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Devara Dasimayya

Timeline (10th Century)

Poems by Devara Dasimayya
Books

Devara Dasimayya was one of the earliest of the Virasaiva poet-saints, a forerunner of later beloved figures like Basavanna and Akka Mahadevi.

Dasimayya addressed his poems to Ramanatha, or "Rama's lord," a reference to Shiva as worshipped by the divine hero-king Rama.

Tradition says that Dasimayya was performing intense ascetic practices in a jungle when Shiva appeared to him and told him to stop punishing his body. Shiva urged him instead to work in the world. Dasimayya renounced his extreme practices and took up the trade of a weaver.

Like most Virasaivas that followed him, this gentle saint taught a life of complete non-violence, even teaching local hunting tribes to renounce meat and, instead, provide for themselves through pressing and selling olive oil.

Dasimayya became a famous teacher, eventually giving initiation to the wife of the local king, who was a Jain. Dasimayya engaged in several debates with the powerful Jain community and, through a series of miraculous events, managed to convert large numbers to the worship of his loving vision of Shiva as the eternal God.

Poems by Devara Dasimayya

Speaking of Siva, by A K Ramanujan

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