ALLAMANA VACHANAGALU
2. Allamana Vachanagalu edited by L.Basavaraju, 1969,
Geetha Bookhouse,
3. ‘Vyomamurthy Allama Prabhudevara Vachanagalu’, edited
by R.C.Hiremath and M.S.Sunkapur, 1976,
4. Allamana Vachanasudhe’ edited by ‘Kavyapremi’ mattu
Chidambara Inamdar, 1979, published by Samaja Pustakalaya, Dharawada.
5. ‘Allamaprabhuvina Teekina Vachanagalu’, edited by
Immadi Shivabasavaswamy, 1986, Sri Shivaratreeshvara Granthamale,
17. Allamaprabhu
or Prabhudeva as he is referred to in a respectful manner is one of the most renowned
mystics, philosophers and poets of Karnataka. He could make Kannada competent enough
to communicate the most complex and ideas. He was literally a friend, philosopher
and a guide to the Veerashaiva that came in to being during the twelfth century.
His poetic compositions
numbering approximately 800-1400 cover a wide range of topics. He was an insider
critic to the movement as well as the individual saints that were in the forefront
of the movement. Consequently, his poems are often clarifications, rejoinders and
queries. This specific nature of his vachanas is brought out in the later work called
‘Shunyasampadane’ which tries to contextualize the poems. Allama has used the ‘ankita’
(Signature, Name of his favorite deity) Guheshvara (Goggeshvara) for his vachanas.
His vachanas constitute the philosophical core of Veerashaiva religion as against
the theological details which were spurned by him. His language is at once a combination
of abstractions and sensual imagery. They are not transparent in any sense of the
word and many of them are deliberately created in the form a riddle. (Bedagina
vachanagalu) His works are marked by a riddle like obscurity and obliqueness.
But many of them are free from such abstractions and they are known for their imaginative
faculty and social vision. These vachanas have achieved a rare combination of the
time bound and timeless. It is possible to evaluate mystic literature on the basis
of its literary merits only and Allama come through with flying colours in this
kind of assessment also. Allama was aware of the fact that language is limited in
its ability to communicate the inexpressible. He calls it ‘the bashfulness of words’
(shabdada lajje) As H.S. Shivaprakash an important Kannada poet puts it, “His poems
are precariously balanced on the precipice of speech looking on the vast reaches
of silence. One of his simpler vachanas is given here in its English translation:
If they get
scared of thieves
And go in to
the forests
Will not the
tiger eat them up?
If they get
scared of the tiger
And go into a snake house
Will not the
Snake bite them?
If they get
scared of death
And become devotees
Will not Karma
eat them up?
What shall I
call them?
These morsels
in the mouth of death,
Such Charltons,
O Guheashvara.
(Translated
by H.S.Shivaprakash)
Vachanas of Allamaprabhu
and his personality constitute one of the watersheds in the history of Kannada literature
and culture.
18. References:
1. Śūnyasaṁpādane. Edited, with Introduction, Text, Transliteration,
Translation, Notes, and Comments, by …Allamaprabhu - 1968 -
2. Perspectives in Virasaivism from Tamil
Sources, V Rathinasabapathi - 1983 -
3. ‘Allamaprabhu mattu Shaivaprathihe’ by D.R.Nagaraj, 1999, Akshara Prakashana,
Heggodu.
19.
Why an Allama Poem Is Not a Riddle: An Anthological
Essay (by A.K.Ramanujan)
20. 1. ‘Speaking of Shiva’ by Anonymous, translated
by A.K.Ramanujan, 1973, Penguin Classics,
2. Basavaraju's Possessed by
Allama: A Poetic Rendition of Allama's Enigmatic Vacanas with …Ā
Vijayarāghavan - 2005 - CVG Books,