Basava was a 12th-century Indian philosopher,
statesman,
Kannada poet in the Shiva-focussed
Bhakti movement and a
social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in
Karnataka, India. The
Basavarajadevara ragale (13 out of 25 sections are available) by the Kannada poet
Harihara (c.1180) is the earliest available account on the life of the social reformer and is considered important because the author was a near contemporary of his protagonist. A full account of Basava's life and ideas are narrated in a 13th-century sacred Telugu text of the south Indian Hindu
Lingayat community, the
Basava purana by
Palkuriki Somanatha.