ABSTRACT
The word, bhakti, is derived from the Sanskrit root word, bhaja. In the history of the Brahman religious tradition, bhakti signifies the bhakta's unqualified, undivided and single-minded devotion to God. The religious system which Basava and his sarana associates, like Cennabasava and Allama Prabhu, built up to challenge the varnasrama order, took its doctrinal sustenance from the satsthala structure. Lingayatism or the sarana religion was and is an independent entity, radically different from Brahmanism. The saranas, on the contrary, were engaged in promoting the goal of universal human welfare and social rejuvenation. Image-worship constitutes an important external sign of bhakti religion, and, therefore, it is an invariable component of all religions that have come under the influence of Brahmanism. The architects of the bhakti religion formulated the doctrine of divine incarnation in order to propagate, strengthen and run their system. The history of the growth of this doctrine reveals its inextricable entanglement with Brahmanism.
