, in order to bind him as closely as possible to himself, gave him his younger sister Nilalôchanå to wife.
Somewhere about this time, from Basava's unmarried elder sister Nagalâmbika, who was an incarnation of the intelligence of the goddess Parvati, there was born, by the working of the spirit of Siva, a son, who was an incarnation of Siva's son Shanmukba or Karttikêya, the god of war.7 Because, the Ohannabasavapurana says, he was more beautiful than Basava in many respects, he was named Channabasava, i.e. "the beautiful Basava." And he seems to be depicted as playing a more important part than even Basava himself in the propagation of the tenets of the new sect; for, Basava is represented as receiving from him instruction on important points connected with it.
The two Puranas are occupied, for the most part, with doctrinal expositions, recitals of mythology, praises of previous Saiva saints, and accounts of miracles worked by Basava. And it is only quite at the end of each of them, that we come again on any matter that purports to be historical. They assert, however, that, with the influence that his official position gave the uncle, Basava and his nephew propagated with great energy and activity their doctrines, which included the persecution and extermination of all persons, and especially the Jains-- whose creed differed from that of the Lingayats. Coupled with the lavish expenditure incurred by Basava, from the public coffers, on the support of the Jangams or Lingayat priests, the proceedings aroused in Bijjala, who was of the Jain faith, feelings of uneasiness and distrast, which are said to have been fanned from time to time by a rival minister named Mañchappa, in spite of the latter being himself, in secret, a Vira-Saiva. And at length an event occurred, which ended in the assassination of Bijjala and the death of Basava.
1 Loo. cit. p. 67.-The word basara is treated as a corruption of the Sanskrit orishabha,' a bull,' in it's special designation of Nandi, the bull on which Siva rides. From Wilson's Descriptive Catalogue of the Mackensis Collection, p. 805, it would appear that some versions of the Basavapurana substitute, fór Bågewädi, Ingleshwar, which is a village in the same neighbourhood.
The Mackenzie Collection, bowever, gives the technical official title Dandandyaka or 'leader of the forces, which would not necessarily deuote a prime minister. • Loc. cit. p. 67. • Loo. cit. p. 68.
• Loc. cit. p. 69. • Loc. cit. p. 70. Loc. cit. Pp. 118, 119, 120.
• Loc. cit. p. 123. • Loc. cit. p. 125. 10 Loc. cit. p. 71.
11 Loc, eit. p. 78. 13 Loc. cit. pp. 78, 88, 128.
