Bengaluru: A young seer of an extension unit of Gurumalleshwara Mutt has been forced to leave the mutt, after his religious identity was revealed through the Adhaar card he had saved in his mobile phone.
Mohammed Nissar (22) from Yadgir taluk in Kalaburgi district had obtained Basava Deeksha (religious initiation) when he was 17-year-old and he was named as Nijalinga Swamy. Nijalinga Swamy had dedicated his life to spreading teachings of 12th century Poet and Philosopher Basaveshwara.
Recently, he was appointed as head of the new extension unit near Gundlupet, started by Nanjangud based Gurumalleshwara Mut. However, last week, while going for prayers, seer had handed over his mobile phone to one of his disciples, who opened the phone out of curiosity. After seeing the seer's name as Mohammed Nissar and religion mentioned as Muslim, the disciple informed the other villagers about it. The villagers protested for a Muslim heading their Mutt and Nijalinga Swamiji was forced to step down as the seer.
As a matter of fact, the extension of the mutt at Gundlupet was started just a year ago. The land was donated to the mutt by an NRI devotee called Mahadeva Prasad. The Mutt was looking for a person to look after the extension unit and approached various Lingayat holy places, including Basavakalyan. At that time, the name of Nijalinga Swamiji was recommended to Gurumalleshwara Mutt and he took over as in-charge only six weeks ago.
When the protest broke out, Nijalinga Swamiji did not try to hide his original identity. He said that he was born as a Muslim, but was attracted to Basavaanna teachings at a very young age and took Deeksha at the age of 17.
After completing the study for three years at Basavakalyana, he also worked as a seer there for two years, before he was given the new task. Undisturbed by the developments, he said that he would continue as Nijalinga Swamiji and would continue to spread Basavanna teachings throughout his life.
In Lingayat dominated North Karnataka, it is a common sight that many Muslims also follow teachings of Basavanna and send their children to the schools run by Lingayat mutts. Some of them also take Basava Deeksha.
Nijalinga Swamy or Mohammed Nissar is not the first person to become seer of a mutt. In 2020, Diwan Sharief Rahimsab Mulla, then 33-year-old, who was an autorickshaw driver, owning a flour mill also took Deeksha and was later appointed as seer of Sri Murugarajendra Koraneshwara Shanthidhama Mutt in Asuti village, Gadag district. He was the fourth Muslim origin to become seer of a Lingayat Mutt in the last 300 years.
