The Kapalikas Unfortunately no religious texts of either the Kapilikas or the Kalamukhas have survived. They are mainly known from the accounts left by their opponents such as Yamuna and Ramanuja, casual references in other literary texts and the information contained in epigraphic grants to their temples and mathas. According to Lorenzen! it appears likely that the Kapalikas originated in South India or the Deccan. They existed in most of the Deccan plateau as early as the eighth century. It is only in sources later than the eighth century that their presence in Gujarat, Bundelkhand, the Vindhya hills and other parts of India is indicated. The date of the foundation of the K4palika order is impossible to establish. The earliest occurrence of the word kapalin (one who bears a skull) is probably that in the Ydjfavalkyasmrti (III. 245), But in this passage kapalin has the sense only of bearing a skull and does not imply the existence of a sect or order of Kapalins. In the Maitrayaniya Upa. Kapilins are mentioned as those whohypocritically wear red (kashdya) robes and earrings (kundala) and with whom it is improper to associate. But this passage of the text may be of fairly late date. The Prakrit Gathdsaptasati, traditionally ascribed to the first century A.D., contains a verse describing a ‘new’ female Kiipiliki who incessantly besmears herself with ashes from the funeral pyre of her lover, But the date of the gatha is ‘uncertain. The Lalitavistara mentions certain ‘fools’ who seek purifica- tion by smearing their bodies with ashes, wearing red (kashdya), garments, shaving their heads, and carrying a triple-staff (cridanda), a pot, a skull, and a Khatvanga. This is clearly a reference to the Kapalikas. Varabamihira in his Brhatsamhitd refers to the Kapala vow and in his Brhajjdtaka enumerates seven classes of ascetics including Vrddhas who are identified by Utpala with the Kapélikas. The Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang saw in India different types of ascetics including those who covered themselves with ashes, or made chaplets of bones which they wore as crowns on their heads, or wore skull garlands. In his Harshacharita Bana describes Bhairava- charya, a dakshindtya saint, who performed a Tantrika ritual appropriate for a Kapalika. In Dandin’s Dasakumdracharita prince Mantragupta meets an evil ascetic in a forest near the cremation ground outside the capital of Kaliiga? The Kapilikas are mentioned disparagingly in several Puranas. The Vayu, Brahmanda and Kirma Purdnas assert that in the Kaliyuga Kashayins, Nirgranthas, Kapalikas, Veda-sellers, tirtha- sellers, and other heretics opposed to varnasramadharma will arise. The Brahmanda P, claims that Svayambhi (Siva) created Pasupatayoga first and Kapalayoga last. The Skanda P. prescribes, as part of the worship of the goddess ParameSvari, the distribution of pots of wine (surdsava) to Kapilikas and male and female slaves, . Some of the most valuable material about the Képalikas appears in the legendary biographies of Saikaracharya (A.D. 788-820). The story of Safkara’s encounter with a treacherous Kapalika named Ugra-Bhairava appears in Madhava’s Sarikara~ digvijaya, of his battle with the militant Krakacha of Karnataka in the works of Madhava and Anandagiri and of his debate withthe casteless hedonist Unmatta-Bhairava, and is repeated in similar words by Dhani Several inscriptions from the various Kapalesvara temples. The Nirmand (Hi plate grant of Mahdsamanta Maharaja Samudrasena’ records the donation of a village to Support the worship of Siva in the form of Mihiresvara at a temple dedicated to Kapiilesvara, A king named Sarvavarman is also said to have given land at the former installation of the god Kapélesvara of this temple. An inscription from a modern temple of Kavalji (Kapilin) in Kota region of Rajasthan contains an introductory culogy of Ganesa and Kapilisvara, The most famous Kapilesvara temple is located at Mylapore, a suburb of Madras. At one time the Pasupatinatha temple of Nepal was probably associated with the Kapilikas, for the undated Chhatresvara inscription from this temple, in the work of Anandagiri apatisdri.! Parts of India mention machal Pradesh) copper Sculptures of god Kapiilesvara or Kapila-Bhairava and goddess Kapalika or Kapila-Bhairavi are found in many early medieval temples, particularly in South India, The Kapilikas are usually called Mahavratadharas, a term also applied for the Kalimukhas. The Igatpuri copper plate inscription of Pulikesin II records a grant for the worship of god Kapalesvara and for the maintenance of the Mahavrating, The best known rite by this name is described in the Jaiminiya Brahmana and a few other early works. It is highly unlikely, however, that this ritual was resurrected several hundred years after it had almost died out. Another Mahavrata which may be recalled in this con- nection is the chief penance Prescribed for the removal of the sin of (accidently) killing a Brahmana. It is called Mahavrata in the Vishnusmrti. In this vrata the penitent carries a skull on his staff, and this skull is generally identified as the skull of the person