Basava

Hindu religious reformer, teacher, theologian, and administrator of the royal treasury of the Calukya king Bijjala I (reigned 1156–67). Basava is the subject of the Basava-Purana, one of the sacred texts of the Hindu Lingayat sect. According to South Indian oral tradition, he was the actual founder of the Lingayats, but study of Calukya inscriptions indicates