Chapter Three

Akka Mahadevi: Veershaivite Woman Saint

Sharanas, Sharanes and their Vachanas

The entire movement of Veershaivism was propelled by the contemporary needs of social
reformation in 12th century Kamataka. The medieval kingdom of king Bijjala included a
large territory of present day Kamataka and Andhra Pradesh and had its capital at the city
of Kalyana. King Bijjala had given enormous freedom of action to his extremely radical
prime minister Basveshvara, who was the leader of the Sharana movement and finally
also became instrumental in bringing the movement to an unexpected culmination. What
is striking about this movement, is not so much the social upheaval that it created in the
process of fighting the orthodoxy of the caste-system, that almost destroyed the city of
Kalyana, but the undying spirit of change that it could breathe into the orthodox religious
9
orders of the day?

Veershaiva movement like the original spirit of its parent religion of Siva did not ever
make distinctions between mundane and the sacred. And therefore the movement
sustainably maintained its focus on two important aspects of human existence social and
30
spiritual. Both these aspects found central place in the socio-political and spiritual

29
According to Dr. C.R. Yaravintelimath:
The society, which the Sivasaranas dreamt of, and strove to translate their dream into reality, was a
casteless society, in which men and women enjoyed equal opportunities in all walks of life .They also strove
to free women from the shackles of the Vedic family system, in which man's dominance over woman was
unquestioned and man enjoyed equal opportunities in all walks of life.Hitherto woman was confined to the
four walls of her house. The Sivasaranas pulled down the walls of her prison, and extended the scope of her
freedom beyond the four walls of her house to social religious and spiritual worlds. She was made to realize
her potential - both physical and spirituaL and to enjoy equal opportunities with men. So the principle -of
equality became the main pillar of the Sivasarana society. The lives of various Virasaiva women writers
and their vachanas are a proof of the fact that the spirit of equality pervaded the atmosphere that prevailed
in the twelfth century Kamataka.[Yaravintelimath: 2006:3.]
°
3
For details See. V.K. Javali's article on "Kayaka and Dignity of Labour" in Eighth Centenary
Comemoration Volume on Sri Basavesvara published by Government of Mysore, Bangalore.l96 7.
A quote from the article:
"Kayaka is a spiritual view of labour and not merely a materialistic view. According to Kayaka man has to
sublimate his physical labour into a spiritual pursuit. The mercenary motive is sublimated into a spiritual
motive .... Kannada saying is "Kavakm·e Kailasa". Every labour is looked upon by Saran a with high
honour, dignity and spiritual significance .... 'Kayaka 'is to be done in the spirit of' Dasoha '. The earning
from Kayaka is to be dedicated to the preacher or Jangama who in his tum utilizes it for the good of the
society. Kayaka is a duty by which each one has to maintain oneself. and render its proceeds to the welfare
of society as a whole." Page.l40.

55
agendas of Veershaiva movement. Both the agendas therefore form the subject matter of
the vachanas31 composed by Sharanas and Shaames. Their social agenda proved to be an
important breakthrough in the socio-historical evolution of Hindu society in India
especially in South of India. It challenged the caste and gender based discrimination and
floated some very positive alternative concepts for the society like 'Kayaka · (lit. work
done by the body) and 'Dasoha' (lit. service to men). The concept of 'Kayaka' directly
challenged the age old menace of ' Varnashrama Dharma ' (caste distinctions based on
birth of an individual). According to 'Kayaka' philosophy, no work is considered menial.
All work is taken up as a sacred venture and the fruits of the work are surrendered at the
'service of other men' (Dasoha) or at the community or for social welfare. For instance,
woman vachana poet, Ayadakki Lakkamma lovingly chides her husband Sharana
Marayya in one of her vachanas, telling him, Jest he should forget, that Kayaka in itself is
the fruit and is not to be regarded as a means to a reward - physical or spiritual:

If you want to work to go to heaven

By doing work and rendering service,
Do you think heaven is a wage for your work?
If you stay absorbed in your work
Imagining no future and recollecting no past,
Where Marrayya Priya Amareshvaralinga is
There is heaven.
[Yaravintelimath:2006:28.]

