Syllabus Section- Art and Culture

 

Why in news?

Recently, while laying foundation for the new Parliament Building in Delhi, the Prime Minister in his speech, said that the Parliament system had come into existence in 12th century itself with BhagwanBasavanna establishing the Anubhava Mantapam.

Note: In November 2015, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi inaugurated the statue of Basaveshwara along the bank of the river Thames at Lambeth in London.

About Anubhava Mantapa

• Anubhava Mantapa whose literal meaning is "experience center" was an academy of mystics, saints and philosophers of the ‘Veerashaiva’ faith in the 12th century.

• It was the fountainhead of all religious and philosophical thought pertaining to the Human Values, Ethics.

• It was presided over by the mystic AllamaPrabhu and numerous Sharanas from all over Karnataka and other parts of India were participants.

• Prabhudeva, a great Yogi of extraordinary achievement, was the president and Lord Basava acted as the prime minister. Chennabasava can be compared to the speaker while at the same time working as the editor, and compiler of Vachana literature.

• The only difference between the present day parliament and AnubhavaMantapa is that the members were not elected by the people, but were picked up or nominated by the higher authorities of the Mantapa; the necessary qualification expected being spiritual attainment.

• The problems tackled were of a various nature covering social, religious, spiritual, yogic psychological, economic and literary spheres.

• Members of the Mantapa and followers of the religion were given full freedom of thought, speech and action. They were allowed to put any questions or doubts to get them cleared in front of the congregation and a systematic program was launched to record and to preserve the dialogues that were going on in the House.

• Anubhava Mantapa criticized sharply the meaningless differentiation of human beings as high or low either on their birth or on their occupation.

Basavanna and Sharana movement:

1. The Sharana movement he presided over attracted people from all castes, and like most strands of the Bhakti movement, produced a corpus of literature, the vachanas, that unveiled the spiritual universe of the Veerashaiva saints.

2. The egalitarianism of Basavanna’sSharana movement was too radical for its times.

3. He set up the Anubhava Mandapa, where the Sharanas, drawn from different castes and communities, gathered and engaged in learning and discussions.

4. Sharanas challenged the final bastion of the caste order: they organised a wedding where the bridegroom was from a lower caste, and the bride a Brahmin.

 

 

Source- The Hindu