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OF THE HINDUS.
229
against Bijala. On their way a bull appeared, whom they knew to be a form of Basara come to their aid, and the bull went first even to the court of the king, goring any one that came in their way, and opening a clear path for them. Thus they reached the court, and put Bijala to death in the midst of all his courtiers, and then they dancel, and proclaimed the cause wliy they bad put the king to death. Jagaddeva on his way back recalling the words of his mother stabbed himself. Then arose dissension in the city, and the people fought amongst themselves, and horses with horses, and elephants with elephants, until, agreeably to the curse denounced upon it by Basava and his disciples, Kalyána was utterly destroyed. • Basara continued to reside at Sangamešvara, conversing with his disciples, and communing with the divine Essence, and he expostulated with Siva, saying: By thy command have I, and thy attendant train, come upon earth, and thou hast promised to recall us to thy presence when our task was accomplished." Then Siva and PÁRvati came forth from the Sangameśvara Lingam, and were visible to Basava, who fell on the ground before them. They raised him, and led him to the sanctuary, and all three disappeared in the presence of the disciples, and they praised their master, and flowers fell from the sky, and then the disciples spread themselves abroad, and made known the absorption of Basara into the emblem of SivA." MACKENZIE Collect., Vol. 2nd. Hálakanara MSS. (pp. 3–12.]
The date of the events here recorded is not particularised, but from various authorities they may be placed with confidence in the early part of the eleventh century'
Colonel Wilks gives the same date (Mysore, I, 506), but terms the founder Dhen Bas Ishwar, intending clearly Chenna (little) Basara, the nephew of Basava, or Basavešvara. BUCHANAN has the name Basvana (Mysore, I, 240), but agrees nearly in the date, placing him about seven hundred years ago.
