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What is the news?
The Union Minister for Home and Cooperation paid homage to Shri Basavanna on the occasion of Basava Jayanti.
About Basava Jayanti: Basava Jayanti is a Hindu festival celebrated by Lingayats in Karnataka. The day marks the birth anniversary of Lord Basavanna.
About Shri Basavanna
He was a 12th-century poet and philosopher and was the founder of Lingayatism. He was a Hindu Shaivite social reformer.
Not only that, but he served as a chief minister during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I.
The Lingayats (Followers of Lingayatism) are a Hindu sect with a wide following in southern India that worships Shiva as the only deity.
Contributions of Basavanna
- Believed in a society free of the caste system, with equal opportunity for all.
- Preached about manual hard work.
- Introduced new public institutions such as the Anubhava Mantapa (or, the “hall of spiritual experience”), which welcomed men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to discuss spiritual and mundane questions of life, in the open.
- Used poetry, known as Vachanaas, to spread social awareness and bring equality to the 12th-century society.
