Gil Ben-Herut is a professor at the University of South Florida. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Emory University. His research interests include premodern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian devotional traditions, translation in South Asia, and programming in Digital Humanities. In 2023, Dr. Ben-Herut was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and the Senior Short-Term Research Grant funded by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his project "A History of Speaking: Artifact and Authority in Kannada Devotional Songs."R. V. S. Sundaram retired as the Director of the Institute of Kannada Studies at the University of Mysore in 2008. He was also a Visiting Professor of South Indian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and other universities. He is a polyglot who has published more than 100 books and monographs in Telugu, Kannada, andEnglish. His books include poetry, fiction, criticism, folklore, and translations. He is the recipient of several state and national awards from A. P. Sahitya Akademi, Union Ministry of Education, Central Institute of Indian Languages, and Gulbarga University.

For decades, the study of South Indian Shaivism has been dominated by the foundational translations, A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Siva and Velcheru Narayana Rao and Gene Roghair's Siva's Warriors: The Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Gil Ben-Herut and R. V. S. Sundaram's groundbreaking translation of Harihara's Ragalegalu is an important addition to this body of scholarship on Shaiva devotion. Spanning stories of well-known figures such as Basava and Mahadevi to lesser-known hagiographies of the goldsmith Kallayya and the potter Gundayya, Stories of Shiva's Saints presents a rich palette of religious experience that reorients our understandings of caste, gender, and Shaivism in the early second millennium.

• Stories of Shiva's Saints Acknowledgements PART I: AN INTRODUCTION Of Saints and Gods Shiva Devotion, South India, and the Kannada-Speaking Region Meter, Style, and Language About the Translation PART II: TRANSLATIONS The Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and Poet Chapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly Realm Chapter 2: A Human Child Chapter 3: At Kappadi Chapter 4: Sent on a Mission Chapter 5: Arriving at Mangalavada Chapter 6: At Bijjala's Court Chapter 7: Serving the DevoteesChapter 8: A Charge of EmbezzlementChapter 9: Devotees and MiraclesChapter 10: Vaishnava Brahmins and a Newborn ChildChapter 11: The Onion FestivalChapter 12: Shiva's Trials for BasavaChapter 13: A Cobbled-together EpilogueRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaChapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly RealmChapter 2: Earthly Birth and ChildhoodChapter 3: King Kaushika Falls Head over Heels for MahadeviChapter 4: The WeddingChapter 5: Worshiping ShivaChapter 6: Walking Out on MarriageChapter 7: Srisailam the Holy MountainAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful ItinerantChapter 1: Birth from a LingaChapter 2: Vibhishana and Thirty Million Lingas in LankeChapter 3: King Bijjala, Gorakshaka, and a SwordChapter 4: A Water Reservoir and a Preterm BirthChapter 5: Rudramunideva, Kallayya, Chamaladevi, and Returning to KailasaChief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeChapter 1: The Chief MinisterChapter 2: RenunciationChapter 3: Meeting Jommayya and Recovering the LingaJommayya: Hunter and ZealotChapter 1: The Killing of a Vaishnava StorytellerChapter 2: Jommayya Confronts King Permadi Chapter 3: Heaps of Flesh and a Brahmin's VisitKallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve Shiva Chavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of Bulls Bommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChapter 1: The Grain and the JainChapter 2: King Permadi and His ElephantChapter 3: The Temple Dancer and the BullChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaChapter 1: Govinda Acquires a Fiery EyeChapter 2: Teaching a Devotee and a King a LessonChapter 3: Becoming a LeaderBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationChapter 1: A Shaiva King among JainsChapter 2: Killing the Jains Chapter 3: Self SacrificeAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsChapter 1: Adayya and Padmavati Take on Human BirthChapter 2: Marriage and the Incident with the AsceticsChapter 3: Shiva and the Temple Conversion at PuligereVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own HeadAPPENDIX I: SUMMARIESThe Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and PoetRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful Itinerant Chief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeJommayya: Hunter and Zealot Kallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve ShivaChavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of BullsBommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own Head

Gil Ben-Herut is a professor at the University of South Florida. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Emory University. His research interests include premodern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian devotional traditions, translation in South Asia, and programming in Digital Humanities. In 2023, Dr. Ben-Herut was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and the Senior Short-Term Research Grant funded by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his project "A History of Speaking: Artifact and Authority in Kannada Devotional Songs."R. V. S. Sundaram retired as the Director of the Institute of Kannada Studies at the University of Mysore in 2008. He was also a Visiting Professor of South Indian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and other universities. He is a polyglot who has published more than 100 books and monographs in Telugu, Kannada, andEnglish. His books include poetry, fiction, criticism, folklore, and translations. He is the recipient of several state and national awards from A. P. Sahitya Akademi, Union Ministry of Education, Central Institute of Indian Languages, and Gulbarga University.

