Basaveshwara- Makers of Indian Literature

Basaveshwara, also known as Basavanna, is one of the greatest spiritual leaders of India: A revolutionary saint, a great poet in Kannada, a noted mystic and an ardent social reformer, he is hailed as the prophet of a new era in Karnataka.
Born in a well-to-do Brahmin family around A.D. 1131, Saint Basaveshwara studied the Indar, the Upanishads, the Paramar and the like. But his life-long struggle was to eradicate caste distinctions. He raised the common man and the outcaste to divine heights of spiritual realization.
Vachana, literally meaning prose, acquired a new vigour at the hands of Basaveshwara. He caused revolution in Kannada literature both in form and in content. His is the poetry of life. The Akademi has already published in Kannada the select Vachanas of Basaveshwara.

H. Thipperudraswamy (1928-1994) was a scholar who made a pioneering effort to look at the culture of Karnataka in its entirety. He was born in Honnali, a small town in Davanagere district, and obtained early education in his native town and Teerthahalli. His work Sharanara Anubhaana Saabirya fetched him a Ph. D. degree from the Karnatak University. He joined his alma mater as a lecturer in 1964. He was appointed as the Director of the Post Graduate Centre of the University at Bhadra Project in Shivamogga district and also served as the Director of Sri Kuvempu Kannada Adhyayana Samsthe' till he sought voluntary retirement in 1987.
Rana Nayar (b. 1957). He was a creative writer and contributed a few works to various genres of literature such as poetry, drama and fiction. Novels such as Paripurnadedege, Kadali Karpura, Kart Arana Kammata, Jyoti Belagutide and Vacana Virupaksha are based on the lives of historical personalities ie. Allamaprabhu, Akkamahadevi, Basavanna, Nijaguna Shivayogi and Raghavanka respectively. He has written a few biographies meant for children on the lives of Kannada poets and Veerashaiva saints. He was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi award for his Karnataka Samskriti Sameeksbe in 1969 and the life time award of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy in 1985. In the present monograph he has depicted the many faceted personality of Basaveshwara.