The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c11.s8.56

v1.c11.s8.56

It is indeed exceedingly difficult to discover the true course of events from the mass of contradictory legends, the Lingāyat and the Jaina, which in addition to their complexity belong to different dates, the Jaina accounts being generally later. Fleet's account of the matter still holds good except for some corrections suggested by recent research. It runs in this way. Basava was born of pious Brāhman Śaiva parents, Mādirāja and Mādalāmbikā, of Bagevāḍi (in the Bijapur District). He is believed to have been an incarnation of Śiva's bull Nandi sent down to earth to revive the cult of Śaivism which was just then on the decline. He acquired much knowledge of Śaiva lore even before he was eight years of age, and he refused to be invested with the sacred Brāhmanical thread (*upanayana*); he declared himself a special worshipper of Śiva come to destroy the distinctions of caste. His acts and character attracted the attention of Baladeva, uncle of the boy and prime minister of Bijjala. Baladeva made Basava his son-in-law by giving him his daughter Gaṅgādevi or Gaṅgāmbā in marriage. But the Brāhmans were disturbed by his novel doctrines and began to persecute him. He fled to a village called Kappaḍi, where he received instruction from the god Saṅgameśvara himself. When Baladeva died, Bijjala conferred the office of the minister on Basava, whose ability and virtues had become well known. Basava accepted the appointment, after some demur, in the hope of being better able to propagate his tenets from such a position of authority. Accompanied by his elder sister Nāgalāmbikā he proceeded from Kappaḍi to Kalyāṇi, where he was welcomed with respect and deference by the king, and was installed as prime minister, commander-in-chief, and treasurer—second in power only to the ruler himself; while the monarch, in order to bind his new minister as closely as possible to his person, gave him his younger sister Nīlalocanā to wife. About the same time there was born one Canna-Basava, so called because he was more beautiful than Basava; he was an incarnation of Śiva's son Ṣaṇmukha or Kārttikeya and of the intelligence of the goddess Pārvati, born of the unmarried elder sister of Basava, Nāgalāmbikā, by the working of the spirit of Śiva. Canna-Basava, says Fleet, 'perhaps played a more important part than even Basava himself in the propagation of the tenets of the new sect; for Basava is represented as receiving from him instruction on important points connected with it'.