Akka Mahadevi: The Blazing Sun of Bhakti

In the series on the Saints of India, this article presents the life and message of Akka Mahadevi, the third saint presented here from the Veerashaiva tradition.

- Shibani Chakraverty Aich

In the spiritual history of India, Akka Mahadevi is the woman saint who dared to walk naked in the 12th century, covered only with her long tresses. She was a picture of asceticism, intense dispassion and complete renunciation. Beneath this majestic and awe-inspiring persona lay a tender heart throbbing with passionate love for Lord Shiva in the form of Chennamallikarjuna (Lord white as jasmine). Her vacanas, poems of personal devotion to the Lord, reveal a unique amalgam of prema bhakti (ecstatic love), jnana (supreme wisdom) and vairagya (absolute detachment). Along with scaling the heights of spirituality, her undaunted courage and temerity to live life on her own terms in the face of incessant adversities and opposition is an example for womankind.

In the present study of Akka Mahadevi’s life and her vacanas, it is imperative to understand the tenets of Lingayatism since she was born in a Lingayat family. Her vacanas suggest that her formative years were deeply rooted in its ideologies.

On the other hand, it is also important to remember that every individual soul undertakes its own spiritual journey. The path is unique for every striving soul. Therefore, no religion or sect can proclaim mass liberation based on its tenets. In this respect Akka Mahadevi was a saint and mystic in her own right. A saint or a mystic has experiential knowledge of the Supreme Truth. She or he has no religion, caste or creed; the only religion that can be attributed to a mystic saint is the religion of pure love.