The Minda Jangamas or Bachelors are spoken of in various passages of the Lingadhari poems. They are confessed to be libertines, but are devout. They have interviews with (Vesias) courtezans who are likewise devout!!
The following is the received opinion. The Jangams are entirely forbidden to have intercourse with prostitutes: but among the earliest proselytes were some unmarried men, who were permitted by Basava to have intercourse with courtezans who belonged to the sect. These men were called Minda Jangams or libertines, and in the present age there are none; for all are bound either to marriage or to virtuous celibacy.
In the western districts there are prostitutes who are called Basvinis, and are said to be thus devoted by their parents, on their lives being in danger through illness in infancy. Some of these are daughters of Jangams: but all are not so, being children of Hindus of other castes. I have heard of some Jangams in similar cases attempting to remove a child’s illness by giving it a braminical name, with a view to appease some god or goddess, whose displeasure is imagined to have caused disease. These statements certainly shew the purity of the creed not to be so complete as its devotees assert.
The Vira Saivas illustrate their creed by a comparison quite in the Hindu style. They say, the guru is the cow: whose mouth is the Jangam or brother in the faith; and the lingam or image is the udder. The cow benefits its owner by means of the udder: but what fills the udder? the mouth. And what connects the mouth and the udder? the body. Accordingly if a Vira Saiva wishes the image to benefit him (that is, if he desires to obtain the favour of the deity), he must feed the mouth—that is sustain and comfort his brethren. And then the blessing will be conveyed to him by means of the teacher. Accordingly the Jangams blame the Aradhyas for neglecting this command, and ask how they can expect the image to nourish them if they neglect to sustain brethren and fellows in the faith, for the Aradhya refuses to look upon any but Aradhyas as brethren.
The strangest part of their legends regarding Siva is that wherein he is represented in the most contemptible light as completely the servant of various worthies or saints. Such stories abound in the Basava Puran but are excluded from the Lila. In these, some personages are represented under most degraded circumstances, as obeying or waiting upon the saint whom the legend extols. Thus in the fourth book of the Basava Puran is a story of a certain “worthy” named Nambi, who by force of faith got Siva so completely into his hands that he employed the god as a mere slave. In another story one of the “worthies” scolded Siva, who was so much alarmed that he slunk round the other side of the image, and ran away into the jungle. Other stories represent this paltry demi-god acting either as a thief or as a receiver of stolen goods, to protect his adorers; and they frequently represent him as acting the part of a pander, at the bidding of one of the worthies.
In apology for these stories Jangams allege that they all establish the necessity of faith as the great means of attaining happiness and miraculous power. “As the Brahmins,” say they, “call themselves gods upon earth, we will shew that our worthies are quite a match for them.” Accordingly there are many legends to prove that food or the leavings of food blessed by a worthy, can perform all sorts of miracles. For instance, a Brahmin, who, by a curse, had become a swine, ate what a Jangam had spit out and hereby resumed the human form. Elsewhere a Jangam’s shoe works miracles.
Ravŭnŭ was once carrying an ŭnadee-lingu from Himalŭyŭ to Lŭnka, in order that he might accomplish all his ambitious schemes against the gods, for it was the property of this stone, also called Kamŭ-lingŭ, to grant the worshipper all his desires, whatever they might be. Shinŭ, however, in permitting him to remove this, his image to Lŭnka, made Ravŭnŭ promise that wherever he let it touch the ground, there it should be set up.
When the gods saw that Ravŭnŭ was carrying this stone to Lŭnka, all their heavens were in an uproar, for they knew that if Ravŭnŭ could do what he pleased, neither Indrŭ nor any other god would be able to sit on his throne. Council after council was held, and appeals to this and to that god made, in vain. At last it was resolved that Vŭrvonŭ should be sent, to cause the sea to enter the belly of Ravŭnŭ, who would thereby be compelled to set the stone down while he discharged his water. (Ravŭnŭ could not continue to hold the lingŭ while in this act, as a person becomes unclean at this time until he has bathed). Vŭrvonŭ accordingly set off, and entered the belly of Ravŭnŭ, as he was carrying the lingŭ on his head, and the latter soon began to feel the effect of his visit. His belly swelled prodigiously, but he went on till he could hold his water no longer. At this moment Indrŭ, in the form of an old Bramhŭn, met him. Ravŭnŭ asked him who he was, and where he was going? The latter told him he was an old Bramhŭn going home. Ravŭnŭ entreated him to take hold of the lingŭ for a short time, and he would bestow upon him the greatest favours. At length the Bramhŭn consented, and Ravŭnŭ, setting the lingŭ on his head, squat on his hams to ease himself. The Bramhŭn agreed to hold the stone an hour but no longer. Ravŭnŭ told him he should not keep him half that time. After Ravŭnŭ had thus sat for four hours, the Bramhŭn complained he could hold the stone no longer, and he threw it down,—when the bottom part sunk into patŭlŭ, and the top part remains to this day in a place in the zillah of Beerbhoom, called Voidyŭnathu, which is also the name of this lingŭ, and the river at that place called Khŭrsoo is said to have arisen from the water of Ravŭnŭ. Ravŭnŭ when he arose, seeing what had taken place, full of rage and disappointment, went home: some accounts say, having discovered that the gods had played him this trick, he went and fought with them in the most furious manner.