Mahamane and Anubhava Mantapa

In and around Mahamane and Anubhava Mantapa

At Kalyana, Basavanna founded two big houses—one was the Mahamane and the other, the Anubhava Mantapa. The concept of Mahāmane and the Anubhava Mantapa was fluid and dynamic. It did not refer to any stone building, since both were bayalu alayas- Open or Space as a Temple. Every kitchen where Prasāda was prepared and distributed was a Mahāmane, 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 houses were complementary to each other—one took care of the body and the other, the soul. In the Mahāmane, Anna Dāsūha-distribution of Prasāda, 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 the regular features of a Saraña's residence. Women devotees played significant roles at both houses. At the Anubhava Mantapa, they participated in mystic discourses, whereas at the Mahāmane, they looked after the preparation and distribution of Prasāda. No less did they contribute to the Kayaka concept in that they supported their male counterparts. They were women of all sorts—women who scaled great mystic heights; women who shaped the personalities of eminent devotees like Basavanna and Chennabasavanna; women who were Kayaka conscious; women who were conduct conscious; and women who were better halves, but one with their spouses.

Among the women saints who had scaled great mystic heights, three are outstanding – Akkamahadevi, Muktayakka and Bontadevi. Of these three, the only person who blazed up at the Anubhava Mantapa was Akkamahādevi, so young yet so wise and unattached. Muktäyakka was the first woman devotee whom Alamaprabhu met on his way to Kalyāna. Hence, she was the one who did not go to Kalyāna and could not taste the discourses of the Anubhava Mantapa. Bontadevi was altogether a different type. Though she lived in Kalyana for several years, she did not reveal her identity till death, as she was a devotee incognito. The two episodes—the episode of Akkamahadevi and the episode of Muktiyakka—are unique in the annals of the Anubhava Mantapa.

After having renounced the house and parents, the pelf (wealth or riches) and luxury of Kousika’s palace, [not only did she repel Kousika's advances but also his palace] and clothes, Akkamahādevi, with her body covered with hair, made her way towards Kalyana, the earthly Kailāsa where Basavanna had rallied countless Jangamas at his spiritual academy called Anubhava Mantapa, of whom Allamaprabhu, the president of the Academy, was one. It was Allamaprabhu who, being an incarnation of Lord Śiva Himself, had a key to every problem facing the devotees and who could heal the wounds of every suffering soul. He would test every person before admitting him/her into the fold of Sharanas. A severe test awaited Akkamahādevi at Kalyāna, and the test was administered by Allamaprabhu. It was in fact a great drama of suspense in which the principal actors were Allamaprabhu and Akkamahādevi, the prime contenders with extraordinary wisdom and god-experience. It was more than a battle of wits; a fierce battle indeed, in which arguments and counterarguments followed. When Basavanna introduced her to Allamaprabhu and to the holy assembly of the saints at the Anubhava Mantapa, Allamaprabhu put a few questions to her in order to make known her worth to the assembly. His first question was about her husband. No woman, unless she was duly married, could be admitted to the spiritual academy. Akkamahadevi, though married to Kousik, had abandoned him. So he asked her:

Why do you come hither, pray?
O woman in the lusty bloom of youth?
At the word woman, our Sharaneys
See red! If you can tell
Your husband's identity, come sit:
Else pray be gone!
If you desire the joy of fellowship
With our Guhesara’s Sharanas,
Tell who your husband is,
O Mother! [SVS, vol. iv, v. 10, p. 293]

Allamaprabhu repeated the question: ‘Look, mother, all conversation with women is a poisonous dish. In Guhesvara Linga, tell us to pray, Who may your husband be?'. The dauntless lady revealed her husband's identity to the dismay of the assembly, that her husband was none other than the Lord Śiva, the holder of the moon.

