The town of Basavakalyan, about 75 kms from the Bidar district headquarter, has a special place in the history of the state.
This was the place where the great reformer, Guru Basaveshwara, established the Anubhava Mantapa, a spiritual parliament, in the 12th century. It laid down the foundation of social democracy.
Basavakalyan is where he propagated messages of social equality by encouraging inter-caste marriages and partaking of food with Sharanas of different castes and communities.
The state government will now develop the town in memory of the revolutionary reformer through rebuilding the memorials in the style of that century.
Basaveshwara is the father of the concept of Parliament as during his period all the scholars and sharanas sat together for interaction on different matters and gave consents for vachanas (simple poetic writings that contained essential teachings) — the vachana sahitya was a literary revolution of the period — at the Anubhava Mantapa.
Basaveshwara was the premier under Kalachuri King Bijjala, who ruled from 1162-1167, and was ousted from Basavakalyan by fundamentalists who were against his propagating inter-caste marriages and social equality.
Basaveshwara along with other sharanas who were chased out of Basavakalyana spent his last days in Kudala Sangama.
The Karnataka government has already developed Kudala Sangama in Bagalkot district as a heritage centre by constructing various monuments in his memory.
Bowing to the popular demand of also developing Basavakalyan, the state government constituted the Basavakalyan Development Board on April 2, 2005, with an intention to develop Basavakalyan as an international-level heritage centre.
The agenda of the board is to developing Basavakalyan on the model of the centre at Kudala Sangama.
The Basavakalyan Development Board has taken up work on the Jedara Dasimayya Guhe (cave), Sharana Haralayya Guhe, Madivala Machidevara Honda (a pond), Nuli Chandayya Guhe, Ambigara Choudayya Smaraka (memorial), Parashakatte, Allamaprabhudevara Gadduge Mutt, Akka Nagamma Guhe, Kambali Nagidevara Mutt, Bandavara Oni, Arivina Mane, Vigneneshwara Guhe, Yalahute Pradesh, Museum, New Anubhava Mantap, Panchasutrada Gavi, Basava Bhavana and Basava Wana, the place of jatra. They will be rebuilt in the style of Chalukyas who ruled Basavakalyan before 12th century.
The board has held two meetings with the chief minister of the state. Then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy chaired a meeting in Bangalore on June 25, 2006. A second meeting with B S Yeddyurappa as the chief minister was held in Basavakalyan on November 8, 2008.
The board has met on its own on two occasions and work on the monuments is at different stages.
The state government has sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the project and released Rs 48 crore to the board. In all, the project is expected to cost `200 crore.
The Basavakalyan Development Board has already spent `45 crore and works worth Rs 65 crore has been taken up.
Basavakalyan Development Board Commissioner Kashinath Gokhale said some old monuments were found during excavation of Arivina Mane where Basaveshwara worshipped.
More excavations will be carried out in April to see if there are more ruins in the area.
Kudala Sangama Development Board
The board was constituted in 1994 and re-construction of almost all the monuments is over. Now it has been entrusted the task of maintaining the Kudala Sangama Kshetra and carrying out subsequent development works.
