Vacanas of Siddharama (An Old and Rare Book)

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This is an English rendering of the complete works of Sid- dharamesvara who, along with Basavanna, Cennabasavanna, Prabhu, Akka Mahadevi and others, finds a distinguished place among the immortals of Vira- saivism, one of the world's great religions with a philosophy of Six-fold Hierarchy, or the saj- sthala siddhanta, on which it is based and which should have a contribution to make to world thought and culture. He is popularly known as Siddharama of Sonnalige, the present Shola- pur, a district head-quarters in the present Maharashtra State.

Though a late entrant and convert, he was, before he embraced the Virasaiva fold, already an eminent Hathayogi well versed in Indian philosophy and mysticism, especially belonging to the Saivism of the south, whose concept of Mukti is the Fourfold rank, namely, Residence with God, Nearness to God, Similarity to God and Conjunction with God.

It is with great pleasure that I am writing this foreword to the "Vacanas of Siddharama", translated into English by Prof. Armando Menezes and Sri S. M. Angadi of Karnatak University. Prof. Menezes, a distinguished scholar acquainted with about half a dozen European languages, has, fortunately for us, taken keen interest in the Kannada language, literature and culture in general and in Vacana Sahitya in particular. Sri S. M. Angadi, a scholar in English and Kannada, has been dreaming about the translation of the Vacana literature into English for the last four decades. It is our good fortune that Prof. Menezes and Sri S. M. Angadi came together under the Vacana Sahitya translation scheme at the Karnatak University about 15 years ago and have since then done yeoman service towards this cause: the 'Sunya Sampaadane' volumes (five in number), the Vacanas of Basavanna and of Akka- mahadevi speak volumes for the competence of these two scholars. It is their efforts that made it possible for us to present the rich treasures of Vacana literature to the world at large. I, therefore, congratulate Prof. Menezes, who has left permanent footprints in the literary field of this part of the country; while Sri S. M. Angadi richly deserves our compliments for the dedication with which he has been working all these years.

Siddharama sivayogi is one of the five stalwarts of Vacana literature. Basavanna, Cennabasavanna, Prabhudeva, Siddharamsvara, and Akkamahadevi, these are, as it were, the five vital breaths of Lingayatism.

Siddharamesvara, though a late entrant and a convert, is beyond doubt one of the stalwarts of Virasai- vism. Sholapur, his place of birth, still pulsates with his legend. They show you what is left of the little house where his mother, sitting one fine morning on her doorstep, heard the call of the great saint Revaņa- siddhesvara, that told her that she would, though long past the childbearing age, bear a son destined to be a great saint. In the fullness of time, a son was indeed born; but the newborn babe neither cried at birth nor sought his mother's breast. His parents, lavishing their love all the more on this late born and handicapped son, put him, as he grew to boyhood, to tending cattle; they still show you the little field, on the Hyderabad highway, where young Siddharama worshipped the Linga every day and where one day he was accosted by an old beggar calling himself Mallayya. The boy readily shared with him his little ration, as he did with his fellow-cowherds; and when the old man asked for curds to crown his meal, the kind-hearted boy ran home as fast as his little legs would carry him and entered his mother's kitchen crying out for curds. In the act, he had found his speech. But when he returned with equal speed to the field, the old man was no longer there! As the young cowherd was bawling out with disappointment, a pilgrim party bound for srisailam heard him and stopped to ask the reason of his grief.