For decades, the study of South Indian Shaivism has been dominated by the foundational translations, A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Siva and Velcheru Narayana Rao and Gene Roghair's Siva's Warriors: The Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Gil Ben-Herut and R. V. S. Sundaram's groundbreaking translation of Harihara's Ragalegalu is an important addition to this body of scholarship on Shaiva devotion. Spanning stories of well-known figures such as Basava and Mahadevi to lesser-known hagiographies of the goldsmith Kallayya and the potter Gundayya, Stories of Shiva's Saints presents a rich palette of religious experience that reorients our understandings of caste, gender, and Shaivism in the early second millennium.

• Stories of Shiva's Saints Acknowledgements PART I: AN INTRODUCTION Of Saints and Gods Shiva Devotion, South India, and the Kannada-Speaking Region Meter, Style, and Language About the Translation PART II: TRANSLATIONS The Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and Poet Chapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly Realm Chapter 2: A Human Child Chapter 3: At Kappadi Chapter 4: Sent on a Mission Chapter 5: Arriving at Mangalavada Chapter 6: At Bijjala's Court Chapter 7: Serving the DevoteesChapter 8: A Charge of EmbezzlementChapter 9: Devotees and MiraclesChapter 10: Vaishnava Brahmins and a Newborn ChildChapter 11: The Onion FestivalChapter 12: Shiva's Trials for BasavaChapter 13: A Cobbled-together EpilogueRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaChapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly RealmChapter 2: Earthly Birth and ChildhoodChapter 3: King Kaushika Falls Head over Heels for MahadeviChapter 4: The WeddingChapter 5: Worshiping ShivaChapter 6: Walking Out on MarriageChapter 7: Srisailam the Holy MountainAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful ItinerantChapter 1: Birth from a LingaChapter 2: Vibhishana and Thirty Million Lingas in LankeChapter 3: King Bijjala, Gorakshaka, and a SwordChapter 4: A Water Reservoir and a Preterm BirthChapter 5: Rudramunideva, Kallayya, Chamaladevi, and Returning to KailasaChief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeChapter 1: The Chief MinisterChapter 2: RenunciationChapter 3: Meeting Jommayya and Recovering the LingaJommayya: Hunter and ZealotChapter 1: The Killing of a Vaishnava StorytellerChapter 2: Jommayya Confronts King Permadi Chapter 3: Heaps of Flesh and a Brahmin's VisitKallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve Shiva Chavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of Bulls Bommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChapter 1: The Grain and the JainChapter 2: King Permadi and His ElephantChapter 3: The Temple Dancer and the BullChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaChapter 1: Govinda Acquires a Fiery EyeChapter 2: Teaching a Devotee and a King a LessonChapter 3: Becoming a LeaderBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationChapter 1: A Shaiva King among JainsChapter 2: Killing the Jains Chapter 3: Self SacrificeAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsChapter 1: Adayya and Padmavati Take on Human BirthChapter 2: Marriage and the Incident with the AsceticsChapter 3: Shiva and the Temple Conversion at PuligereVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own HeadAPPENDIX I: SUMMARIESThe Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and PoetRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful Itinerant Chief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeJommayya: Hunter and Zealot Kallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve ShivaChavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of BullsBommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own Head

Gil Ben-Herut is a professor at the University of South Florida. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Emory University. His research interests include premodern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian devotional traditions, translation in South Asia, and programming in Digital Humanities. In 2023, Dr. Ben-Herut was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award and the Senior Short-Term Research Grant funded by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his project "A History of Speaking: Artifact and Authority in Kannada Devotional Songs."R. V. S. Sundaram retired as the Director of the Institute of Kannada Studies at the University of Mysore in 2008. He was also a Visiting Professor of South Indian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania and other universities. He is a polyglot who has published more than 100 books and monographs in Telugu, Kannada, andEnglish. His books include poetry, fiction, criticism, folklore, and translations. He is the recipient of several state and national awards from A. P. Sahitya Akademi, Union Ministry of Education, Central Institute of Indian Languages, and Gulbarga University.

