The Women's Liberation Movement

Twelfth century Women's Liberation Movement

The twelfth century in Karnataka witnessed a great revolution known as a socio-religious movement triggered by Śrī Basaveshwara, a Lingayat saint whose magnetic personality drew innumerable sharanas and sharanes to Kalyana, the center of the epoch-making revolution. These individuals worked on an equal footing, forgetting their gender differences.

“The times were certainly miraculous in as much as there came together at Kalyana not only a number of saints such as no age before or after had or has produced, but also in that each one of them excelled in his own way, in his chosen field of spiritual attainment—Devotion, spiritual Knowledge, Renunciation, and so on. The 12th century was an age which produced a community of saints in Karnataka (though some from far-off places also came and joined them). It was an age when every saint was a spiritual genius striking out on his own and being second to none.”

Vachana literature was a by-product of that great revolution. Almost all saints who took the lead in the revolution were poets who poured out their souls in Vachanas, a unique literary form in Kannada. The advent of as many as 33 women saints, who were also vachana writers, at one and the same time, was an unprecedented phenomenon. Nothing short of a miracle, indeed!

Before the rise of Śrī Basaveshwara on the religious horizon of India, there was appalling ignorance everywhere. The true spirit of Hinduism was lost in rituals. What was once a vibrant society had degenerated into a rigid structure based on the caste system. The burden of Karma overwhelmed each individual to such an extent that they could not rise from their fallen state. Birth-pride and caste-pride took precedence over merit.

The condition of women was miserable. They had become victims of double oppression—gender discrimination and social and religious oppression. In Dravidian society, the family system was matriarchal, in which women occupied the highest place of honor as the head of a family, enjoying freedom of all sorts. But the invasion of Aryan culture on Dravidian culture affected the family system adversely, converting the matriarchal system into the patriarchal, and rendered the position of women too weak. Deprived of their freedom, they became the weakest limb of society, dependent upon men for survival.

Although in the early Vedic period women like Gargi and Maitreyi, being well-versed in mystic lore, enjoyed equal opportunities with men, later Manu's code of conduct bound women hand and foot. Manu, the lawgiver, pronounced that women do not deserve freedom at any stage in their lives, since their fathers look after them in childhood and girlhood, their husbands in youth, and their sons in old age. They were ill-treated as Sudras, considered impure and weak by birth and nature. As sources of impurity, they were deprived of freedom (freedom of religious practice, expression, etc.) and barred from seeking salvation. Consequently, they lived lives of oppression, suffering, poverty, and misery, which were in no way different from those of beasts of burden.

When they lost their freedom, they lost their strength—physical, moral, and spiritual—and when they lost their strength, they lost their voice too. Living in such a suffocating atmosphere, they were as good as dead. That is, living and walking corpses, worthless things of no dignity and no identity, and nonentities.

Sri Basaveshwara and his contemporaries were born at a time in the history of India when Hindu society had fallen into a rut of Karma and rituals, and women were made victims of social, religious, and spiritual injustice. They strove to build, or rather rebuild, Hindu society on the solid foundation of social justice.

The society that the sharanas dreamt of and strove to translate 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 absolute supremacy over woman. Hitherto, women were confined to the four walls of their houses. The sharanas pulled down the walls of their prison and extended the scope of their freedom beyond the four walls of their houses to social, religious, and spiritual worlds. Women were made to realize their potential—both physical and spiritual—and to enjoy equal opportunities with men. Thus, the principle of equality became the main pillar of the sharana society. The lives of various Lingayat women writers and their vachanas are proof that the spirit of equality pervaded the atmosphere of twelfth-century Karnataka.

The first primeval mantra proclaimed by the sharanas was that souls have no gender discrimination to which bodies are subjected. Man had forgotten the indivisible nature of souls, mistaking physical differences between men and women for the essential characteristics of souls. The sharanas abolished the difference between men and women by recognizing the cognate nature and common features of souls housed in both male and female bodies. Sharanas like Jedara Dāsimayya and Ambigar Choudayya, and sharanes like Goggvve, Äydakki Lakkamma, and Satyakka argued that there is no essential difference between men and women.

