The government has hardly reached there, but the maths have. For years now the Lingayat maths have played a dominant role in educating the poor, taking care of their food and training them for a profession in Karnataka, which has over 4000 of them. The most influential are some two dozen like the Siddaganga, Sirigere, Suttur, Mooru Savira, Murugarajendra and Gadag Tontadarya maths.

They are a lifeline in the most backward parts of the state even today as besides providing education, they also help supply drinking water and are involved with other social issues, making the Lingayat community – that forms 16 per cent of the population, the largest section after the scheduled castes in the state – a force to reckon with.

The demographic distribution of the Lingayats gives the community an advantage. Barring the coastal districts of Mangalore, Udupi and Karawar, they are present almost everywhere else in the state unlike the Vokkaligas and Kurubas, who are confined to a few pockets. The community is also economically and educationally stronger than any other in the state and the literacy rate among its women is the highest.

Its not their numerical strength alone, however, that makes the Lingayats a formidable political force, but their synergy with the maths. Whether they be politicians, bureaucrats or businessmen, members of the community never cross the diktats of the maths even in matters of voting.

The math culture among the Lingayats is as old as the community itself. Every four or five villages is served by a math, which runs its own schools or adopts those run by the government. The bigger maths run higher education institutions and in the process poor children from the community get all the support and training they need to occupy senior positions either in government or private firms. And whatever they go on to become in life they never fail to remain loyal to the maths. Considering that the maths have been instrumental in producing some of the state’s top bureaucrats and politicians, their sphere of influence can therefore hardly be doubted.

The first of the Lingayat Chief Ministers, S. Nijalingappa, who took over in 1956, was Karnataka’s fourth after K.C. Reddy, Kengal Hanumanthaiah and Kadidal Manjappa. He was followed a couple of years later in 1958 by another Lingayat, B.D. Jatti, who was succeeded by S.R. Kanti. Then came Mr Veerendra Patil, one of the most influential of the Lingayat Chief Ministers.

As the Lingayats and Vokkaligas ruled the state betweeen them till 1971, the Old Mysore region made way for Hyderabad-Karnataka as the hub of politicial power. It was while Mr Nijalingappa was busy with politics at the Centre as the last president of the united Indian National Congress, and Mr Veerendra Patil nursed the Lingayat – Vokkaliga combine in Karnataka, that the then Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi decided to step in..

Devaraj Urs came up with the backward class movement, appealing to over 36 per cent of the state’s population and Mrs Indira Gandhi split the Congress. Mr Urs gave backward class status to the Vokkaliga community, successfully breaking the Lingayat–Vokkaliga combine and Mr Nijalingappa’s Congress faced a defeat in the next election.

The enraged maths distanced themselves from the Congress and when the then Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde gave the Lingayat community a backward class status as well, he became the only non-Lingayat to be accepted as a leader of the community. It was after this that the Janata Parivar began building the Lingayat-Vokkaliga combine again. The Lingayats briefly rallied behind the Congress when Mr Veerendra Patil was made Chief Minister in 1989, but after his unceremonious removal a year later by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the maths deserted the party and gave their full backing to the Janata Dal.

Mr S.M. Krishna did try wooing the Lingayat maths when he became Chief Minister in 1999, even going out of his way to make Mr B.S. Patil chief secretary, overlooking the seniority of Mr M.B. Prakash, but the kidnapping and killing of former Hanur MLA, Nagappa by forest brigand Veerappan saw all his efforts come to naught.

Years have gone by and the Lingayat community now appears to be once again at the crossroads.