Another vachana by shameya Akkamma reveals the essence of 'Kayaka ·philosophy as it

was conceived by Veershaivas:

31
Vachana form is a kind of free verse compositon which became the hallmark of this movement. In
literary history of Karnataka, this dialogic form holds a place of pride by the name of Vachana Movement.
Vachanas were recited or written down by Sharanas and were used generally for propagation of sharna
philosophy. for self analysis, and most often for contemplation. However due to their dialogic nature (often
they are an address to the 'ishta'), they are potentially performative texts.

56
 One should go about doing one's daily work
As long as one can,
And thereafter one should go to see the guru,
To worship the Linga and serve the Jangama.
As also to hold discourse with Siva devotees,
And to spend time in their company.
It is proper for a devotee to know this rule.
He alone is the dynamic spirit
Rameshvaralinga
To whom right conduct itself is life- breath.
Nothing remained there
When the spinning cord broke
I did not embrace any vow-breaker.
[Yaravintelimath:2006:28]

Hence 'Sharana movement' was a reform movement in the social context and a reform
movement in spiritual context also.Vachana literature refers to both these facets of
Veershaiva movement and not always in exclusion to each other as is evident from the
vachana quoted above. 32

In fact, this movement for the first time in the religious history of India openly added the
dimension of a personal spiritual path hitherto available only to the ones who left the
material world and took to esoteric forms of 'sadhana-s' (spiritual practices). Through
this movement, choice of freedom from the available religious paths was made available
to common people in their own social context (house -holder or ascetic- wanderer) and at
their own social status (regardless of their caste and class).

Every individual was welcome in the "Anubhava Mantapa" (lit. the house of experience)
set up in the great capital of Bijjalla's empire, Kalyana, by his visionary prime minister
Basavanna. The idea of "Anubhava Mantapa" and "Mahamane" (the great house) 33 was

3
~ There were at least 33 Shiva Sharanevas (women sharanas) who wrote more than a thousand vachanas.
(or we can say these many are extant now). Most women vachanakaras were housewives and shared with
their husbands concerns of treading a spiritual path.
33
Dr. C.R. Yaravintelimath says:

57
to allow a space for every sharana to share and discuss their own insights into a path to
the Absolute Consciousness conceived as Shiva in this system.

The philosophical tenets of the Veershaiva sect were defined by its later followers
especially after the king Proudha Devaraya (1419-1447) of Vijayanagara empire took
personal interest in the collection and systemic compilation of Sharana literature.
However, a close look at the vachanas of Shiva-sharanas reveals that each one conceived
and moved on their own path. A link that validates this idea, is the fact that every
vachanakara uses an 'ankita ', a signature name which is his/her own conception of the
Absolute Shiva Consciousness. 34

Now this 'ankita' has no material manifestation of the deity. This ankita is an individual
conception of the metaphysical idea of Shiv a. When we talk about 'ankita ' in Bhakti
context, it becomes the personal god of the seeker as is found in the Tamil Alvar and
Nayanamar Bhakti. However, the major point of difference is that personal gods of
Alvars and Nayanmars were chosen from specific temples in a specific locale while
Veershaiva ankita-s were truly metaphysical and experiential. Experience was the most
important facet of spiritual life for sharanas. Allama Prabhu says in one of his vachanas:

Can the spark in the stone

Kindle?
Can the tree in the seed
Rustle?
Guheshvara's majesty,
Being unapparent,
Does not shine out

At Kalyana, Basavanna founded two big houses- one was the "Mahamane" and the other, the "Anubhava
Mantapa". The concept of "Mahamane" and the "Anubhava Mantapa" was fluid and dynamic. It did not
refer to any stone building. since both were 'bayalu -alayas ·- 'houses of space' .Every kitchen where
Prasadam was prepared and distributed was a "Mahamane", and each place where devotees assembled and
held mystic discourses was an "Anubhava Mantapa." In fact, the home of every devotee housed the two
houses where Dasoha of some kind would go on perennially. Both the houses were complementary to each
other- one took care of the body and the other, the soul. In "Mahamane", Anna Dasoha- distribution of
Prasada. the sacred food meant for Guru. Linga and Jangamas was going on; at the "Anubhava Mantapa"
the dispersal of divine knowledge would take place. They were regular features of a Sharanas · residence.
[Yaravintelimath: 2006: 18]
34
Akka Mahadevi's 'ankita · is 'Chennamal!ikarjuna ', A llama Prabhu's 'ankita' is 'Guheshvara' and
Basavanna's ankita is 'Kudalsangamdeva' to name a few.

