Talk:Lingayatism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[edit] EVIDENCE FOR Relation between Sengunthars/ Kaikolars and Devadasis
1. The following is quoted from a legitimate third party website. http://globalindiamissions.org/newsletter/nwsltr0802.htm
The Kaikolan are a large Tamil and Telugu caste of weavers. There are seventy-two subdivisions (nadu or desams). Their name comes from a mythical hero and from the words "kai" (hand) and "koi" (shuttle). They consider the different parts of the loom to represent various gods and sages. They are also known as Sengundar, which means a red dagger, which is traced to the legend of the earth being harassed by demons, which led to the people asking the god Shiva to help them.
Traditionally, one girl in every family was set apart to be dedicated to temple service and becomes a "Devdasi" (meaning female servant of god). In the temple, the girl is considered married to the temple deity but in practice becomes a prostitute, especially to the Brahmans and she learns traditional music and dancing.
'The above website is a christian evangelical website, and thus cannot be treated as source of academic and scholarly work on the devadasi system in ancient India.'
2. The following is journal research article with abundant valid references. This is as legitimate as it gets.
This article talks in much detail about how women from the Sengundhar/ Kaikola caste get into the sacred prostitution in temples.
"Contending identities: Sacred prostitution and reform in colonial South India Priyadarshini Vijaisri A1, A1 Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi" South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group Issue: Volume 28, Number 3 / December 2005 Pages: 387 - 411
To view the complete article just register, its free.
Here are the links :
http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk/link.asp?id=jv31l27518262711 If you cannot access it then just go to the following page and follow one of the links
3. This is taken from another legitimate webiste http://www.go2southasia.org/l_peoples.html of a world renknown organisation recognised by many countries. They have no gain in just picking on the Sengunthar caste.
The KAIKOLAR people are a caste of weavers 1.5 million strong in southern India. They are Hindus and view different parts of the loom as representations of various gods and sages. Traditionally, each Kaikolar family sets aside one daughter to serve in a Hindu temple. That daughter is considered married to the temple deity—often the Hindu destroyer god Shiva. In practice, the daughter becomes a temple prostitute.
All 3 of the above references are quite legitimate and I can quote many more. There is no question of coincidence or any error in any of these sources. Please comment.
All the above sources are NOT academic or scholarly sources on the devidasi system. Two of the websites above are christian evangelical websites and are simply expounding on their heresy opinions without the backing of scholarly works on the history of the devidasi system. These views presented here thus suffer from want of serious credibility, and are simply popular opinions passing off as history.
Rewrite
I am starting a rewrite of this article. The article is in very bad shape and lots of random information has just been dumped in it. For example, before I changed it, the introduction itself took up nearly 3/4th of the article.
Much of the information is encyclopaedic but quite a bit of it is in blatant POV, weasel, peacock domains. For example there are sentences like,
"Basavanna attempted to rid society of caste distinctions, although these can still be found to a severe degree in modern Lingayats who pretend to be Lingayats." !! and
"It was so much ahead of the generation that our constitution can be seen as based on its simple ideas and widely debated upon."
While sentences above may or may not be true, I am sure that it will be seen as POV on Wikipedia.
So I am tagging the article as "underconstruction". I have also added some sections that need to be expanded upon. If anyone has any information please feel free to expand the sections.
I will also try and rearrange the already existing info and also use the info by User:Kcordina that we see here . If anybody has photographs of Lingayat pilgrimage centers etc., please upload them. Sarvagnya 20:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] More insight on vachanas and vachanakaaras
The book Arivu-Aachaara by Sri B.Mahadevappa . (A commentary on Vachanas of Shivasharanas )published by Arivu-Achara Prakatanalaya, Yadagiri -585201 is an excellent source for all the sharanas.
Publishing house Sathayshri printers pvt Ltd.Chamarajpet, Bengalooru 560018 Ph:91-80-26525736
Also a lot is commented in edit page which are very much true like the revolution of 12th century which was primarily to reject vedas not because it was wrong but because of the caste system which was very cruel and inefficient in that period was not allowing anyone except upper class to learn vedas. Hence vachanas were written to simplify learnings and people wandered to spread the vachana literatures sarvajna being prominent one in later century. Hence vachanas can be seen as a parallel to vedas.
Hence a revolt against society started in karnataka to oppose money class and the superstitious class with dignity. The social setup to gather for this was called Anubhava Mantapa headed by Allama Prabhu who was mystic. The above book mentioned in kannada provides so much insight and is a very important one. Although a lot can be said similar between Veerashavism and Lingayatism but this particular period of 12th century has to be marked as a renaissance in India as it involved murder of superstitions,first inter caste marriage , empowerment of lowest of castes and a golden era in the field of literature which was just limited to adoration of kings and puranic tales. Lack of publicity has always been the problem with south Indian revolutions and empire. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.144.48.246 (talk • contribs).
[edit] Lingayat/Virasaiva/Veerashaiva Canon
Does anyone know the sacred text of this non-vedic sect? No academic source seems to know, I've checked the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of Religion 2nd edition, Oxford Referance Online, several Lingayat websites and so forth. The only thing I've come across was a statement that the Vachanas were comparable to the holy bible for the Lingayats. This however cannot be the case, as several holy texts seem to be held in high regard. On the Saiva Siddhanta Church website, which includes an electronic edition of their publication, Dancing With Shiva, a statement is made that the Lingayats derived their religion, and are successors to the Pasupata saivites. This would make perfect sence, given the fact that the Pasupatas are non-Vedic, ie. heterodox. The question on the Lingayat seems open and unanswered, who knows? I sent an email to an adherent from a Lingayat website, he himself did not even know and told me that he forwarded my email to scholars who may be able to answer my question. That was several weeks ago, and thus far I have gotten no responce or correspondance. I also sent an email to the author of the article 'Saivism: Virasaivas' in the Encyclopedia of Religon 2nd edition, one of the contributors, Andre Padoux. Months later, I haven't gotten a reply back.
