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

Bibliographic Data

ID20179377
AuthorsDivya Komala (Department of History, Government Women’s College, Hunsur, Mysore District, Karnataka, India., corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume48
Issue1
Pages108-130
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndian Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0376-9836 • E-ISSN: 0975-5977
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/03769836211009733
OpenAlexW3165270052
LanguageEN
References cited5

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

Ancient history · Art · Caste · Linguistics · Literature · Political science · Sanskrit · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Telugu · History · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Social and Economic Development in India · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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