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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LATEST TECHNOLOGY IN ENGINEERING,
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ISSN 2278-2540 | DOI: 10.51583/IJLTEMAS | Volume XV, Issue II, February 2026
Vachana Literature: Resistance Through a Unique Genre
Poornima.P.S
Associate Professor of English Government Arts College Bangalore-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51583/IJLTEMAS.2026.15020000139
Received: 15 December 2025; Accepted: 20 December 2025; Published: 26 March 2026
ABSTRACT
Literature, as an art form, is affected not only by external determinants but by dynamism within art itself that
promotes or impedes change. -Rene Wellek
The history of mankind is replete with resistances to various societal norms especially when the social milieu
impinges the liberty of its people, creates a suffocating atmosphere even to lead normal life. However the newer
governances after a passage of time turn out to be another government with newer weaknesses leading to another
kind of governance. It is a vicious circle with no eternal solution. During such critical times literature has shown
the way out of it, sometimes through its revolutionary concepts and at other times through healthy practices for
the well-being of its people.
Literature is a mirror of prevailing society. Through literature, one can
discern the resistance to the
unhealthy/unfair previous societies owing to its rigid practices, atrocities on subaltern communities, hegegmony
of certain communities. During the 12
th
century Karnataka the Vachana literature endeavoured in all possible
ways to sensitize the people about various blind and unfair practices of the previous epochs: caste system,
superstitious beliefs, materialism, and denial of lower caste people to places of worship, belittling women, belief
in Karma theory (or fatalism) and the like. The paper explores the resistances through Vachana literature, a
unique literature which meant ‘promise’ or a ‘word’. Saint Akkmahadevi’ perspectives, who was known for the
confluence of Bhatki, intense devotion, Jnana, spiritual knowledge and Vairagya, renunciation are emphasized.
Vachanas related to attainment of spiritual knowledge would be discussed in Anubhava Mantapa, a religious
academy, verified and documented to propagate its precepts to make the society rational and healthy.
The Vachana literature is an offshoot of Bhakti Movement which spread across India with certain variations and
the unique genres:Vachanas(Karnataka), abhangas(Maharashtra), Tevaram(Tamilnadu), ‘Sataka’(Andhra
Pradesh). Society across India had the conviction that unless the priests mediate between the devotees and the
Almighty one will not be bestowed with His blessings. However, the proponents of Bhakti Movement in general
and Vachana Movement in particular through their resistance literature preached the laity to practise universal
brotherhood which would ensure the eradication of various evil practices and spread universal brotherhood:
inequalities between castes, materialism, denial of entry to lower caste people to temples and the like. The
following Vachanas exemplifies the practice of universal brotherhood:
Father is our Maadara Chennayya,
Elder uncle is our Dohara Kakkayya,
Uncle is Chikkayya,
Elder brother is our Kinnar Bommayya.
Why do you not know me as such Koodalasangayya? (Yeravintelimath 14)
The Vachana composers never belittled the hereditary occupations of the people. Instead they respected every
occupation on par with each other. They even respected the jobs which were considered menial hitherto. Thus
they upheld dignity of labour. The proponent of Vachana literature, Viz., Lord Basaveshwara reckons the
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cobblers, washermen, and other people who would earn their livelihood through their occupations as his uncles
and relatives. The modern poet, Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore also acknowledges dignity of labour in
one of his poems, ‘Leave This Chanting and Singing and Telling of Beads’ states:
Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground
and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.
During the 12
th
century the seeds of materialism were being sown. People were after more and more wealth,
trade and commerce were flourishing
, and earning wealth was rampant. The Vachana composers had a bounden
duty to guide the laity and show the way to simplicity which was a stepping stone to attain spiritual knowledge.
They would preach that one has to earn whatever one needs for the day. If one earns more than that one’s spouse
would admonish him.
