[9][10] It is well accepted that though Basavanna was the inspiration behind the Lingayath movement and earned the honorific "elder brother" (anna) at the "mansion of experience" (Anubhava Mantapa), Allama was the real guru who presided over it.
[7][11] According to the scholars K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and Joseph T. Shipley, Vachana literature comprises pithy pieces of poetic prose in easy to understand, yet compelling Kannada language.
[1] Some details of the early life of Allama are available in the writings of noted Hoysala poet Harihara, while other accounts are generally considered legendary.
[10] According to Harihara's biography of Allama, the earliest account of the saint's life, he was a temple drummer in modern Shivamogga district, Karnataka state, India.
[21] Allamaprabhu's poetic style has been described as mystic and cryptic, rich in paradoxes and inversions (bedagu mode), staunchly against any form of symbolism, occult powers (siddhis) and their acquisition, temple worship, conventional systems and ritualistic practices, and even critical of fellow Veerashaiva devotees and poets.
[1] According to the Kannada scholar Shiva Prakash, Allama's poems are more akin to the Koans (riddles) in the Japanese Zen tradition, and have the effect of awakening the senses out of complacency.
A poem of his mocks at Akka Mahadevi for covering her nudity with tresses, while flaunting it to the world at the same time, in an act of rejection of pleasures.
I saw the temple fleeing, when God came.The tiger-headed deer, the deer-headed tiger,Joined at the waist.Look, another came to chew close byWhen the trunk with no head grazes dry leaves,Look, all vanishes, O Guheswara.If the mountain feels cold, what will they cover it with?If the fields are naked, what will they clothe them with?If the devotee is wordly, what will they compare him with?
Nagaraj explains that Allama's "insistence on opaque and mysterious modes of metaphor is in stark contrast with the emotionally transparent model of bhakti.
[31]Allama's poetry and spirituality is "intensely personal and experimental,"[31] and the vachanas in general "bear [...] a highly complex relationship to other schools,"[31] which makes it very difficult to trace and establish exact influences and independent developments.
[38][note 4] He de-emphasized the need to perfect difficult feats of Yoga and emphasized overcoming the boundaries between relative and absolute knowledge, between devotee and guru (teacher).
The Vijayanagara poet, Chamarasa, wrote Prabhulingalile (1430) in the court of King Deva Raya II, giving an account of the life and teachings of Allamaprabhu.
[48][49] With the intent of re-kindling the spirit of the 12th century, the Sunyasampadane ("Achievement of nothingness" or "The mystical zero"), a famous anthology of Vachana poems and Veerashaiva philosophy was compiled during the Vijayanagara era.
With Allama as its central figure, these anthologies give a vivid account of his interaction, in the form of dialogues, with contemporary saints and devotees.