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The Attaining of the Void—a Review of some Recent Contributions in English to the Study of Vīraśaivism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Raymond Allchin
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Extract

The historian of Indian religion is confronted with a baffling array of textual materials spanning three or more millennia and written in a perplexing number of languages. It is scarcely surprising that when the attentions of European scholars first focused on this material they should have singled out three main languages and their literatures for study. The three were Vedic, the language of the Vedas, Sanskrit with its vast and wellnigh universal coverage of every aspect of ancient and medieval India, and Pāli, the language of the early Buddhist canon. The lead these three gained has since been maintained, while other languages and literatures have remained comparatively less known to the outside world. One may cite the comparative neglect of the Apabhramśa language and massive Jaina literature. In particular the Dravidian languages have been neglected and their literatures have remained almost unknown even in north India, accessible only to a tiny handful of students.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1971 , pp. 339 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

page 339 note 1 McCormack, W. has recently discussed the use of the term ‘sect’ with reference to the V¯raśaivas (‘Lingayats as a sect’, JRAI, 93, pt. 1, 1963, pp. 59–71).Google Scholar His approach is very different from ours but points to the fact that we have not dealt with the relationship between the early doctrines and modem belief or practice.

page 340 note 1 Dasgupta, S., History of Indian Philosophy, vol. V, chapters xxxiv, xxxv, etc.Google Scholar

page 340 note 2 Ibid., vol. V, chapter xxxiv, p. 16.

page 340 note 3 Ibid., p. 16, fn.

page 340 note 4 This is presumably the same text as the Siddhānta Śikhāmani of Śivayogīśivācārya (or Śivayogisvara) published in Mysore in 1914 by N. R. Karibasava Sastri.

page 340 note 5 Dasgupta, loc. cit., p. 44.

page 341 note 1 Brown, C. P., ‘Essay on the creed, customs and literature of the Jangams’, Madras Journal of Literature and Science, vol. ix, 1840.Google Scholar

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page 341 note 3 Rice, E. P., Kanarese Literature: Heritage of India Series. Oxford, 1921.Google Scholar

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page 341 note 5 Gaur, Rām Dās, Hindutva, pp. 696–8.Google Scholar

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page 343 note 1 McLeod, W. H., Guru Nānak and the Sikh Religion, Oxford, 1968.Google Scholar

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page 347 note 1 Śūnyasampādane, vol. 1; Nandimath, S. C., Menezes, L. M. A. and Hiremath, R. C.. Dharwar, 1965Google Scholar; vol. 2: Bhoosnurmath, S. S. and Menezes, A.. Dharwar, 1968Google Scholar; vol. 3: Bhoosnurmath, S. S. and Menezes, A.. Dharwar, 1969.Google Scholar

page 347 note 2 Published in Dharwar, 1958.

page 352 note 1 See, for example, Gaur, Rām Dās, Hindutva, p. 698Google Scholar, where it is claimed that Basava rejected the law of the āśramas and the castes (varnāśrama dharma), and neither accepted the importance of the Vedas nor the primacy of the Brahman caste, etc. Thus, ‘with such divergences of thought and practice it is easy to see the difference between the ancient Vīraśaiva or Pāśupata Śaivas and the Lingāyats of the Basava Pantha’.

page 353 note 1 Guru Granth Sāhab, Var Sarang, p. 1245.

page 354 note 1 Śūnyasampādane, X, 98.

page 354 note 2 Śūunyasampādane, XI. 15.

page 355 note 1 McLeod, , loc. cit, pp. 221–4.Google Scholar

page 356 note 1 Śūnvasampādane, vol. I, p. 116.

page 357 note 1 Dasgupta, , loc. cit., pp. 56–60.Google Scholar

page 357 note 2 Dasgupta, , loc. cit., pp. 56–7.Google Scholar

page 357 note 3 The intimate connections of the Śaiva Siddhānta and Nāyanār texts are very clear in DrDhavamony', M. authoritative study of the Love of God according to Śaiva Siddhānta (Oxford, 1971).Google Scholar

page 359 note 1 Ranade, R. D., Pathway to God in Kannada Literature, Bombay-Dharwar, 1960, pp. 308–14.Google Scholar