Birth everywhere is in the same way
In blood and uterus and fetus
Mind, breath, life are held
Within the eight-fold cage of the body
It’s a woman if one develops
The breasts and grows long hair
It’s man if he grows moustache
But the soul is neither male nor female.
If one makes any attempt
To know why this is so,
It’s beyond the ken of even the Srutis
Said Ambigara Choudayya

If one develops breasts and plaits of hair,
They say it’s female.
If one grows moustache,
They say it’s male.
But the soul that moves about within them
Is neither female nor male,
Mark, O Rāmanaatha [Jedara Dāsimayya, SVS, Vol. 7, V. 853]

Goggavve makes no distinction between the true knowledge obtained by human beings, whether male or female. Likewise, for her, there is no difference between man and woman.

Woman its, if one develops breasts and plaits of hair
Man its, if one grows moustache.
Tell me what is
The knowledge of these,
Whether female or male, O Nāstinātha! [Goggavve, S.V.S. Vol.V V696]

Aydakki Lakkamma supports this view of Goggavve by asking: "It’s for the sake of sexual union that one is wife and the other is husband. He should not fear the impurity of caste. But are there different bodies for consciousness—one for the wife's consciousness and another for the husband's consciousness—when both share common consciousness?"

Husband and wife are but two for union,
Are they two for sharing knowledge?
Do not go another way,
If you should know
Marayya Priya Amreshwaralinga [SVS. Vol. V V627]

Satyakka also says that the wise do not differentiate between the souls dwelling in male and female bodies, for souls transcend gender differences, just as the fragrance of a flower and the sweetness of a fruit do.

It’s not proved that
That person one is female
Who has breasts and plaits of hair?
It’s not proved that
That person alone is male
Who has moustache and carries a dagger
That is the way of the world.
But not that of the wise.
The differentiating feature in fruit is sweetness
Whatever fruit it be.
The differentiating feature in a flower is fragrance,
Whatever be its beauty
You alone know its secret, o Ŝhambu Jakkėšvara ! [SVS, Vol. V, V-982]

Allamaprabhu, the president of the Anubhava Mantapa, clinches the argument by outrightly rejecting the difference between husband and wife, once they are wedded to Linga:

Once a wife becomes a devotee,
She should not fear the impurity of menstruation.
Once a husband becomes a devotee,
He should not fear the impurity of caste.
Once wife and husband are wedded to Linga,
After having had the consummation of sexual pleasure,
The difference between the two disappears.
Does a husband remain a husband to his wife?
Does a wife remain a wife to her husband?
Would they like to drink sour milk?
After having tasted sweet milk
O Guhēshwara? [Allamaprabhu, SVS, Vol. 2, V- 148]

There were a few misconceptions about women—that women are Māyā; that they are impure and, therefore, untouchable.

In ancient Indian culture, women, wealth, and land were regarded as Māyā, which led to the belief that these obstructed the pursuit of salvation, and hence a seeker should keep themselves away from them. Of these three, women were considered to be the worst. They were mothers for birth, wives for sexual intercourse, daughters for infatuation, Yöginis for Yögis, and Kantis for Ssavani. Thus, this Māyā of women would not leave men, even if they would. Women plagued men like an evil force. Therefore, they were kept away deliberately and debarred from the pursuit of salvation. Caught as they were in this vicious cycle, they could not come out of it. The seed of the whole trouble lay in the misconception that women are Māyā. The sharanas rid women of the shroud of Māyā by redefining Māyā.

They say wealth is Māyā, but wealth is not Māyā.
They say woman is Māyā, but woman is not Māyā.
They say land is Māyā, but land is not Māyā.
It is desire that is Māyā, which rides before one's mind.
Mark, O Guhēšvara! [Allamaprabhu, SVS, Vol.2, v. 72.]

Chennabasavanna also condemns the illusion of Māyā, for, according to him, there is no Māyā in this world. He cautions people against inviting trouble by inventing the non-existent Māyā. Since the whole trouble lay in the misconception about Māyā, the sharanas recognized the true nature of Māyā and redefined it as desire. When desire disappears, there will be no Māyā at all. So the sharanas freed women from Māyā by delinking them from Māyā once and for all. Then women, like men, became human beings living with honor and working out their own devices of salvation, of course, in the company of men.