58
 For the common eye:
He only knows it
Who has tasted the joy
Of the experience!
[Nandimath, Menezes and Hiremath: 1965.:56. Vol.I]

"Anubhava Mantapa", that was presided over by the mystics like Allama Prabhu,
validated all experience if it stood the test of seeker-sharana 's own conviction.

This again leads to the fact that sharana, movement actually defied all structures
especially temple structures and institutions which had turned extremely exploitative by
this time.

Akka's Works and Her Life

Akka Mahadevi's life and her work are inseparable from each other. In fact, her poetry is
the most dependable source of information about her life, her ideas and the way of living
she chose. No historical details support the hagiographies that evolved later as a part of
development of Veershaiva religion. Harihara {1190-1230) was the first biographer and
was closest to Akka in time and locale. In his poetic Mahadeviyakkana Ragale, he
delineates the major events in Mahadevi' s life. Mahadevi was born to pious parents
Nirmala and Sumati Shetty in the village of Udutadi, near Balligavi in Shimoga district.
Her parents, it seems, were already on Sharana path. This family must have been well
educated and cultured as she seems to have lived in the company of the wise from the
beginning. Her vachanas reveal a very fine sense of the scriptural and religious tradition.
She was also initiated into the Sharana tradition early in life. One of her vachanas
confirms this:

I got Linga by Guru· s grace

And Jangama by Guru's grace
I got Padodaka by Guru's grace
And prasada by Guru's grace
I conversed with gentle devotees by

59
 guru's grace.
Because, no sooner was I born
Than the holy Guru smeared
The sacred ash on my brow,
And put Linga on my body
[Yaravintellimath:2006: 146.]

At the age of sixteen, she seems to have caught the attention of a feudal lord often
mentioned as a Jaina king named Kaushika. Kaushika wanted to marry this beautiful girl
by all means. Akka however was not keen on marrying anyone.She believed, like
sixteenth century Rajasthani woman saint Meera, that her marriage had already taken
place and that her husband is Shiva (Chennamallikarjuna). But probably King Kaushika
threatened her parents into giving Mahadevi' s hand in marriage to him. Marriage did take
place but didn't last as Kaushika could not keep the promises he had made to Mahadevi
before tying the knot with her. Consequently Mahadevi simply walked out of the marriage
leaving behind all modesty and shame. Harihara's account finishes at this point where
Mahadevi, now Akka Mahadevi, (sister Mahadevi) goes on her spiritual journey
worshipping Shiva in every form of creation. To quote from Harihara:

The flower bearing plants were meant for Mahadevi's puja

As if their faces had flowered in love and joy
In the streams
Among bamboos
In ponds, lakes,tanks and rivers
In hills and valleys
Among hoards of tigers and deers
Among bears, wild elephants and bulls
She came walking
Remembering Mallinatha everywhere.
[Trans by H.S. Shivaprakash. Harihara. P.77.]

Akka Mahadevi was a great devotee of Shiva and chose the form of Chennamallikarjuna
as her personal god or Ishta devata. Chennamallikmjuna is also her ankita i.e.the

60
signature used by her in all her poetic expression. Her relationship with Shiva, her chosen
god, can not be defined merely in terms that are commonly used by critics and scholars
like 'bridal-mysticism' or even by other conventional forms of reading Bhakti Poetry. It
is simply beyond all conceivable definitions of love. This mystical relationship feeds on
the indefinable, occultist religion of Shiva. Her vachanas reflect an enormous range of
emotions which inform of her relation to her Ishta-Chennamallikarjuna.

Akka's Vachanas

Akka Mahadevi is considered to be one of the finest vachanakaras among the Sharana(s).
Her name is taken in same breath as the names of the Sharana stalwarts like Allama,
Basavanna, Siddharammya, Ajaganna (Ajaganna's compositions are not available but his
vachanas were regarded by other vachanakaras especially his sister Muktayakka in high
esteem) and Chennabasavanna. Akka's vachanas have played a very significant role in
expositing Veershaiva philosophy.Furthermore a large number of them seem to have
been written exclusively with such a purpose in mind. Some 360 of her vachanas are
extant. Besides vachanas, she wrote four other works: Yoganga Trividhi, Shrstiya
Vachana, Padagalu, Akkagala Pithike.