O Lord Hara,
I did penance from time immemorial.
So that you alone should wed me.
My people, who were sent
For marriage negotiations
Sent me to the Wearer of the Moon.
They smeared sacred ash on me.
And tied a wristband of betel leaf.
So that I should be His,
O Chennamallikarjuna! [SVS, Vol. iv, p. 334]

She waxed eloquent in describing her wedding. She made it clear that Chennamallikarjuna was her Lord and that she had no truck with other husbands who were mortals. Allamaprabhu's next question was about her naked state. He objected to Akkamahadevi's being clad in a cloak of hair, which was an indication of her being self-conscious, and darted his question:

What does it mean?
That God loves you, and you love God?
Shedding your garment when your spirit is pure,
Why do you cloak yourself in hair? [SVS, vol. IV, v. 17, p. 298]

Allamaprabhu's contention was that Akkamahādevi had not shed the bodily shame. The shame that still lurked in her heart showed outside through the cascading of her body with the hair. Cool and collected, Akkamahādevi replied:

Unless a fruit becomes ripe within
The outer skin will not lose its luster.
With the intent that
Lest the sight of the seal of Cupid should hurt you,
I covered it up.
Why should it hurt you?
Pray do not trouble me.
Who have I submitted myself to?
To Chennamallikarjuna, God of Gods. [svs, Vol. IV, V, 236]

It is for the sake of the world, unused to seeing a female walking naked that she had covered her private parts, fearing that their sight might hurt the world's eye or rouse people's passion. Then Allamaprabhu objected to her renouncing senses and clinging to the body and holding the form and yet wedding the formless.

The form dissolves,
The formless thing does not.
How can there be
Marriage between the form and the formless? [svs. vol. iv, v. 24, p. 303]

Holding on to the body, how could she reach and realize her formless Lord? To this her reply was:

Good Sir Mark:
If you can remove the fangs of a snake
And make it play;
The snakes company is good
If you can understand
Your contact with the flesh
Your association with the flesh is good!
Just as a mother turns into a demon,
The passions of the body turn wild
O Chennamallikarjuna,
Do not think that those whom you loved
Had a body. [svs, Vol. V, V, 340]

Still Allamaprabhu was not satisfied. So he put her further another question.

What, Mother is the way
Of merging in the Absolute
Which bears no merging with?
Even as you say so, there's
A flaw in it
Tell me the way to join
Guhesvaralinga, yet keep Him apart! [svs. Vol. iv, v. 31, p. 309]

Akkamahādévi's rejoinder to this was: Because the holy Guru has proved her body to be a cham, there is no difference between the partite and the impartite.

To another question of Allamaprabhu's-Tell me where to find joy without body, life in the world without a soul", Akkamahādevi's rejoinder was: “When a person goes to sleep and dreams a dream and narrates it in sleep, the body functions without awareness of its soul. When a body functions in spite of its soul, it is as good as dead, but not dead". Such an answer to a ticklish question finally satisfies Allamaprabhu who extols her later to the surprise of the assembly. When Akkamahādevi came out triumphant from the rigorous questioning, she was admitted into the Sharana fold. So long as she stayed there, she was loved and respected by one and all as their favoured daughter; and she contributed considerably to the mystic discourses.

Another person whom Allamaprabhu subjected to the acid test though outside the Anubhava Mantapa during his wanderings before arriving at Kalyāna was Muktāyakka, the sister of Ajaganna who was acclaimed the greatest of vachana writers and whose secret practice of Trataka Yoga earned the admiration of Allamaprabhu. The mystic discourse on the importance of the direction of the Guru which is to be sought from one's own awareness which is one's own Guru, held between Allamaprabhu and Muktāyakka forms the first Sampadane (=Collection) in Sunya Samapādane. This episode of the meeting of Allamaprabhu and Muktāyakka speaks volumes for the mystic height of the latter. None but they who are of equal stature of Allamaprabhu could enter into discourse with him. Among the great women mystics of India, Muktāyakka holds an eminent rank.

