Lingayat

Lingayat

Member of a Hindu sect that worships Shiva as the only deity. It has a wide following in southern India. Its followers take their name (“linga-wearers”) from the small lingas that both men and women wear on a cord around the neck. The Lingayats' belief in a single deity and their concept of bhakti (devotion) as an intuitive and loving knowledge of God show the influence of Ramanuja. They reject Brahma and the authority of the Vedas; their opposition to child marriage and the ill-treatment of widows anticipated the social reform movements of the 19th century.