About this stamp
The Saint of Hanagal
India Post issued this ₹5 stamp on 19 May 2017 for Shri Kumaraswamiji of Hanagal, saint and educator of North Karnataka, in his 150th birth anniversary year. He was born on 11 September 1867 at Joyisara Haralahalli, in today’s Haveri district, to Basavayya and Neelamma, who named him Halaiyya. Drawn to spiritual study from boyhood, he went to the Siddharoodha Math at Hubli, chose renunciation under Siddharoodha Swamiji and was initiated by Yelandur Basavalinga Shivayogi. He then spent twelve years in meditation and worship of the Ishtalinga in a cave at Shambhulinga Betta in the Kollegal hills.
Schools and Service
Returning north, he served as a monk of the Hanagal Virakta Math. Troubled that children were not being educated, he founded the All India Veerashaiva Lingayat Mahasabha in 1904 and the Shivayoga Mandira in 1909, institutions later called “the eyes of Karnataka” for their work in education. He and his disciples always wore khadi, he founded a goshala that still shelters about 500 cows, and he made yoga compulsory for the sanyasis of his institution.
The stamp was designed by Alka Sharma; Security Printing Press, Hyderabad printed 351,590.
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