Muktayakka who regarded her brother Ajaganna as her Guru laments over the latter's sudden demise. Her grief knows no bounds, Allamaprabhu, touring from place to place, arrives where Muktayakka is sitting with the head of his dead brother laid in her lap. Though an enlightened one, still she has some illusion regarding form and formlessness, that form is real and the formless a myth; regarding the conviction that without the presence of a Guru the divine goal is unattainable; regarding the silence bound state of Ajaganna that it is not possible to anyone else, and regarding the eloquence of silence that words are not only inadequate to express a mystic thought but also impure. She is involved in a web of errors. Therefore, Allamaprabhu remonstrates her:

Tell me, should you mourn
For the self gone back to self
Where neither consciousness
Nor yet oblivion is? [SVS, Vol. I, W. 11, p. 159]

To Muktayakka who is in the hold of dvaita, the physical form alone is real. Allamaprabhu makes further efforts to dispel her ignorance and says that there is no parting of self from soul. When Muktāyakka asks:

If you say that He is
The body of my body,
The mind of my mind
And the breath of my breath,
Can the ordinary ones understand it?
If you say “He is within my heart",
What does it mean? [svs, Vol. V, V. 871]

Upholding the cause of advaita, Allamaprabhu says: “If you know your Self, your knowledge itself is your Guru. Would it not suffice, if you, knowing your own Self by intuition, absorb yourself into the Supreme? Where is the need of a Guru who shall reveal the essence of the Supreme?” Allamaprabhu is of the opinion that though Ajaganna is not alive, yet his soul, the unmanifest knowledge abides in her. Still Muktāyakka is not satisfied. For, according to the Lingayat (Virasaiva) philosophy,

Linga cannot be known but through the Masters word.
Jangama cannot be known but through the Masters word
Prasād cannot be known but through the Masters word
One cannot know oneself but through the Masters word
If knowledge dawns on a person today
Because of his worshipping Linga in bygone births,
Could you say it happened before the Master was?
If you say He dwelt within Himself on His own,
It cannot be without the Masters grace.
Listen, without Ajaganna my Master
The highest union cannot take place. [SVS, Vol. V, V. 865]

Prabhu's intuitive experience is that there is no difference between Guru and disciple, and that in the Divine sport, the two are different in name but not in principle. Muktāyakka's steadfast conviction is that the two-Guru and disciple are different entities and the latter needs the help of the former to attain Self realization. Also she does not approve of Allamaprabhu's having transcended the need for Guru, for, if he has attained self knowledge, he should be silent, like her own brother Ajaganna, instead of indulging in the traffic of words. To her speech denotes dvaita, whereas to Allamaprabhu it denotes the effulgent Linga. Muktāyakka's knowledge is limited. So she clings to her old conviction and charges Allamaprabhu vehemently:

You are not yet free from the need of words
How then do you preach others what they should do?
You are not free from the body's needs
Why then this mystic discourse with me, brother?
Unless one becomes that,
How can one tell others about that?
If my Ajagana can manifest his knowledge,
He does it without expressing it, mark. . [SVS, Vol. V, V. 877]

Allamaprabhu keeps his patience, and says softly that if he uses words, it is only to clear the cloud of illusion covering her mind:

If I inquire, so that I may clear
The turbid waters of your mind,
My mind has neither spot nor stain!
Because you are Guhāśvara's favoured child,
I opened my mouth. [ss, Vol. I, p. 135]

With these words Allamaprabhu reveals his identity. Then she soon realizes her mistake and bows to Allamaprabhu's holy feet. When Allamaprabhu thus opens Muktāyakka's inner eye, she scales the highest summit of divinity and attains the ultimate state. The illusion-ridden Muktāyakka becomes, through Allamaprabhu's grace, as camphor consumed by fire.

This episode of Muktāyakka shows what Lingayat (Virasaiva) women contributed to Lingayat (Virasaiva) lore through the lofty discourses held outside the Anubhava Mantapa. Muktayakka is ranked next to AkkaMahādevi in mystic experience as well as in expressing it in unique vachanas. “Great women mystics are rare. In the sphere of emotion of pure human passion many instances-Lallam Molla, Avvayar, Mira and others—at once come to our memory. In the sphere of reason, too, we have names like Gargi, Maitreyi. But we have to admit that few have reached the eminence of Muktayakka.” [ISS, Vol. 1, p.136].