For decades, the study of South Indian Shaivism has been dominated by the foundational translations, A. K. Ramanujan's Speaking of Siva and Velcheru Narayana Rao and Gene Roghair's Siva's Warriors: The Basava Purana of Palkuriki Somanatha. Gil Ben-Herut and R. V. S. Sundaram's groundbreaking translation of Harihara's Ragalegalu is an important addition to this body of scholarship on Shaiva devotion. Spanning stories of well-known figures such as Basava and Mahadevi to lesser-known hagiographies of the goldsmith Kallayya and the potter Gundayya, Stories of Shiva's Saints presents a rich palette of religious experience that reorients our understandings of caste, gender, and Shaivism in the early second millennium.

• Stories of Shiva's Saints Acknowledgements PART I: AN INTRODUCTION Of Saints and Gods Shiva Devotion, South India, and the Kannada-Speaking Region Meter, Style, and Language About the Translation PART II: TRANSLATIONS The Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and Poet Chapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly Realm Chapter 2: A Human Child Chapter 3: At Kappadi Chapter 4: Sent on a Mission Chapter 5: Arriving at Mangalavada Chapter 6: At Bijjala's Court Chapter 7: Serving the DevoteesChapter 8: A Charge of EmbezzlementChapter 9: Devotees and MiraclesChapter 10: Vaishnava Brahmins and a Newborn ChildChapter 11: The Onion FestivalChapter 12: Shiva's Trials for BasavaChapter 13: A Cobbled-together EpilogueRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaChapter 1: In Shiva's Heavenly RealmChapter 2: Earthly Birth and ChildhoodChapter 3: King Kaushika Falls Head over Heels for MahadeviChapter 4: The WeddingChapter 5: Worshiping ShivaChapter 6: Walking Out on MarriageChapter 7: Srisailam the Holy MountainAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful ItinerantChapter 1: Birth from a LingaChapter 2: Vibhishana and Thirty Million Lingas in LankeChapter 3: King Bijjala, Gorakshaka, and a SwordChapter 4: A Water Reservoir and a Preterm BirthChapter 5: Rudramunideva, Kallayya, Chamaladevi, and Returning to KailasaChief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeChapter 1: The Chief MinisterChapter 2: RenunciationChapter 3: Meeting Jommayya and Recovering the LingaJommayya: Hunter and ZealotChapter 1: The Killing of a Vaishnava StorytellerChapter 2: Jommayya Confronts King Permadi Chapter 3: Heaps of Flesh and a Brahmin's VisitKallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve Shiva Chavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of Bulls Bommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChapter 1: The Grain and the JainChapter 2: King Permadi and His ElephantChapter 3: The Temple Dancer and the BullChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaChapter 1: Govinda Acquires a Fiery EyeChapter 2: Teaching a Devotee and a King a LessonChapter 3: Becoming a LeaderBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationChapter 1: A Shaiva King among JainsChapter 2: Killing the Jains Chapter 3: Self SacrificeAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsChapter 1: Adayya and Padmavati Take on Human BirthChapter 2: Marriage and the Incident with the AsceticsChapter 3: Shiva and the Temple Conversion at PuligereVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own HeadAPPENDIX I: SUMMARIESThe Divine Lord Basava: Leader, Saint, and PoetRevered Mahadevi, Who Left Her Husband for ShivaAllama the Master: Lover Turned AsceticLord Revanasiddha: Wild and Powerful Itinerant Chief Minister Keshiraja: Brahmin and DevoteeJommayya: Hunter and Zealot Kallayya, The Goldsmith Whose Dog Mastered the VedasBhoganna and the Lingas that Followed HimGundayya, the Pot Maker Who Made the Lord DanceNimbavve, Who Used Her Body to Serve ShivaChavundaraya of Musute: Reviver of BullsBommatande of Bahuru: Devotee of Miraculous FeatsChavundaraya of the Suragi Flower: Devotee of Murderous FaithShankara Dasimayya, Who Got a Fiery Eye from ShivaBommatande of Kovuru, Who Sailed on a Wave of MutilationAdayya, Who Wreaked Vengeance on the JainsVaijakavve, Who Converted Her Jain HusbandRamayya the Recluse, Who Offered Shiva His Own Head