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,