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 whohypocritically 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 withthe 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 theKapalikas 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 attainjoy 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.