Are lingayats brahmins?
well it is both yes and no!!!
If you consider "Braahman" as the person who is interested in
the "Brahma Jnaa" ... then Lingayats are Brahmans... .. They have
their own rituals, phylosophy , spiritual path for solvation etc
etc. The Shakthi-VishistaAdvaitha phylisophy of Lingayats is in
parallel with Advaitha of Smaartha Brahmins, Dvaitha Phylosophy of
Maadva Brahmins, and VishistaAdvaitha phylosophy of ShriVaishnavas.
Spiritually speaking they are brahmins.
How ever these lingayats/virashaivas want to maintain their own
identity. They don't believe in classifying a person in the name of
Varnas. They believe that the same person can be a brahman, a
kshatriya, a vaishya and a shoodra...All one person!!!! In that way
they don't want to identify them selves with the any of the names
of 4 Varnas. They love to call them selves with the name
"ShivaSharaNa". Also they are not Brahmin since they differ a lot
interms of rituals...
>> They don't wear Yajnopavitha (Janivaara) instead they
wear "IstaLinga" tied with the sacred thread, ShivaDaara.
>>The SandhyaVandanam of Brahmins is replaced by
"IshtaLinga Pooje", spritually called by the name, "ShatSthala
Saadane".
>>The Gayathri manthra which is the part of
SandhyaVandanam for Brahmins is replaced by
ShivaPanchakshari/Shadakshari manthra in the ShatSthala Saadhana of
Lingayats.
>>Also the concept of Moksha and life after death is
entirely different in lingayats than other brahmnical paths.
luv n light
SavithRu