Today Karnataka celebrates 'Basava Jayanthi Utsav' in memory of Basaveswara the great 12th century social reformer. He was a minister of a local king, but he devoted his life for the upliftment of the oppressed lower castes. He worked against the community discrimination like untouchability. He hailed from Bagewaadi, Bijapur in North Karnataka.

He was the founder of the Lingayat community, a community which believes in equality of the human race irrespective of caste creed or religion. "Our body is the abode of God, so we don't need to worship anybody else," was the gist of his teachings.

In 1964 Basava Samithi was inaugurated at Shiv Yogi Mutt to disseminate the principles of Basaveswara (Basava tathva), by the leadership of Dr B D Jatti who served as Governor and Vice President of India. The committee had been patronized by the then Maharaja of Mysore, Jaya Chamarajendra Wodeyar and Nijalingappa, a renowned Gandhian and the former Chief Minister of Karnataka and Brahmanada Reddy, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Since thirty-seven years the committee is into various social and cultural activities.

In 1971 they shifted into the present building, Basava Bhavan in the heart of the city. A grand auditiroum called Anubhava Mantap was added later for conducting cultural activities. Another building Arivuna Mane Auditorium was built in January 2000 to conduct religious discourses and seminars. Basava Samithi organizes various cultural and recreation programme on the occasion of Basava Jayanthi.

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