Bidar: The Kannada Sahitya Parishat deserves kudos for selecting Bidar for the Kannada Sahitya Sammelan. Bidar had been the land of literature and arts, centuries ago, as it is now.

Basava Kalyan, which derives its name from Basaveshwara, the 12th Century saint, was a centre of higher learning for centuries. It was the capital city of the Chalukyas.

This dynasty had produced kings such as Vikramaditya who ruled a part of the country from the Godavari to the Kaveri.

Vikramaditya nurtured the talent of writers and thinkers. Vijnyaneshwara, who wrote Mitakshara, the first treatise on Hindu law, was one of the scholars in the court of Vikramaditya.

Basaveshwara is said to have helped over 2,000 ordinary men become visionary thinkers and writers. Sharanas tried to find innovative solutions to society's problems. They put their thoughts in writing and they became the ever-relevant Vachanas.

Scholars say they were mostly people from the deprived classes and at least half of them were women. "It was the first time in history that the last man had a chance to write poetry. It was as if the ground had developed a tongue," is how Vachana scholar S. Shivashankar describes the development.

Dr. Shivashankar's research work, "Nelakke Nalage Bandante", ("As if the ground developed a tongue") explores the social and economic backgrounds of Sharanas, apart from the quality of their work.

Dr. Shivashankar estimates these Sharanas produced over 50,000 Vachanas. But only a few are available now.

"Vachana is a Sanskrit term, which means a spoken word. So, whatever they spoke became poetry. But unfortunately we lost most of them," he says.

Basaveshwara's fame attracted scholars and saints even from places such as Afghanistan and Kashmir. Marula Shankara Deva came from Afghanistan and became a disciple of Basaveshwara. Similarly, Mahadeva Bhupala, a king from the Kashmir valley, came to Bidar in search of peace.

He settled in the court of Basaveshwara and became a poet under the name Molige Maraiah. He "abandoned" his kingdom and became a woodcutter. Both these exotic disciples of Basaveshwara produced literature that is still considered world class.

There is a serious debate going on in academic circles about whether "Vaddaradhane", the first prose work in Kannada, was written in Bidar.

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