Basava Dharma Peetha President Maate Mahadevi passes away

Prominent Lingayat pontiff and Basava Dharma Peetha President Maate Mahadevi breathed her last at a private hospital here on Thursday. She was 74. Reportedly, she passed away due to multiple organ failure. Hospital authorities said that she was on life support ever since she was admitted.

Installed as 'Jagadguru' in the 1970s, Maate Mahadevi established several educational and religious institutions and published several books. In 2017-18, she was at the forefront of a movement in Karnataka demanding separate religion status for the Lingayat community.