one and such ideas
as sin and matter partial and illusory. The originality of the Saiva
Siddhanta lies less in its dogmas than in its devotional character: in
the feeling that the soul is immersed in darkness and struggles
upwards by the grace of the Lord, so that the whole process of Karma
and Maya is really beneficent.

5

As already mentioned Sivaism has an important though unorthodox
offshoot in the Lingayats[558] or Lingavants. It appears that they
originated at Kalyan (now in the Nizam's dominions) at the time when a
usurper named Bijjala (1156-1167) had seized the throne of the
Chalukyas. Their founder was Basava (the vernacular form of Vrishabha)
assisted by his nephew Channabasava,[559] whose exploits and miracles
are recorded in two Puranas composed in Kanarese and bearing their
respective names. According to one story Bijjala, who was a Jain,
persecuted the Lingayats and was assassinated by them. But there are
other versions and the early legends of the sect merit little
credence. The Lingayats are Puritans. They reject caste, the supremacy
of the Brahmans, sacrifices and other rites, and all the later
Brahmanic literature. In theory they reverence the Vedas but
practically the two Puranas mentioned are their sacred books.[560]
They are strict vegetarians and teetotallers: they do not insist on
child marriages nor object to the remarriage of widows. Their only
object of worship is Siva in the form of a lingam and they always
carry one suspended round the neck or arm. It is remarkable that an
exceptionally severe and puritanical sect should choose this emblem as
its object of worship, but, as already observed, the lingam is merely
a symbol of the creative force and its worship is not accomplished by
indecent rites.[561] They hold that true Lingayats are not liable to
be defiled by births or deaths, that they cannot be injured by sorcery
and that when they die their souls do not transmigrate but go straight
to Siva. No prayers for the dead are needed.

Though trustworthy details about the rise of the Lingayats are scarce,
we can trace their spiritual ancestry. They present in an organized
form the creed which inspired Pattanattu Pillai in the tenth
century. About a hundred years later came Ramanuja who founded a great
Vishnuite Church and it is not surprising if the Sivaites followed
this example, nor if the least orthodox party became the most
definitely sectarian.

The sectarian impulse which is con