vachana
ವಚನ vacanaA form of short, pithy free-verse devotional poem in Kannada, composed by the 12th-century Virashaiva (Lingayat) saints such as Basava and Akka Mahadevi, often sharply critical of temple ritual and caste.
Where this term appears
- The Bhakti Movement History
In Karnataka, in the twelfth century, arose the vachana poets — the Virashaivas, or Lingayats.
- What is Shaivism? Lineages
Basava and his companions poured their teaching into vachanas , terse free-verse poems in Kannada that any labourer could carry, and gathered in an assembly called the Anubhava Mantapa, the "hall of experience,…
- Who is Shiva? Deities
The Liṅgāyats , or Vīraśaivas , are a twelfth-century movement from Karnataka associated with Basava , who founded or decisively shaped it and whose followers wrote in fierce Kannada free verse, the vacanas .