Talk:AkkaMahadevi

In Indian history, if the middle ages (A. D. 900-1600) were a ‘dark period’ in the political sense, they also proved to be the ‘golden era’ from the standpoint of religious revival. Most of the Bhakti Movements belong to this period. As against the movements in the North, which were predominantly Vaiṣṇavite in charac¬ter, the movements in the South were both Saivite and Vaiṣṇavite, the former being the more widespread. The movement of the Sivaśaraṇas of Karnataka with its philosophy and religion of Vlraśaivism, became—and still is—a force to reckon with. The stress on bhakti (devotion) as an easy mode of sādhanā (spiritual practice) avail¬able to everyone and the loosening of the caste restrictions among the bhaktas (devotees of God) thereby giving the masses a chance to mix on equal terms with the classes, were the special features of this movement. Among the sixty well-known mystics of the VTraśaiva movement most of whom were men, Akka Mahādevi (also known as Mahadeviyakka) has occupied an impor¬tant place. Born probably in A. D. 1130 at Uḍutaḍi (a village in the Shivamogga District of Karnataka) as the only child of a devout Saiva couple, she had instinc¬tively cultivated madhurabhakti, loving God Cannamallikārjuna (an aspect of Śiva) as her spouse. In her youth, Kauśika, the king of the place sought her hand in marriage. She married him after laying down certain conditions. When these conditions were broken by him she renounced the world and went away as a wandering minstrel. At Kalyāṇa in northern Karnataka she joined the group of devotees of the anubhava-maṇṭapa (a forum for discussion and exchange of views on spiritual life and experience) led by Basaveśvara and Allama Prabhu. After being initiated by Basaveśvara and feeling spiritual elevation, she retired to Srīśaila (now in Andhra Pradesh) where she was ‘united with her Lord Siva,’ probably in A. D. 1166. Unlike the vacanas—a kind of lyrical prose—of Basaveśvara and others, her vacanas describe her longing for union with her divine spouse and the joy of fulfilment. A few of them also deal with the practical aspects of spiritual life.