clothes, to travel to Srisailam, home of the god Para Shiva. Alternative accounts suggest that Akka Mahadevi's act of renunciation was a response to the king's threats after she refused his proposal. It is likely that she visited the town of Kalyana en route, where she met two other poets and prominent figures of the Lingayat movement, Allama and Basava. She is believed to have travelled, towards the end of her life, to the Srisailam mountains, where she lived as an ascetic and eventually died. A vachana attributed to Akka Mahadevi suggests that towards the end of her life King Kaushika visited her there, and sought her forgiveness. History She is considered by modern scholars to be a prominent figure in the field of female emancipation. A household name in Karnataka, she wrote that she was a woman only in name and that her mind, body, and soul belonged to Shiva. During a time of strife and political uncertainty in the 12th century, she chose spiritual enlightenment and stood by her choice. She took part in convocations of the learned such as the Anubhavamantapa in Kalyana (now Basava Kalyana) to debate philosophy and enlightenment (or Moksha, termed by her as "arivu"). In search for her eternal soul mate Lord Shiva, she made animals, flowers and birds her friends and companions, rejecting family life and worldly attachment. Akka's pursuit of enlightenment is recorded in poems of simple language but great intellectual rigour. Her poetry explores the rejection of mortal love in favour of the everlasting love of God. Her vachanas also talk about the methods that the path of enlightenment demand of the seeker, such as killing the 'I', conquering desires and the senses and so on. Kausika was a Jain, a group that tended to be wealthy and was resented by the rest of the population. She rejected her life of luxury to live as a wandering poet-saint, travelling throughout the region and singing praises to her Lord Shiva. She went in search of fellow seekers or sharanas because the company of the saintly or sajjana sanga is believed to hasten learning. She found the company of such sharanas in Basavakalyana, Bidar district and composed many vachanas in praise of them. Her non-conformist ways caused consternation in the conservative society of the time: even her eventual guru Allama Prabhu faced difficulties in including her in the gatherings at Anubhavamantapa. A