[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955) › c19.s3.19 # A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3.19 A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3.19 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3.19) A famous teacher of the time of Virūpāksha (1465-85) was Toṇṭada Siddheśvara or Siddalinga-yati, who practised Śiva-yoga for a long time in a garden and came to be known on that account as toṇṭada, of the garden. A \*maṭha\* and a temple mark the place of his burial at Yediyūr, near Kunigal. He wrote a prose work of 700 Vacanas called \*Shaṭsthala-Jñānāmrita\*, and had many disciples who wrote similar works. Virakta Toṇṭadārya (c. 1560) composed the \*Siddheśvara-purāṇa\* on the life of his teacher. Nijaguṇa-śiva-yogi, at first a petty ruler of the territory round Śambhulinga hill near Yelandur and afterwards Śiva-yogi, was a prolific writer who employed \*tripadi\*, \*sāṅgatya\*, \*ragaḷe\* and prose in his works. Notable among them are a commentary on the Sanskrit work \*Śiva-yoga-pradīpika\* meant for those who cannot read Sanskrit and desire emancipation, and \*Viveka-cintāmaṇi\*, a cyclopaedia of ‘Sanskrit terms and Vira-śaiva lore’. Mallanārya of Gubbi lived in the reign of Krishnadeva Rāya (1509-29) and wrote both in Kannada and Sanskrit. His chief works in Kannada were: \*Bhāva-cintāratna\* (1513), said to be based on a Tamil work of Nānasambandar; \*Satyendra-chola-kathe\*, the story of a Chola king to illustrate the power of the sacred \*mantra\* of five letters of the Śaivas; and \*Viraśaivāmrita\* (1530), describing twenty-five sports of Śiva and giving the lives of the saints, old and new. Virūparāja (1519), author of a \*sāṅgatya\* work on the life of king Cheramāṅka, a \*purātana\*, and his son Virabhadra-rāja who wrote five \*Śatakas\* on Vira-śaiva doctrine and morals were other writers of the period. Towards the close of it came Sarvajñamūrti whose \*Sarvajñapadagaḷu\* is in \*tripadi\* metre: about a thousand of these \*padas\* are current and treat of religion, morals and society, in much the same manner as the sayings of Vemana in Telugu or Nāmdev and Tukārām in Marathi. Like them he exalted sincerity in life above externals such as the worship of idols, pilgrimages and rituals. - [Previous: c19.s3.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3.18) - [Next: c19.s3.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3.20) - [Up: c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3) ## Linked texts (1) - [Bhāvacintāratna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vernacular.kannada.virasaiva.bhavacintaratna) — Gubbiya Mallaṇārya, Kannada --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.sastri-1955.c19.s3.19) · Pramāṇa