Allama Prabhuand Mahadeviyakka.
The community’s founding members
were driven by the hunger for God and
were impatient with anything that got in
its way—worshipof images, castedis-
tinctions, or the demands of family life.
These early influences have continued
to shape Lingayat culture. Lingayats do
not use images in their worship. The
only symbol they use is the linga of
Shiva, which all Lingayats wear as a sign
of membership in the community. The
Lingayats have also largely retained
their founders’ egalitarian principles.
Although the community eschews caste
distinctions, there are higher-status
priestly families known as jangamas,
from whom the celibate monks known
as viraktas are often drawn. In practice,
this egalitarian emphasis has made the
entire Lingayat community a jati, one of
the endogamoussocial subgroups that
make up larger Indian society; the dif-
ference is that the Lingayats are not
marked by their occupation, but by their
membership in a particular religious
community. The Lingayats are the dom-
inant community in modern Karnataka,
both in terms of traditional landholding
patterns and in their control over
regional politics. For further informa-
tion see A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking of
Siva, 1973; and Sivalingayya
Channabasavayya Nandimath, A
Handbook of Virasaivism, 1979.
Lion
In Hindu mythology, a lion or a tigeris
the animal vehicle of the Mother
Goddess, as in her manifestation as the
goddess Durga. Modern iconography
shows the Goddess riding either of these
animals, with no seeming difference
between them, perhaps reflecting the
fact that the Hindiword “sher” can refer
to either the lion or the tiger. The fact
that the Goddess rides such a dangerous
animal is clearly a symbol of her power
and capacity. In her mythology these
animals are often described as her allies,
engaging in battle at her command.
Liquor
Condemned by the traditional Hindus,
although attitudes differ based on the
type of liquor consumed. Consuming
beer, wine, and distilled spirits (“foreign
liquor”) carries the stigma of adopting
“foreign” Western values; whereas con-
suming undistilled, fermented bever-
ages such as “country liquor” and toddy
carry the taint of low-class behavior.
Patterns of drinking tend to reflect and
reinforce these negative attitudes. Since
liquor is taboo in polite society, people
who drink will often finish the bottle in
one sitting and become intoxicated,
thus “proving” that there is no such
thing as responsible drinking.
Despite the general cultural disap-
proval, there are a few Hindu temples
where liquor is the everyday offeringto
the deity. The worshipers also receive
liquor as prasad, the sanctified food or
drink that carries the deity’s blessing.
Alcohol has also been incorporated into
religious rituals in certain types of
tantric religious practice. Tantra is a
secret ritual-based religious tradition,
based on the belief that there is an ulti-
mate unity of everything that exists.
From a tantric perspective, to affirm
that the entire universe is one princi-
ple means that the adept must reject
all concepts based on dualistic think-
ing. One way to do this is to partake of
the “Five Forbidden Things” (pan-
chamakara), consciously breaking soci-
etal norms forbidding consumption of
intoxicants, nonvegetarian food, and
illicit sexuality. This is always done with-
in a carefully defined ritual setting, in a
conscious effort to sacralize what is nor-
mally forbidden.Lohar
Traditional Indian society was modeled
as a collection of endogamoussub-
groups (in which marriage is decreed by
law to occur only between members of
the same group) known as jatis(“birth”).
The jatis were organized (and their
social status determined) by the group’s
hereditary occupation, over which eachLohar