Place · Lingayat pilgrimage centre · India
Kudalasangama
The sacred confluence of the Krishna and Malapahari rivers at Kudalasangama in Bagalkot district, Karnataka, 60 kilometres from Badami — the site where Basava (1131-1167), founder of the Lingayat tradition, is said to have taken samadhi after leaving Basavakalyan. The 11-century Sangameshvara Shiva temple at the confluence (one of the Panchakshara linga shrines) is the first thirtha of Basava's final journey. The 2005 Basaveshwar Mahamane memorial complex, built by the Karnataka government at Kudalasangama, holds the Vachana Mantapa (teaching hall), the Basaveshwar statue and the Anubhava Mantapa recreation. The site is one of three principal Basava pilgrimages — Basavakalyan (life), Basavana Bagewadi (birth, 70 km north), Kudalasangama (samadhi). The Lingayat community's major Sharana-Basava Jayanti festival each May draws over a million pilgrims.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Basava and Lingayat traditions
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 16.180, 75.890
Connections (1)
- Samadhi atBasavanna
Kūdalasangama is where Basava grew up and, by tradition, where he returned to die after Kalyāna fell. His ankita — the signature in every vachana — is the name of this confluence's deity, so his entire body of work is signed with the place he came back to. The Anubhava Mantapa he founded ended in violence within a generation, over a marriage between a Brahmin's daughter and an untouchable's son, and the sharanas scattered carrying their manuscripts.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Kudalasangama”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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