The compilation of her vachanas by various anthologists throws up an interesting fact.

Almost all the anthologies arranged her vachanas according to Shatsthala (Six
stage/phase system) philosophy and all the anthological compilations happened after
Shoonya Sampadane.

Shoonya Sampadane was compiled in the beginning of the fifteenth century which was
three hundred years after the Sharana movement took place in Kalyana. This sudden
focus on bringing together Sharana compositions was not without a reason. Vijayanagara
emperors, in the process of strengthening their empire, started patronizing Veershaiva
faith which during the l th century Sharana movement had brought together all sections
of society in its fold and now could be conveniently upheld as state ideology that
supported all social groups. In addition, due to its affiliations with "Shaiva Siddhanta"
philosophy, it helped to appropriate the Shaiva- Mathas which had become very powerful
in Kamataka by this time. Hence, it has to be kept in mind, while studying the vachanas,
that Shoonya Sampadane is a text constructed with a definite political purpose. There is

61
no way of knowing the actual sequence of the vachanas in the oeuvres of Sharanas
included in Shoonya Sampadane. The Shatsthala scheme could have been imposed on
the available compositions of the vachanakaras by Shoonya Sampadane editors.
Therefore, it is difficult to determine the sequence of Akka Mahadevi's vachanas also.

Another feature associated with Akka' s vachanas and her life is her journey to
"Anubhava Mantapa" in Kalyana, which, in fact, is the point of focus in Shoonya
Sampadane.

However, this journey is not mentioned at all by her first biographer Harihara's in his text
Mahadeviyakkana Ragale. In fact, Harihara does not mention 'Kalyana' at all, not even
in his accounts of Prabhudeva's and Basavanna's life. It is strange that though
historically, geographically and even in terms of time or public memory, Harihara was
closest to the centre of Sharana rising 35 It appears to be strange, that he did not care to
write about 'Kalyana' and "Anubhava Mantapa". 36 In one of his essays, called
"Journeying to Kalyana'', Prof.H.S. Shivaprakash says:

Surrounding a lake on the outskirts of the city,are the caves where the leading
saints are said to have performed their sadhana over eight hundred years ago.
These and a few ancient structures nearby are the only signs that history sought
to remake itself in this very place. [Sen and Kaushal:2004: 215]

Also the Veershaiva proposition, that Akka's spiritual progress happened exactly in the
six phases as expounded by Veershaiva philosophy, is a conjecture which might have
been imposed by the 15th century vachana compilers who were working with a set
framework for consolidation of Lingayat religion under the regime of Vijayanagara
emperors. Another objection for this kind of sequencing is, that it presupposes an
evolutionary model for human consciousness. Though a common mind seems to attain
maturity in gradual stages of development, there have been examples throughout history
where humans have shown themselves capable of extraordinary creative powers at a very

35
Birthplace of Harihara is Hampi. which is only sixteen hours journey on horseback to present day
Kalyana.
36
Present day Anubhava Mantapa is a place where there are many caves and the tourist guides generally
point out at different caves saying that they belonged to the Shaarnas like Akka, Allama, etc. Also
Anubhava Mantapa,which appears to be a small place, is supposed to have brought together some one lakh
ninty six thousand sharanas under its roof at one point of time!

62
young age. Aadi Shankaracharya stands out as an example. A creative mind need not
necessarily show higher levels of creativity or evolution in successive stages of an
increasing time frame. Saint poets including Akka Mahadevi were highly evolved and
creative human beings.

Akka Mahadevi was only sixteen years old, when she defied the social norms by walking
out of her marriage and shedding all signs of civil modesty including her clothes. The
works that she has left behind in the short span of her life indicate her spiritual and
mystical achievement. This, for a woman in the l2 1h century, is extraordinary!

Therefore, all the available frames of studying poetry fall short of understanding her
poetry and her life.

Only after granting that she was an extraordinary woman, one can proceed to look at her
creative expression. It is quite probable that her strength as a poetess and her creative
genius were clearly perceived by the pioneers of the Sharana movement. And when she
was received at "Anubhava Mantapa" after a tough and thorough examination of her
spiritual attainments by chief sharnas like Allama Prabhu, she was assigned this work of
expounding Veershaiva concepts and beliefs in her compositions. In other words, it is
quite possible that she was used by these leader saints as one of their women
spokespersons.

