A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3.12

c19.s3.12

After the Jains, the Vīra-śaivas did most for the development of Kannada language and literature; they wrote many religious works in Kannada and showed a decided preference for the prose medium. Basava and his contemporaries (twelfth century) brought into existence the Vacana literature in simple prose easily understood by the common folk and well calculated to popularize the new creed. There were over two hundred writers, many women among them, with Mahādēviyakka at their head. E. P. Rice characterizes their work thus: ‘In form the Vacanas are brief disconnected paragraphs, each ending with one or another of the numerous local names under which Śiva is worshipped. In style they are epigrammatical, parallelistic and allusive. They dwell on the vanity of riches, the valuelessness of mere rites or book-learning, the uncertainty of life, and the spiritual privileges of the Śivabhakta. They call upon men to give up the desire for worldly wealth and ease, to live lives of sobriety and detachment from the world, and to turn to Śiva for refuge. They are seldom controversial, but almost entirely hortatory, devotional, and expository.’