Hence, they became respectable members of the society in which they lived and for the welfare of which they worked along with men, enjoying all the opportunities equal to men in all walks of life.

Another misconception that strangled women was that they were congenitally impure because of menstruation. In the Vedic order of society, women were ranked lowest and deemed Sudras. So women, like Sudras, were deprived of the benefits of studying the Vedic lore, debarred from all religious observances, and condemned to live secluded lives. The taint of impurity lay thick on them. Once again, the sharanas redefined impurity as they had done with Māyā before.

The foetal seed cannot be implanted in the womb
except after menstrual flow!
…………………………
…………………………
The embryo is formed of the seven elements.
It has the same birth in the same womb;
The alliance of self and soul is ever the same. [SVS, Vol. I, V, 590]

Sri Basaveshwara said this regarding the significance of menstrual flow in the creation of a human being. Hence, menstruation was not to be treated as an agent of impurity. Moreover, the sharanas argued that impurity is not a matter of physical pollution, but a mental taint. The company of Linga served as a means of eradicating the taint of menstruation. So the sharanas asked: “Is there room for impurity where Liñga dwells?” “If a woman becomes a devotee, she need not fear the taint of menstrual flow.” “When mental impurity is shed, is there any room for physical impurity?” Thus, arguing against the evil practice of keeping women outside the houses of religious observances, they restored to them the lost position of respect in their houses and society. Once a woman became a devotee, she ceased to be a Bhavi; and the food prepared by her was far from being impure. One of Chennabasavanna's vachanas is proof of this revolutionary change in the attitude of men towards women:

Impure food is in the house of a Bhavi,
But not in the house of a devotee, Sir
The food—main course and side dishes—
Meant for Guru, Linga, and Jangama,
Prepared by the devotee's wife with
Ardent devotion and with her Linga-sanctified hands,
Is the purest of pure food ever prepared by a devotee.
It is worthy of being offered to Linga,
It is a treason to undermine it, Sir.
That food of devotion should be taken,
After offering it to Linga,
O Kūdala Chenna Sangama Lord! [SVS, Vol.2, V. 1433]

Thus, in the Sharana society, women were not only freed from the stranglehold of the impurity of menstruation but were also treated on par with men. They could perform, along with their husbands, all religious rites. They also shed their inferiority complex along with the impurity of menstruation, which had been plaguing them from time immemorial. After having purged women of the worst impurities and freed them from all wrong notions about themselves, the sharanas elevated them to the status of goddesses. They provided all the necessary opportunities for women to enable them to scale the heights of divinity.

The Vedic society had precluded women from both religious ceremonies and spiritual pursuits. Since they were deprived of the right to participate in religious ceremonies and were debarred from spiritual pursuits, they hardly thought of their salvation. But when the sharanas abolished the difference between men and women on the basis of their souls being one, women were emboldened to break the shell of misconception about themselves and to pursue the path of self-realization in the light of their own consciousness. By worshipping Guru, Linga, and Jangama with ardent devotion, and offering themselves—body and mind—to the trinity, putting on the armor of the eight-fold principle and practice, scaling the six-fold stage one by one, they finally reached the Aikyasthala.

The following vachanas—one of Siddharama's and the other of Lingamma's, the wife of Hadapada Appanna—testify to the revolutionary change in the outlook of men and women on women's ability to save themselves:

(1)
The woman He himself had created
Adorned his head:
The woman. He himself had created
Adorned His lap,
The woman He himself had created
Adorned Brahmas tongue;
The woman He himself had created
Adorned Narayana's chest
Therefore:
Woman is no woman, Nor is she a demon,
Woman is verily
Kapila Siddha Mallikärjuna Himself look! [SVs, vol. IV, v.618]

(2)
I was born in the lowest
But grew up among the highest.
I held on to the feet of good Sharanas.
I saw Guru, Linga and Jangama.
I saw Pādādaka and Prasada By holding on to their feet.
On beholding these persons
The darkness looming before my eyes dissolved
As soon as the darkness looming before my eyes dissolved,
I became happy, revelling in
The auspicious glorious light,
O Appanna Priya Chennabasavanna! [svs, Vol. V, V. 1052]

Akka Nāgamma attained the Absolute by Basavanna's grace. So Akka Nāgamma acknowledges her deep debt to Basavanna in most of her vachanas. Nilamma says that she became a 'maid of liberation' by knowing the Sheela of great experience. Gangambika also declares that she became the supreme (transcendental) self by taking the Pädodaka of Siddharāmayya, a great Yogi and an incarnation of Supreme Siva.

