Context: Recently, Basava JayantI was celebrated on 26 April as part of an annual event that is celebrated in the honour of the birth of Vishwaguru Basaveshwara.

About Basava Jayanti

• Basava Jayanthi is traditionally observed by the Lingayats and is observed as a holiday in the Indian state of Karnataka.
• It marks the birthday of Basavanna, 12th-century poet-philosopher, and the founding saint of the Lingayat sect.
• It is celebrated majorly in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

About Lord Basaveshwara/ Basavanna

• Born in Bagevadi (in Karnataka) during 1131 AD, Basavanna was a 12th-century philosopher, Kannada poet and a social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka.
• He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. The main aim of Vachana movement was “Sakala jeevatmarige lesu”(welfare of all).
• He rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals.
• He introduced new public institutions such as the Anubhava Mantapa (or, the “hall of spiritual experience”), which welcomed men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to discuss spiritual and mundane questions of life, in open.
• As a leader, he developed a new devotional movement named Virashaivas, (or “ardent, heroic worshippers of Shiva”). This movement shared its roots in the ongoing Tamil Bhakti movement, particularly the Shaiva Nayanars traditions, over the 7th- to 11th-century.
• Basava championed devotional worship that rejected temple worship and rituals led by Brahmins, and replaced it with personalized direct worship of Shiva through practices such as individually worn icons and symbols like a small linga.
• Basaveshwara  gave  two more very important socio-economic principles. They are- “Kayaka” (Work-Divine work) and “Dasoha” (Distrubution-Equal distribution). According to this, every individual of the society should take up the job of his choice and perform it with all sincerity. There is no discrimination in vocations. All members of the society are labourers (Kayakajeevigalu).
• The worker (Kayakajeevi) may lead his day-today life by his hard earned income and must utilise the surplus money for the society and poors. This concept is called –“Dasoha”.
• In November 2015, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the statue of Basaveshwara along the bank of the river Thames at Lambeth in London.