The excess grain was supposed to be distributed through Dasoha, feeding the needy. The present day Lingayat
Mutts in Karnataka are practising this concept till today thereby providing food and enabling thousands of
downtrodden students to acquire education. Women in 12
th
Karnataka had the power to admonish if her husband
would go astray or if he is not a devotee of Lord Shiva. This reflects the status of women and the power they
could wield over the wrong doers, including their husbands. The spiritual space was kept open to women to
such an extent that they could come and participate in the religious discussions held in Anubhava Mantapa, a
religious academy. There were as many as 33 women Vachana composers in the Sharana Movement, another
name for Vachana Movement. Saint Akkamahadevi was one such Sharane, a staunch devotee of Lord Shiva
who has composed 367 Vachanas in which most of them are expressions of resistance.
Saint Akkamahadevi, one of the prominent women Vachana composers resisted many societal issues: monarchy,
the rigid
practices mentioned in Vedas and Upanishads, materialism, the institution of marriage. However she
accepted eternal master, humane practices, simple life as alternatives to the above mentioned
practices/institutions. She considered nature as her confidante and thereby propounded divinity of nature. The
concept which is found in American Transcendentalists like H.D.Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo
Emerson prominently. She is a rare confluence of Bhakti, devotion, Jnana, the spiritual knowledge and
Vairagya, the renunciation. At a very young age she was compelled to marry King Koushika lest her parents
were threatened to be beheaded. However the spiritual inclination she had would never allow her to enjoy the
conjugal pleasures like an ordinary woman.
The social milieu of Vachana Movement also came to her rescue. The movement although would permit the
wedded devotees, would also permit the devotees to come out of wedlock if he/she wished to go in search of
spiritual knowledge or if one’s spouse was not a devotee of Lord Shiva. This unique feature enabled Akka, (she
is called so popularly, meaning elder sister in Kannada) to resist monarchy and to come out of wedlock with
King Koushika. The Vachana Movement also believed strongly in eternal master, the Almighty. All other
masters were considered as earthly, bound by death. Even Lord Basaveshwara states that he was serving King
Bijjala as Finance Minister for his earthly life. In the later stage of his life he quit serving Bijjala since he wanted
to serve his personal God, Lord Koodalasangamadeva, the eternal master.
In the spiritual landscape one can observe the spiritual heights Akkamahadevi had scaled. When she was about
to enter Anubhava Mantapa, Lord Allamaprabhu, the head of the religious academy enquired her marital status.
She states that she is wedded to her personal God, Lord Cennamallikarjuna. Not convinced with her answer
Lord Allama insists her to explain how she being an earthly woman can marry the abstract Husband. The woman
Saint answers through the following Vachana:
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Is there any difference between
Solid ghee and liquid ghee?
Is there any difference
Between lamp and light, Sir?
Is there any difference
Between body and soul, Sir?
Because the holy guru
Transformed my body into mantra,
There is no difference between
The Partite and the Impartite, Sir.
Why do you make me speak?
Who, having merged in Cennamallikarjuna,
Has lost her wits?
(143)
She implies that the abstract and the concrete are one and the same. There is no discrimination between the two.
The ghee which is hardened changes its form to liquid when it is heated. The two states are different but the
original form is one. She is happy that after the initiation ceremony her body is made to be an extraordinary
one. Hence, she tells Lord Allamaprabhu in turn that her concrete body has got wedded to the abstract one.
Saint Akkamahadevi expressed her resistance to materialism which was growing like cancerous growth. The
Indian philosophy advocates attainment of spiritual knowledge rather than earthly knowledge. She showed how
simplicity is a stepping stone to the pursuit of spiritual knowledge through her life. Although she was married
to the royal member, the King Koushika, a Jain by faith, she was never enticed by worldly life. Instead she
became a role model to the womenfolk of her time by scaling the mystic heights. She showed the way not by
preaching but practising what she believed in strongly. Whenever Akka would be perturbed by spiritual dilemma
or anxiety about Lord Chennamallikarjuna, she would deem nature as her only confidante. The affliction of her
can be discerned in the following Vachana.
O prattling parrots,
You have not seen Him.
O cuckoos, singing loudly,
You have not seen Him.
O bees, swooping and humming
You have not seen Him.
O swans, frolicking on the lake,
You have not seen Him.
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O peacocks, sporting on hills and in dales,
You have not seen Him.