At the same time a substantial number of her vachana compositions seem to be bursting
out of this idiom of propaganda into finest expression of her mystical experiences. In
such vachanas, one does not find any theological exposition or religious propaganda,
rather a simple statement of immediate urgency of the experience of a different state of
consciOusness.

A new frame for her journey on the spiritual path in the light of above mentioned
suggestions must be conceived, where, though the physical and geographical journey to

Kalyana and then to "Kadalivana'', is given significance, but the progress towards the
final goal is considered more as mental process than as a physical progress.

Akka Mahadevi's vachanas are like a magical text that opens itself only on the page
which suits the seeker at the moment of choice. They reveal an extensive range of her

63
engagements with esoteric ways of sadhana. Her vachanas explore a simple pathway to
the chosen deity, expound major tenets of Veershaivism and reveal the sufferings and
ecstasies of a woman in love. Above all, her vachanas hold a key to the esoteric
techniques of Yoga and Tantra. This subject is dealt at length by her in a less popular
work called Yoganga Trividhi.What is special about Akka's quest is that she enjoins
Bhakti i.e. loving devotion with Yogic and Tantric sadhana. for her, as in fact for all
bhaktas, liberation or 'Moksha' is secondary to 'Bhakti' or loving union with the chosen
one. Akka Mahadevi becomes more and more established in her oneness with Shiva,
'Chennamallikarjuna' as she crosses all other hurdles on the path of 'Bhakti'- the
body,the mind, the intellect and the ego through bhakti and through other Yogic
techniques that she mentions in her vachanas in a highly symbolic language wrapped up
in deceptively simple vocabulary. For example:

Associating with the ignorant

Is like to light a fire
By rubbing stones;
Associating with the wise
Is like taking butter
After churning curd.
0 Chennamallikarjuna, jasmine tender,
Associating with your devotees
Is like a hill of camphor
Catching fire.
[Vinaya Chaitanya: 2005:84.]

and:

Can a dry bamboo sprout again?

Can a burnt pot become clay again?
Can a fruit dropped from its stalk
Return to it again?
If the toiling and moiling men
Utter a word unknowingly,

64
 Do the steadfast devotees
Return to earth again,
0 Chennamallikarjuna!
[Yaravintelimath: 2006: 128]

As has been stated earlier, the path of Bhakti is the path of complete surrender. Anything
that comes in the way of Bhakti-intemal or external, of the world or of the mind, has to
be surrendered. Major hurdles are posed by the senses (the body), the mind, the intellect
and the ego. There are ways and means to overcome these hurdles. Besides Yoga and
Tantra,three other paths of liberation expounded in the classical Hindu scripture,
Bhagwad Gita are: Karma yoga, Jnana yoga and Bhakti yoga. Karma yoga begins with
the body and purifies the being through detached action; Jnana yoga takes up the
instrument of mind and conquers it by understanding the transitory nature of the world;
Bhakti yoga is the only path that works simultaneously on the body( engaging the senses
through worship and ritual), mind and intellect(focusing it on one object- God in
exclusion to all other objects) and ego (surrendering it at the service of the God and
fellow devotees) and leads the bhakta to ecstatic bliss of union with the ever expansive
Cosmic Consciousness which is considered to be higher than the liberation or Moksha. It
is for this reason that all the scriptures and classical texts acknowledge the supremacy of
the path of Bhakti over that of Jnana and Karma. In addition esoteric practices of Tantra
and Yoga sometimes go hand in hand with other chosen paths. Akka Mahadevi's work
Yoganga Trividhi reveals that she had been practicing extreme austerities and other
Tantric sadhanas at certain stages in her life.

We can thus see, that Akka's life and works are a confluence of two distinct strains of
Indian spirituality: the path of Yoga I Tantra emphasizing discipline and austerity and the
Path of Bhakti underscoring surrender and spontaneity. The former is expressed in her
Yoganga Trividhi and the latter in her vachanas. At the same time we can say that
elements of bhakti and Yoga and Tantra intermingle in her works and all her works are
inclusive of these elements in various degrees. It is interesting to note, that in most of the
later transformations of her works, Akka' s Yogic/Tantric facet is more or less neglected.

65
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