The high-born women-Nagalambike, Gangāmbike and Nilamma were the Sharaneys who contributed to the development of Basavanna's personality at different stages of life. In boyhood days it was Nagalambike who looked after Basavanna, showing sisterly affection, and brought up Chennabasavanna with motherly care. Later Neelgangabmike Gangambike and Nilambike looked after Basavanna, as his devoted spouse. All these three attended the discourses at the Anubhava Mantapa and contributed their share of mystic experience and divine knowledge to the learned discussions. If behind every great man there is a woman, behind Basavanna there were three great women, whose sole concern was Basavanna. Of these three, Nilamma Nilagangambike became more an intellectual companion to Basavanna. All these two three, being always in the neighbourhood of Basavanna, were naturally bathed in the Divine light which emanated from Basavanna's speech and conduct. Their presence both at the Mahāmane and at the Anubhava Mantapa added flavourand savour to the unique food that was being prepared-Anna Prasāda and Jnana Prasāda. All the three contributed greatly to both Anna Dasoha and Jnana Dāsāha.

The women who sought after salvation outside the Anubhava Mantapa were many. They were the Kāyaka women who outnumber the rest, Aydakki Lakkamma, Molige Mahadevi, Kadira Kāyakada Kālavve, Kadira Kāyakada Remmavve, Bacikāyakada Kālavve, Kannadi Kāyakada Rēvamma, Kālakaņņi Kayakada Kamamma, sweeper Satyakka, Kottanada Kayakada Sömamma, Hädara Kāyakada Sankavve, Hādara Kāyakada Gangamma and Dhupada Goggavve and several others distinguished themselves by pursuing different professions [Kāyakas] with purity of mind. They wiped out the mark of caste writ on their foreheads. Their Kayakas knew no caste; they transcended all the barriers of caste and elevated their position in the Sharana community to that of Sharaneys,the maids of supreme God. Lord siva. They were all maids of honour. Their salvation lay in their Kayakas.

Kayaka is a sacred work, undertaken with a spirit of dedication and in the service of the trinity – Guru, Linga and Jangama. It was complementary to Dasoha. It was obligatory on the party of every devotee to do some work, and all work was sacred and deemed divine, since it was meant to contribute to social welfare as well as to spiritual salvation. Kayaka was not a means to an end. Kāyaka was an end in itself. It was a panacea (=A remedy for all diseases, evils, or difficulties;) for all ills-social and individual, like greed, pride, etc. Āydakki Lakkamma did not hesitate to exhort her husband who was a great practitioner of Kāyaka of gleaning grains in the court-yards of Sharanas, who firmly believed that if one would like to know oneself, one must forget Guru, Linga and Jangama in the deep peace that comes from doing things, and who, once, in a hurry gathered more grains than required:

This greed is good for kings:
What has a Shiva devotee, my lord?
To do with such?
-----
Should you have greed for so much rice?
God does not care for it:
Why its hateful to
Marayya Priya Amarēšvaralinga,
O Mārayya! [svs, Vol. V, V. 628]

The same saviour wife, on another occasion when Marayya expresses his desire to go to heaven, abandoning his duty and duty-bound body, corrects the latter's notion of Kāyaka:

If you want 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 Mārayya Priya Amarāśvaralinga is
There is heaven. [SVS, Vol. V, V. 644]

Lakkamma considered Kāyaka equal to divine states in heaven, like Ganapadavi, Rudrapadavi, etc., and so told her husband not to seek after any such state:
Why do you seek another state
As long as you have work to do?
Do not aspire for heaven,
Giving up the thought of rendering lowly service.
Where Amaresvaralinga is
There is heaven. [svs, Vol. V, V. 645]

None is greater than Lakkamma whose Kayaka consciousness is unique and to whom Kayaka itself is Kailāsa. Likewise to Akkamma, Kayaka is more important than her service to the trinity of Guru, Linga and Jangama. Kayaka takes precedence over all other things like obtaining the Guru's sight, worshipping the Linga and serving the Jangama. So she says:

One should go about doing ones 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
Of Rameśvaralinga
To whom right conduct itself is life-breath.
Nothing remained there
When the spinning cord broke
I did not embrace any vow-breaker. [SVS, Vol. V, V. 661]

Like all others, Kadira Remmavve seeks salvation through her Kayaka of spinning which knows no caste to most of the Kayaka-bound women Kāyaka is as good as a vow. Breach of Kayaka and breach of vow are serious omissions.