Tell me where Cennamallikarjuna is.
O tell me where He is. (151)
Surprisingly, the American Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau and his contemporaries also would
endorse the divinity of nature which is found in Akka’s Vachanas. They too resisted materialism in America
and advocated simple life, divinity of nature, realization of the self through their literature of resistance.
During the 12
th
century many practices preached in the Vedas and Upanishads were distorted to the benefit of
the priestly class. The movement realized the detrimental effects of such rigid, irrational and superstitious
practices. Although the followers of Vachana movement would consider the merits of Vedas and Upanishads,
they resisted the irrational ones.
Veda, Sastra, Agama and Purana,
All are the broken rice and
The Chaff of pounded paddy.
Why pound them again?
Why thrash them again?
If the head of the mercuric
Mind is chopped off,
There is sheer Absolute Void,
O Cennamallikarjuna! (197)
All the Vachana composers emphasized the significance of realization of oneself. When the social milieu was
not conducive to lower caste people and which denied them the entry to temples, an alternate solution was shown
and it was considered very noble also. They preached the laity that instead of visiting temples and offering their
prayers to the concrete idols, they should sincerely attempt to realize oneself: finding the existence of the
Almighty in each one of them and worshipping their personal God within one’s house. Saint Akka preaches
how each one should realize oneself in the following Vachana:
What use knowing everything
Unless one knows oneself?
When consciousness becomes
One’s own possession,
Why ask others for it?
Because you revealed yourself
To me as consciousness,
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I knew you through yourself
O Channamallikarjuna! (122)
Another related concept during Vachana Movement was ‘body churching’ which was believed strongly. Lord
Basavanna preached the masses that one’s own body is a temple, so he did not find any logic in people visiting
temples after temples. He depicts this very poignantly in the following Vachana:
Those who have money, build temples for Shiva!
Rich build temples for Shiva
What can I, a poor man, do?
My legs are pillars
My body is the temple
My head makes the golden cupola
Oh, Lord of kudala sangama
The standing will perish
The moving will stay on.
The same concept is expressed in Akkamahadevi’s Vachana as follows;
Sir, can I please you by doing eight-fold worship?
You are away from the external affairs.
Sir, can I please you meditating on you within my heart?
You are beyond both speech and mind.
Sir, can I please you by telling beads or singing hymns?
You are beyond the reach of sound.
Sir, can I please you through knowledge of the heart?
You are beyond reasoning intellect.
Sir, can I lodge you in my lotus-heart?
You pervade all my body
.(104)
The Vachana Movement had coined a unique concept called Saranasati Lingapati, a master stroke which implied
that the Almighty is the only master to the entire universe and one should serve Him as a sati, a devoted wife to
one’s husband. Lord Basaveshwara also had assumed himself as a devoted wife to his personal God, Koodala
Sangama. Through this concept the movement endeavoured to emancipate the status of women and resist
monarchy, the earthly masters/Kings. The concept enabled equality to women in the spiritual deliberations held
in Anubhava Mantapa. In the following expression, Saint Akka depicts her marriage with the eternal husband
Lord Chennnamallikarjuna:
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They set a canopy of fire
Over a pavilion of water,
And made a seat of hailstone.
Wearing a tasseled chaplet,
A mad bridegroom came
And wed a crippled bride.
They committed me to an endless wedded life.
They married me to a groom
Called Cennamallikarjuna,
O mother! (176)
Thus the Vachana composers not only resisted the prevailing society through their noble, unique and lucid
literature but found a parallel to solve the societal issues. They proved their potential in such a way that the
preachings are being practised till today in the present day Karnataka
.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Lingayat Religion. Lingayatreligion.com,
www.lingayatreligion.com. Accessed Day Month Year.
2. Ramanujana, A. K. On Women Saints. Oxford University Press, 1999.
3. Subbaraj, Vijaya. Akkamahadeviya Vachanagalalli Prathibhatane Mattu Anubhaava. Prasaranga,
Bangalore University, 2006.
4. Yeravinatelimath, C. R. The Vacanas of Women Saints. Sri Basava Samithi, 2008.