Sharana’s religion is known for its strict code of conduct. It gives first preference to the chastity and character of an individual. The sharanas wanted to build an exemplary society based on a strong foundation of ethics. That code of conduct prescribes how a devotee should look upon women. Men had been treating women as objects of their enjoyment. Hence, women's condition had been ever pathetic, as they were too weak to protest against men's evil looks and ill-treatment. Men, who wore the mask of civility, were in fact savage hunters of women for sensual pleasure. They hid their wolfish nature under the cover of sophistication. More often than not, women were made victims of men's lust. Having lost their chastity when subjected to men's onslaughts, they were condemned to live lives of shame and ignominy.

The sharanas strove to correct the behavior of men towards others' wives by correcting their lustful vision. At the first stage, the sharanas were gentle in making an appeal to the lustful men to give up their bad habits. Basavanna and others made it clear that among other vows that a devotee should keep, the most important one was not to lust for another's wife:

(1)
The Sharana must have the constancy to say
‘I will not have anothers wife. [Basavanna, SVS, Vol. I, V, 676]

(2)
O brothers, ye who dip into a stream,
O masters, ye who dip into a stream,
Renounce, renounce, renounce
Relations with anothers wife. [Basavanna, SVS, Vol. I, V, 642]

(3)
Doing worship is no Néma (rule/code of conduct):
Telling sacred spell is no Néma(rule/code of conduct):
Burning incense or lighting up a lamp is no Nema.
Not yearning for anothers wealth,
Not lusting for anothers wife,
Not bowing to other gods alone is Něma.
Look, ye brothers – these are the daily observances
In Sambhu Jakkēšvara ! [Satyakka, SVS, Vol. V, V. 959]

At the second stage, Sharanas advised each man to see the image of his own mother in every woman instead of seeing her as an object of enjoyment:

(1)
If you fail to embrace woman
As a child sucking breast does,
Our Lord Kudala Sangama Will behead you. [Basavaņņa, SVS, Vol. I, V. 640]

(2)
Do not fear the sight of a woman
whose husband is alive,
Do not feel sorry to see
The womb from which you are born
And the breasts on which you are fed. [Soddaļa Bācarasa]

At the third stage, Sharanas suggested to see the image of goddess Parvati herself in every woman:

(1)
As long as, letting go, you look behind
Once more, and hesitate
In your desire to wed,
That is adultery: its certain hell.
This is my test, O Kudala Sangama Lord
Another’s wife is Thine own queen! [Vachanas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi, V. 755, p. 248]

(2)
If a person sees a married woman as Goddess Gouramma,
He'll be born an emperor of the world. [Jēdara Dāsimayya, SVS, Vol. VII, V, 783]

(3)
When Siva devotees go to their eternal abode,
Their wives should be regarded as Parvati. - [Jēdara Dāsimayya, SVS, Vol. VII, V, 857]
Finally, Sharanas warned men against giving the glad eye to another's wife and denounced their conduct of going in for other's wives, when they had their own wedded wives at home:

(1)
If your lords take you home with them,
Do not indulge stealthily
In giving the glad eye to their wives:
Look you ! no fun with married women!
No frolic with the ladies when the food
Has mounted to your head and makes you rush:
Lord Kudala Sangama
Is a strict avenging judge! [Vachnas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi, V. 641.]

