BASAVESHWARA

About:

• Basaveshwara, also known as Bhaktibhandari, Basavanna or Basaveswara, was a 12^th century philosopher, Kannada poet and a social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka.
  
  
• He spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. He rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals.
  
  
• He introduced new public institutions such as the ‘Anubhava Mantapa’(or, the "hall of spiritual experience"), which welcomed men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to discuss spiritual and mundane questions of life, in open.
  
  
• He was founder of the Lingayats sect.