Lingayat Vani

Lingayat Vani
JātiMarathi
ClassificationForward caste[1]
GuruJangam
ReligionsHinduism
LanguagesHindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu[2]
CountryIndia,
RegionMaharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
EthnicityIndian
Population8.5 to 10 Million in Maharashtra[3]
Heraldic titleAppa, Rao, Desai [4][5]
Related groupsVeerashaiva
Marathas

The Lingayat Vani community (marathi: लिंगायत वाणी) is an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They belong to Veershaiv sect of Hindu Shaivism and are also referred to as Veershaiv-Lingayat Vanik or Lingayat Balija or Vira Banajiga or Bir Vanigas. The name Vani is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Vanijya' which means trade.

The Vira Banajigas were a trading caste.

They rejected the custodial hold of Brahmins over Vedas and shastras but did not outright reject the Vedic knowledge. They worship all gods and believe them to be a form of Shiva only.[6][7] The 13th-century Telugu Virashaiva poet Palkuriki Somanatha, the author of the scripture of Lingayatism, for example asserted, "Virashaivism fully conformed to the Vedas and the shastras."[8][9]

  1. ^ https://ncbc.nic.in/Writereaddata/cl/maharashtra.pdf
  2. ^ Thapar, Romila (June 2015). The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-93-5214-118-0.
  3. ^ "Why Lingayats are up in arms in Maharashtra". 18 January 2023.
  4. ^ Singh, K. S. (1996). Communities, Segments, Synonyms, Surnames and Titles. Anthropological Survey of India. ISBN 978-0-19-563357-3.
  5. ^ https://karnatakaitihasaacademy.org/cult-of-warrior-god-veerabhadra/
  6. ^ Prasad, Leela (2007). Poetics of conduct: oral narrative and moral being in a South Indian town. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13920-5. OCLC 69734509.
  7. ^ Siva's Warriors: The Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Princeton University Press. July 2014. ISBN 978-0691604879.
  8. ^ Leela Prasad (2012), Poetics of Conduct: Oral Narrative and Moral Being in a South Indian Town, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0231139212, page 104
  9. ^ Velcheru Narayana Rao & Gene H. Roghair 2014, p. 7