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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1902.
themselves in the crevasses of the rocks. A small stream, its course marked out by masses of green rushes and coarse dark grass, flows from the base of the bills and passes close to the village. At a little distance are two tanks, which contain a supply of water sufficient for the irrigation of the rice-fields of the village. On the borders of the stream, and on and below the bunds of the tanks, there are kdnagas, or wild crotone, whose dark glossy leaves, and drooping tassels of flowers, white with a delicate tinge of purply-pink, give a sense of coolness even in the fiercest beat of April or May. In and about the village there are tamarind and margosa trees, and not far off are the mango orchards. Below the tanks there is the rice-land, in the spring and early summer a bare red waste, after the rains an unbroken ses of the softest and most delicate green. On the higher ground, and reaching up to and meeting the unbroken scrub jungle, is the dryland,' as it is called, where the farmers grow ohlam and rdgi, and pulse of various kinds. The village itself consists of about 120 houses, most of them built of earth and thatched with jungle grass. The walls are smeared on the outside with red ochre, and are in some cases adorned with broad vertical bands of white. Attached to most of the houses there is a byre for cattle, built on the same plan, and not infrequently of much the same dimensions as the dwelling-house. One can easily picture the young farmer-boy perambulating about the fields or in the rocky crevasses with his playmates and friends to partake in all the variegated labours of the world, Naturally, in youth, he would spend most of his time in tending the flocks and herds and preventing them from going astray into the paddy fields or the scrub. When he grew a little older he went to the village school and there received the village education. It is said, indeed, that when a boy he received intimation of his future greatness as a poet and writer ; but this story, like other stories told of Indian poets generally, is the production of an after-age, and all that we can safely assert is that it is highly probable that, in early life, he came under the personal influence of a spiritual teacher, from whom he received the first impulse to a life of meditation. But the teacher was not likely to have been of so high an order as by personal influence to mould the future man, and I do think that Vémana went to the living man to drink deep of the fountain of poetry. He seems, however, to have been very much influenced by the Lingait movement, which had attained considerable proportions in his time in his part of the country. These were a set of extreme Saiviter, who, animated by a fanatical zeal, revolted against the sacerdotal supremacy and set at Daught all the injunctions of the Vedas. They claimed to be superior to the Brahmang, to be under the special power of the Almighty and therefore invincible. Their dogmas can be be best studied in the Chennabasava Purana and Prabhulingalila. Vemana's identiflcation of Siva with God, and the belief in the sacredness of animal life, can be traced to this source.
It is not known when Vêmana came to be a recognised teacher. His poem shows us beyond doubt that he was cast out for a time at least by his own kith and kin, and by those who knew him best. It was very revolting to them to find a young boy, probably in the 'mid might and flourish of his May,' posing to be a teacher of mankind in his own little sphere and expostulating against the existing state of things. He was not vicious, nor officious, but he kept himself aloof from the babblings of a busy world.' His neighbours thought naturally, therefore, that his Quixotic temperament was due to some dislocation of the brain. He was a man of a very strong will, was
constant as the northern star who hath no fellow in the firmament.' He was certain that Trnth must come to light and that Merit cannot enter the gates of preferment. He knew full well the staff his own people were made of and how best to win them to his side. As his verses became known, their plain practical good sense and pithy expressiveness necessarily attracted the attention and won the suffrages of an ever-widening circle of hearers, so that towards the close of his life the poet was compelled to assume the position of a recognised Gurt, or teacher, and to spend most of his time travelling from village to village, visiting his numerous disciples. On his death 'mute Nature mourned her worshipper and celebrated his obsequies.' He was accorded all the honors of a saipt and a tomb was built for him. A temple stands gear his tomb at Katarapalli, and in it is a hideous wooden idol named after him.
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