What Gangamma, the wife of Marayya and Sūle Sankavve. both prostitutes by profession before they became Sharaneys, did to restore the health of the community was no mean task. Their fidelity to Linga and Jangama was steadfast, so also was their love for the men they wooed. They would not sleep with vow-breakers. Their work was mostly outside the Anubhava Mantapa. Though they were prostitutes, they never sold their souls to the merchant of hell, as prostitutes normally do. To them their work was as sacred as Linga worship and vow-keeping. Gañgamma's views on Kayaka are extraordinary:

Whatever be the work, it is all the same, sir
Whatever be the vow it is all the same sir
No death to him who fails not in his work.
And no embracing him who is a vow-breaker
If a man and a woman mate as Crows and peacocks do,
They will go to hell, In Gangesvaralinga. [SVS, Vol. V, V. 1002]

Sule Sankavve too emphasizes the need of unflinching sidelity to work.

After having had one man on lease,
If a prostitute takes another man,
She'll be stripped naked and done to death.
If she sleeps with a vow-breaker
People will chop off her ear nose and hand with a hot blade.
I won't join a vow-breaker
As I know its consequences.
Your curse on me, if I join a vow-breaker
O Nirlaijésvara!

The Vrata conscious women too were prominent among the members of the Spiritual Academy. They attached more importance to conduct, for conduct was to them as good as their life-breath. Vrata, Sheela and Nema are the cardinal principles forming the Sharana code of conduct. Akkamma and Amuge Rāyamma, both being well-versed in the tenets of Lingayathism, devoted all their time and energy to the propagation of the practical aspect of Lingayathism. Their emphasis on the observance of Vrata, Sheela, and Něma created as much awareness among Sharanas about the Astavārana, the Panchachăra and the Satsthala outside the Anubhava Mantapa as the stalwarts of Lingayathism did through their learned discourses at the Anubhava Mantapa. The preaching of Akkamma and Amuge Rāyamma has the force of practice. They believed more in practice than in preaching. So they translated into action first what they later attempted to preach through their vachanas. Since the Sharana religion is known for its strict code of conduct, Akkamma and Amuge Rāyamma's contributions in terms of the conduct bound vachanas gained immense significance.

Most women, staying behind the curtain, supported their husbands whole-heartedly. Their voice might not have been heard at the Anubhava Mantapa, but it was most effective as a ‘curtain lecture’ at home. They were not learned, but the little they knew came from their intuitive experience. They surpassed their husbands in many respects and stood head and shoulders above them. Ayadakkai Lakkamma, Mölige Mahādevi, Lingamma, the wife of Hadapada Appanna, etc., became saviour wives by correcting the wrong notions of their husbands regarding such important aspects of Lingayathism as Kāyaka, Dasoha and Kailāsa. Whatever they thought and did was complementary to the achievements of their husbands. They had no separate existence, spiritually speaking. By joining their husbands in thought and spirit, by sharing the nectar of mystic experience with their husbands, they attained salvation through their husbands; by annihilating themselves, they gave life to their husbands. Certainly, what was happening outside the Anubhava Mantapa was more significant than that at the Anubhava Mantapa. The women who worked behind the curtain hoisted the flag of Lingayathism at home, and thus swelled the flood of the movement of mass-consciousness by doing Dāsoha at their own Mahāmanes and holding mystic discourses of the highest order with their spouses at their hearths. Devotion, thus, done by the devoted couple was most dear to the Lord.