(2)
When there is food made of wheat,
They want to eat meat.
When there is milk enough to drink,
They indulge in drinking wine.
When they have a lump of sugar to taste,
They stuff their mouth with opium.
When they have their own wives,
They go in for others wives.
What shall I call those odious flesh eaters?
Who eat the carcass of a dead dog, O Rāmanātha? [Jēdara Dāsimayya, svs, Vol. VII, V, 715]

(3)
Why the observance of vows For the shameless one
Who calls anothers wife mother
In the presence of her husband.
And when he is dead and gone, calls her wife. [Akkamma, SVS, Vol. V, V. 369]
Thus, Sharanas upheld the status of woman in society by regarding woman as mother and goddess Pârvati, by recognizing the mother and the goddess in her.

Likewise, woman was not spared from the code of conduct which expected woman to be virtuous, to be loyal both to her husband and Linga, and that she should regard her virtues as her ornaments:

God is one but his names are many,
For the most faithful woman there is only one husband.
If you long for another God,
He will chop off your nose and ears.
What shall I call those?
Who eat the left over of several gods,
Kudala Sangama Lord? [Vachanas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi, V. 614]

For a woman her virtue, her fidelity to her husband, is her ornament. She should trust and love her husband and should have only one husband. A wife who does not love her husband and a devotee who does not trust Linga are as good as dead:

The wife unloving of her mate,
The Bhakta who has no faith
In Linga – O great God!
It is the same
Whether they are or no!
O Kūdala Sangama, its like
Loosing (Leaving) Freeing a calf that will not suck
To a cow that will not yield her milk! [Vachanas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi, v. 109]

While commending virtuous women, Sharanas would condemn the behaviour of lascivious women. Such wanton women as would play false to their husbands are sure to incur the wrath of God, and consequently lose both their husbands and God and this world and the next:

If, seeing the king, one should forget
One’s husband its climbing a tree
And letting go the hand!
One's equally cut off
From the world and the next
Because our Lord Kudala Sangama
Is Linga with a Jangamas face? [Vachanas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi, V. 425]

Basavanna and other sharanas emphasized the importance of chastity and fidelity in women, and at the same time pointed out the danger of losing this world and the next if they play false to their husbands. A true devotee's behavior should be like that of a faithful wife towards her husband, i.e., one of unflinching devotion.

Hunger of the body is natural to every creature. Human beings are no exception. What is natural is to be accepted and appeased, but through the right way. Unless bodily hunger is satisfied, the soul's hunger cannot be appeased. So sensual pleasure is not to be renounced, nor is it to be condemned as a hindrance to spiritual attainment. Marriage is a sacred bond that holds man and woman together and permits them to seek sensual pleasure in a moderate measure and thereby attain fulfillment of bodily needs, the first stage of progress towards spiritual fulfillment. So the sharanas opposed the suppression of bodily urges, for whatever sensual needs are suppressed in this life will return with vengeance in the next and plague the individual:

Bridling your senses, all you do
Is starting maladies
For the five senses come and stand
And laugh into your face!
Did Siriyāla and Cangale
Give up their nights of love
As wedded man and wife?
Did Sindhuballala give up
His amorous pleasures and dalliance?
Before Thee I avow:
Should I but covet anothers wealth or wife,
Let me be banished from Thy feet,
O Kudala Sangama Lord! [Vachnas of Basavanna, Trn. Menezes and Angadi,
V. 638]

Basavanna, condemning the renunciation of sensual pleasures, supported marriage and the house-bound duties of husband and wife. Among the four stages in the life of an individual, the household stage is the most important one, for it is only the householders who get sanction to perform religious rites. Hence, the importance of mutual understanding and cooperation between husband and wife.

The married life of devotees should be pure and free from the taint of sensuality or adultery. Both husband and wife, being pure in heart, should practice religion with single-minded devotion. Both together should follow one and the same religion and worship one and the same god. Unless husband and wife are united in their hearts and remain undivided forever in matters of love and religion, there cannot be any hope of salvation for either. Basavanna and Allamaprabhu, the chief architects of the Anubhava Mantapa, do not approve of the wedding of divided hearts, nor do they approve of the worship of different gods by husband and wife. They believe that impurity clings to such adulterous worshippers whose religion is nothing but a show business:

