Biography 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)