ABSTRACT
The twelve-year study, meditation and reflection in Sangama, enabled Basava to forge a blueprint for his future work and mission. The establishment of the populistic community that Basava envisaged required as its foundational component a total faith in the notion of Ista linga, as it denoted the values of individual uniqueness as well as equality between individuals. In terms of ideas and values, it is impossible to equate Basava's goal of Ista-linga, his religious doctrines, his objective of linga-body fusion or of unity with linga, his notion of God and religion, with the Brahman system of gods and temples, religion, salvation and negation of self. The Brahman component of Bijjala's court which had already become angry with Basava for his sudden rise from a petty accountant to the Chief Treasurer of the Kingdom, found even greater reason to hate him as one who was waging a relentless war on the orthodox order of caste hierarchy.