The husband venerates
Sivalinga divine;
The wife's devotion is
For the goddess of graves!
The husband takes the grace
From Padodaka (washing the feet);
The wife takes meat and wine!
The piety of those Whose pots and pans are kept clean
Is like the washing of a toddy-val
But on the outer side,
O Kudala Sangama Lord! [Vachanas of Basavama, Trn. Menezes and Angadi.V.104]

Just as the two eyes together see one image,
If husband and wife stay undivided in mind,
Their offering would reach Guhesvaralinga. [Allamaprabhu, svs, ii, v. 964]

Both emphasize unity and unanimity between husband and wife. Likewise, other sharanas, like Jedara Däsimayya and Ambigara Choudayya, say that the devotion of the couple who are one piece pleases God Siva, and that if husband and wife are one in mind, it is as if they are lighting an eternal lamp before God.

The married life of sharanas does not stop with the attainment of fulfillment of carnal pleasures. Their main purpose of yielding to wedlock is to prepare their senses by sublimating their passion to help their souls sail smoothly towards their original abode. Sharanas should offer whatever pleasure their senses seek first to Linga, and then take it back as Linga's grace. At the second stage of a sharana’s progress, both husband and wife cease to be husband and wife since both get themselves wedded to their Istalinga. The feeling of one being a husband and the other being a wife disappears when both become Linga’s spouses.

If the wife is a devotee, she need not fear impurity
If the husband is a devotee, he need not fear caste.
After having enjoyed the carnal pleasure as husband and wife,
When Linga Himself becomes the husband
Does the husband remain a husband to his wife?
Does the wife remain a wife to her husband?
After having tasted [the divine food] milk,
Does any go in for butter milk,
O Guhēšvara ? [Allamaprabhu, SVS, Vol. II, V. 148]
Asks Allamaprabhu.

All worldly husbands cease to be husbands when they are wedded to Linga. Akkamahādevi sees no point in women getting married to worldly husbands. She, therefore, claims to have been wedded to Chennamallikarjuna, her Istalinga, who is also the Lord of all worldly husbands.

Sharanas approve of conjugal life but disapprove of adultery and condemn the wanton behavior of both men and women. They denounce prostitution and condemn the conduct of those men who frequent brothels, leaving their wives at home. Men should be faithful to their wives. If they abandon their wives, they will go to hell. Sharanas trusted and loved their wives and respected them as their companions—physical, spiritual, and intellectual. Thus, women enjoyed equal status with men and worked out their salvation in the company of their husbands, and with their cooperation and encouragement, scaled greater spiritual heights than those of their husbands. All these women stood by their husbands in their pilgrimage to the holy place of the Absolute Void.

Freedom of expression was one of the opportunities provided to women in the 12th century in Karnataka. This undid the age-old notion that it was only the privilege of men to learn to read and write. Women were debarred from entering the field of literature, which had been a male-dominated field in which men reigned supreme. In the 12th century, sharanas admitted women into the Anubhava Mantapa, where women could participate in the mystic discourses arranged there and contribute substantially to spiritual discussions. Being thus encouraged to participate in the learned discourses of the highest order, women learned to write down their mystic experiences in the form of vachanas just as their male counterparts did. What the sharanas started under the leadership of Basavanna was an epoch-making movement that was multidimensional—socio-religious and literary. In all three fields—social, religious, and literary—women worked, standing on an equal footing with men, and their contributions in these fields were indeed remarkable.

Imagination staggers to think of the contribution of women in the literary field, as many as 33 women participated in the unique literary movement, which consisted of writing Vachana poetry in the language of the common people. The huge bulk of the Vachana poetry written by women alone comprised more than one thousand Vachanas, which was no mean achievement by any standard. The thirty-odd sharanes included in this volume are the right representatives of womankind, which had been for ages suppressed to the extent of reducing women to non-entities. They rose, like the Phoenix, out of their own ashes and breathed the fresh air of freedom; became conscious of their rights to seek their salvation, to work and worship along with their male counterparts, to share God-experience with fellow devotees. They shed the vestiges of caste, creed, and gender, and stood out as “liberated souls.” Their Vachanas are an expression of their souls’ yearning for union with the Absolute Void. In the unprecedented harvest of vachanas, the Lingayat women's share was in no way small. Both in quality and quantity, the women’s vachanas were rated high.