History of Akka Mahadevi in Srisailam – A Study

Abstract

Akka Mahadevi was born in Udutadi near Shivamogga in the Indian state of Karnataka. She was born to a couple named Nirmalshetti and Sumathi who were both devotees of Para Shiva. A local Jain king named Kaushika sought to marry her, but that she rejected him choosing instead to fulfil the claims of devotion to the deity Para Shiva. Seeing the conditions of her parents Akka Mahadevi thought of a trick and said that the king pays three demands she can get married and if she breaks any of them, she will go away as a free woman. King Kaushika violated the conditions she had laid down Akka Mahadevi left the place renouncing all her possessions including clothes to travel to Srisailam home of the God Para Shiva. She is believed to the travelled towards the end of her life to the Srisailam mountains where she lived as an ascetic and eventually died. Akka Mahadevi suggests that towards the end of her life king Kaushika visited her there an sought her forgiveness.