slain. According to Lorenzen this Mahavrata was adopted by theKapalikas because it crimes, the killing of if they were in Was the penance for the ‘most heinous of afl 4 Brahmana, The 'Y might have reasoned that Teality already guiltless, the performance of this sult in an unprecedented accumulation of religious Of magical powers (siddhis), In a number of sources the doc! Saumya or Somasiddhanta, merit and hence rine of the Kapailikas is called However, none of the sources which refer to Somasiddhanta says much about the term, Severar sikis on the Prabodhachandrodaya derive the word. soma from the cy end se-Uma (with Umi, ive. Parvati), Although thi ctymolozy is not historically correct, by the time r Soma or Somesvara had become a common name for $1 The keystone of the Kapalika faith was bhak tion to a personal incarnation. In Anandagiri’s Sarikara-vi Proclaim Bhairava to be the cr. universe and lord of all the ti, personal devo- Bod usually identified as Siva in his Bhairava jaya the Kapilikas are made to 'eator, preserver and destroyer of the gods. The epithet world-creator (jagai- Kartr) suggests the dualistic distinction between the material cod instrumental causes of the universe which the Brahmasins Commentators attribute to the Kapalikas and other worshippers of Pasupati. In the Saikara-vijaya of Anandagiri Bodholbana-nityananda and his followers also claim that Bhairava has eight major forms: Asitana, Ruru, Chanda, Krodha, Unmatta, Kapalin, Bhishana and Sarhhdra, They identify the first seven of these forms with the gods Vishnu, Brahma, Strya, Rudra, Indra, Chandra and Yama respectively. The cighth, Sathhara-Bhairava, is Bhairva him- self. The remaining gods are merely his ‘portions’. The omnipotent deity of the Kapalikas demands both propitia- tion and imitation from his devotees. In this respect the Kapalika faith differs from other theistic religions only in procedure. If their crities are to be believed, the Kapalikas specialised in human sacti- fice, Allusions to Kapalikas performing human sacrifices, making offerings of human flesh, or doing pija with the aid of corpses are found in the Malatimddhava, Prabodhachandrodaya and many other works. Saikarachdrya’s Kapalika opponent Krakacha argues: ‘If he (Kapalin-Siva) does not receive worship with liquor and blood-smeared lotuses which are human heads, how can he attainjoy when his body is embraced by the lotus-eyed Umi . . .?" There is also some evidence to suggest that the Kapilikas occasionally practised the various forms of self-mutilation such as cutting of flesh from their own bodies for sacrificial oblations. They drank wine and even ate human flesh. In Yasabpila's Mohardjapardjaya a Kapalika says that one obtains Sivasthina by eating human flesh in the skull of a noble man, The lost skull bow! of Mahendravarman’s Kapalin was full of roast meat. Saikara’s opponent Krakacha fills his own skull bowl with sura through his power of meditation, Unmatta- Bhairava, a Kipalika opponent of Sankara, proudly declares that his father and grandfather were liquor makers. In the Mattavilsa Prahasana a Kapilin similarly advocates wine and women as the road to salvation recommended by Siva, and in the Prabodhachand- rodaya a Kiipilika describes wine as the ‘remedy against (transmig: ratory) existence prescribed by Bhairava’. The Kapalika in the Chandakausika implies a sexual or at cast a sensual conception of moksha when he praises the immortal world where the siddhas frolic on the peaks of Meru. In Raminuja’s Sribhashya, the Kapalas declare that he who meditates on the Self as seated in the female vulva attains nirvana. This state- ment may reflect a partial sublimation of overt sexual ritual, Their addiction to meat and wine, as well as sex, should be associated with the five ‘Ma’ sounds (pafichamakaras) of the Tantrika tradition. Most Tantrika sects were well-infused with the doctrines and practices of Hathayoga, and it is unlikely that the Kapalikas were an exception. References to the magical powers of the Kapilika ascetics appear in the Kathdsaritsagara stories of Madanamafijari, Chandrasvamin, Devadatta, and the Kapilika spy: In Jambhaladatta’s Vet@lapafichaviriSari the Kapalika mutters a great incantation (mahdmantra) in order to obtain siddhi. The Kapalin-Pasupata Aivapida in Kalhana’s Rajataraiigint displays the ability to remember his past lives and magically transport his disciple to Kashmir. Krshnamisra’s Prabodhachandrodaya and Bhavabhat’s Mdlatimadhava also contain allusions to the siddhis of the Kapilikas, The aim of a Kapalika’s religious endeavours is, thus, not simply the attainment of a state of divine bliss. On a more worldly level, he seeks magical yogic powers (sidhhis) such as (1) animd, the Power of becoming small; (2) laghimd, the power of levitation;(3) garima, the Power of becoming heavy; (4) mahimd, the power of becoming limitlessly large; (5) Isitva, control over body and mind; (6) prakadmya, irresistible will: (7) vasitva, control over the five elements; and (8) Kamavasdvitva, fulfilment of desires. Similar lists are found in the Yogabhishya of Vyasa, the Tantrika Prapaiichasara, and other works.