The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c11.s8.65

v1.c11.s8.65

Fleet held that ‘the real person to whom the movement was due and the way in which he started it’ is revealed by inscriptions at Ablur,⁵ and it has accordingly been often stated that Ekāntada Rāmayya was the real originator of the Liṅgāyat movement and that Basava gave it political aid at a relatively later stage. When once the undue distrust of the Purāṇas has been shed and their story has been accepted as true in the main, it becomes clear that Rāmayya was no more than an energetic and earnest follower of Basava’s new creed, which he was prepared to defend with his life as necessary, and this is in fact what the *Basavapurāṇa* implies by saying that Rāmayya heard of Basava's fame and went to Kalyāṇi to meet him.¹ The Ablur inscription E on Rāmayya is dated about A.D. 1200 and describes a great number of supernatural occurrences; there is no reason to prefer its account as more trustworthy than that of the Purāṇas on Basava and Canna-Basava. Briefly the story of Rāmayya is this. He was born of a Śaiva Brāhman family at Alande in the Kuṇṭala country, and by the intensity and exclusiveness of his worship of Śiva acquired the name Ekāntada (single-minded) Rāmayya. At Ablur he was involved in a controversy with the Jains led by the village headman Śaṅka-gauḍa; he cut off his own head and laid it at the feet of the image of Śiva, which had been brought out of the temple for the purpose of the ordeal; after seven days it was restored to him by his gods, safe and sound, without a scar. But the Jains refused to fulfil their part of the agreement; for they had promised to destroy their Jina and set up Śiva in his place if Rāmayya should prevail in the contest. Rāmayya thereupon laid waste the Jaina shrine in face of much opposition, and erected a temple ‘as large as a mountain’ dedicated to Vira-Somanātha. The Jains complained to Bijjaḷa, in whose presence Rāmayya repeated his challenge and offered to cut off his head again if the Jains would wager their eight hundred temples including the Ānesejjeya-basadi at Lakṣmeśvar. Bijjaḷa considered this a fair offer, but the Jains were not willing. ‘So Bijjaḷa, laughing at them, dismissed them with the advice that thenceforth they should live peaceably with their neighbours, and bestowed on Ekāntada Rāmayya, in the public assembly, a jayapatra or certificate of success.’ He also granted a village to the new temple of Vira-Somanātha, and other gifts followed from the Chālukya Vira-Sameśvara IV and Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Kāmadeva of Hangal.²