a violent head when the fledgling
Lingayat community apparently arranged
a marriage between an untouchableboy
and a brahmin girl. Traditionalists
became so enraged that they executed the
bride and groom’s fathers. The Lingayat
community was dispersed, and
Basavanna died soon afterward. For fur-
ther information see A. K. Ramanujan
(trans.), Speaking of Siva, 1973.
Basohli
A town west of Jammuin the state of
Jammu andKashmir, close to the bor-
der of Himachal Pradesh. Although it is
an insignificant place in modern times,
in the seventeenth century, Basohli was
the capital of a small kingdom in the
Shiwalik Hills. It was in Basohli that the
Paharistyle of miniature paintingfirst
appeared. The Basohli version of that
style is characterized by highly defined
profiles, sharply flattened perspective,
and broad bands of a single intense
color for backgrounds. It serves as a
transitional style between the so-called
Rajasthani and the more developed
techniques of the Pahari schools.
Bath, Mohenjo-Daro
One of the most striking structures exca-
vated at Mohenjo-Daro, the first city of
the Indus Valley civilizationto be dis-
covered. This bath is an oblong pool,
thirty-nine by twenty-three feet in area
and eight feet deep. It is built of brick
and sealed with pitch. The tank could be
drained through an opening in one cor-
ner, and it was surrounded on all four
sides by small rooms reminiscent of
changing rooms. The Indus Valley cities
gave great attention to plumbing, sani-
tation, and sewers, suggesting that
bathing (snana) may have been con-
nected with ritual purityas in modern
Hindu life. With this in mind, the bath
was probably not a swimming pool but
rather had some deeper connection
with religious life. For further informa-
tion see Walter Ashlin Fairservis, The
Roots of Ancient India, 1975.
Bathing
See snana.Baudhayana
(6th–3rd c. B.C.E.) Sage, writer, and com-
mentator. Baudhayana is the author of
one of the three surviving religious texts
known as the Kalpa Sutras. Apastamba
and Hiranyakeshinwrote the other two
Kalpa Sutras. Each of the surviving
works contains the three elements dic-
tated for a Kalpa Sutra: prescriptions for
Vedic rituals (Shrauta Sutras), prescrip-
tions for domestic rites (Grhya Sutras),
and prescriptions for appropriate
human behavior (Dharma Sutras). All
three of the authors belonged to the
same school, the Taittiriya school of the
Black Yajur Veda. According to tradition,
Baudhayana was the oldest, Apastamba
was his disciple, and Hiranyakeshin was
Apastamba’s disciple. This relative
chronology is supported by the texts
themselves, since Baudhayana’s work is
much less organized than the others, his
language is more archaic, and he is often
less strict in his opinions. His texts gain
their primary importance as a source for
his successors.Begampura
Fictional city named in one of the
poems written by the poet-saint
Ravidas(ca. 1500). The word begamcan
mean either “queen” or “without pain.”
The poem clearly shows the city as an
idealized place far from the tribulations
of ordinary human life, such as pain,
sorrow, taxes, wrongdoing, and to a
lesser extent, class distinctions.
Although Ravidas was born a tanner
(chamar), an occupation that was
looked down upon, this is one of his
only poems that speaks about social
issues, however indirectly.Begging
One of the recognized means of liveli-
hood in traditional Hindu society that is
a sign of either very low or very highBasohli