Anubhavasangha

Anubhavasangha, literally meaning an assembly of experiential knowledge, was a reformist and devotional movement in the Kannada-speaking region of south India during the 12th century. It arose in the milieu around Basavakalyana (present-day Basavakalyana, Karnataka) under the leadership of Basavanna (Basava) and his collaborators. The gathering functioned as a forum for sharing spiritual experiences and discussing ethical living beyond caste and ritual hierarchy.

The organization brought together saints, poets, and philosophers, including figures such as Allama Prabhu, Akka Mahadevi, and Channabasavanna. Members engaged in open dialogue, taught through vachanas (brief devotional and ethical verses), and promoted spiritual practice as a matter of inner realization. Anubhavasangha was not a formal monastery but a loose, voluntary network that nurtured Kannada literary expression and social reform, helping to preserve and propagate the vachana tradition.

Philosophically, the movement stressed personal devotion and direct experience of the divine, often emphasizing a formless or approachable conception of God and prioritizing ethical living over ritualism and sacerdotal authority. It advocated social equality, challenged caste-based restrictions, and called for the dignity of labor and inclusive participation by women and men alike. While it laid important groundwork for the Lingayat tradition, Anubhavasangha itself functioned as a broad reform platform that influenced later devotional and reform movements across the region.

Legacy remains in the vachana literature and in the broader Lingayat literary and religious milieu. Modern scholarship often regards Anubhavasangha as a pivotal example of a lay, experiential religious movement that contributed to Kannada language, literature, and social reform in medieval India.