As already mentioned Sivaism has an important though unorthodox offshoot in the Lingayats[558] or Lingavants.  It appears that they originated at Kalyan (now in the Nizam’s dominions) at the time when a usurper named Bijjala (1156-1167) had seized the throne of the Chalukyas.  Their founder was Basava (the vernacular form of Vrishabha) assisted by his nephew Channabasava,[559] whose exploits and miracles are recorded in two Puranas composed in Kanarese and bearing their respective names.  According to one story Bijjala, who was a Jain, persecuted the Lingayats and was assassinated by them.  But there are other versions and the early legends of the sect merit little credence.  The Lingayats are Puritans.  They reject caste, the supremacy of the Brahmans, sacrifices and other rites, and all the later Brahmanic literature.  In theory they reverence the Vedas but practically the two Puranas mentioned are their sacred books.[560] They are strict vegetarians and teetotallers:  they do not insist on child marriages nor object to the remarriage of widows.  Their only object of worship is Siva in the form of a lingam and they always carry one suspended round the neck or arm.  It is remarkable that an exceptionally severe and puritanical sect should choose this emblem as its object of worship, but, as already observed, the lingam is merely a symbol of the creative force and its worship is not accomplished by indecent rites.[561] They hold that true Lingayats are not liable to be defiled by births or deaths, that they cannot be injured by sorcery and that when they die their souls do not transmigrate but go straight to Siva.  No prayers for the dead are needed.

Though trustworthy details about the rise of the Lingayats are scarce, we can trace their spiritual ancestry.  They present in an organized form the creed which inspired Pattanattu Pillai in the tenth century.  About a hundred years later came Ramanuja who founded a great Vishnuite Church and it is not surprising if the Sivaites followed this example, nor if the least orthodox party became the most definitely sectarian.

The sectarian impulse which is conspicuous after the eleventh century was perhaps stimulated by the example of Mohammedanism.  There was little direct doctrinal influence, but a religious people like the Hindus can hardly have failed to notice the strength possessed by an association worshipping one god of its own and united by one discipline.  Syrian Christianity also might have helped to familiarize the Lingayats with the idea of a god not to be represented by images or propitiated by sacrifices, but there is no proof that it was prevalent in the part of the Deccan where they first appeared.