Lingayats and the Yearning for the ‘Language of the Gods’ in the 1910s–1940s

Abstract

Lingayats hold a distinct position in the history of Karnataka beginning with the cultural legacy from the twelfth century and continuing into the twentieth century for the prominent role in the non-Brahmin movement by deploying education as a means to achieve social mobility and to attain solidarity among the various sections of the diverse community. The possible loss of social status in the caste hierarchy in the late nineteenth century prompted Lingayat caste entities to embark on the legacy of Sanskrit scholarship that was eventually deployed to lay an unprecedented claim in Sanskrit education across the region of Kannada speaking territory. This study explores how the usage of Sanskrit for mass education by the Lingayat mathas enabled caste consolidation, by re-appropriating a Brahmanical language in Mysore state and to certain extent in the region of Bombay Karnataka. Through this exploration, it pushes us to re-consider the Brahmin-non-Brahmin binary, within which the history of education in the Mysore princely state is narrated from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.