Kapalika and Kalamukha

The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas were small Tantric sects scattered throughout medieval India known for their extreme practices. These groups are often connected with meat-eating, intoxication, ritual orgies, and in some cases cannibalism. Members of each group typically existed outside of the caste system and society at large, making their living as wandering mendicants, clad only in animal skins and bearing a "skull bowl" which they used to collect alms. The Kalamukhas may have also assembled in monastic orders. Although no actual texts produced by the groups are extant, the Kapalikas and Kalamukhas are mentioned in the works of many medieval Hindu thinkers, who generally condemn their practices.

Kapalikas

Origins

It appears that the Kapalikas originated in South India or the Deccan, parts normally replete with followers of Shiva, in the fifth or sixth century AD when the corpus of tantric literature was just beginning to develop. The Kapalikas were distributed throughout most of the Deccan plateau as early as the eighth century. They were most commonly found in Kanci, Mysore, western and central Maharashtra, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Later sources record their presence in Gujarat, Bundelkhand, and the Vindhya Hills. The Kapalikas seem to have died out by the fourteenth century, having perhaps been absorbed by other tantric orders, though some old wives tails claim that Kapalikas still inhabit the jungles of northern Bengal and parts of Assam.

A mythological origin is given for the Kapalikas in the Goraksa-siddhanta-samgraha, which tells of an occassion upon which the 24 avatars of Vishnu became intoxicated with wine. Varaha and Narasimha, among other powerful avatars began destroying the earth, frightening its inhabitants. Krishna was filled with adulterous emotions, while Parasurama destroyed a number of Kshatriyas. Natha, meanwhile, became angered by the actions of the gods and assumed the form of 24 Kapalikas in order to take on the avatars. Each Kapalika cut off the head of one avatar, stripped it of its flesh and carried the skull around with them from that point on. With their pride dispelled, the heads of the avatars were returned. This myth probably speaks to the tension between Tantric schools and the Brahmanic orthodoxy.

Sources

The Kapalikas left no texts of their own, and so the major source of information about them comes from philosophical and dramatic writings produced by others which include Kapalika characters. Often they appear as comical villains, maverick ascetics, or less severely as philosophical opponents of the author. One of the foremost sources of information on the Kapalikas appears in biographies of Shankara, the famous Advaitan philosopher, most importantly the Samkara-vijaya. Here, Shankara's encounters with various Kapalikas allow for the elaboration of his own teachings, which exist in contrast to the supposedly hedonistic values of the skull-bearers. In one such meeting, Ugra Bhairava, an apparent Kapalika, explains to Shankara that he is on a quest to sacrifice the head of a sage or a king in order to please Shiva. Ugra Bhairava also alludes to the benefits of self-sacrifice. This willingness to kill sage struck Shankara as a threat to monism.

The foremost dramatic writings which include Kapalikas as important characters are the Mattavilasa by Pallava king Mahendravarman, the Malati-Madhava by Bhavabhuti, the Candakausika by Ksemisvara and the Prabodhacandrodaya by Krsnamisra, among others. Each of these writers express disgust with the hedonism and sadism of the Kapalikas. The Kapalika lifestyle also finds its way into poetry, most notably a number of Bengali songs (caryapadas) composed by a Buddhist saint Kanhapada of the Sahajayana school, who identifies himself as a Kapali, perhaps in the symbolic sense.

Thou art the Dombi and I am the Kapali without aversions...for thee have I put on a garland of bones. The Dombi destroys the lake and eats up the lotus stalk. I shall kill thee, and take thy life.

In particularly obscene song he describes the apparent rape and murder of a dombi (or a woman of low caste), which is in reality a description of an internal yogic process and an external tantric ritual under the guise of this ribald poem. Here the obtuse language culminating in the murder of the woman at the end of the song refers to the mastery of such bodily fetters as breath, semen and thought. Here the Kapalin is used as the symbol of the perfect Yogin because by symbolically transcending murder, he has realized the identity of opposites such as good and evil.

Major Beliefs

The Kapalikas have been related to an extremely austere penance known as the Mahavrata or "Great vow". This ritual is essentially penance which is to be performed for forgiveness of the murder of a brahmin. It involves ritual reviling, obscene dialouge and sexual intercourse. Rules for this penance involve: 1) building and living in a forest hut, 2) bathing three times a day, 3) collecting alms by wandering from village to village to beg, 4) sleeping on grass, and 5) carrying the skull of the slain person, all for a term of 12 years. Commentators vary as to the use of this skull, a trademark of the Kapalika order, suggesting it should be used for the collection of alms, or alternatively as a drinking vessel. Sometimes, the skull is carried on a staff. Some prescriptions suggest that the Mahavratin must wear the skin of a dog or donkey. This form of penance bears a striking resemblance to the lifestyle of the Kapalika, who are described as having lived in forests, wearing animal skins and carrying skulls. It has been suggested that the Kapalikas adopted this vow because it represents the penance for the most heinous of all crimes, which juxtaposes thier status as the holiest ascetics with their criminal tendencies Further, Kapalikas innocent of the crime would accumulate much religious merit and subsequently magical power from their great penance.

Additionally, the Mahavrata models the penance Siva was forced to perform for beheading Brahma, the creator god. The begging skull, for example, was often identified as the skull of Brahma. Thus, by performing the penance, Kapalikas come into a mystical identification with Shiva, the height of spiritual attainment. By repeating Shiva's performance of the Mahavrata, the ascetics beleived they could gain some of Shiva's divine attributes, including eight magical powers or siddhis.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dasgupta, S.B. Obscure Religious Cults. 2nd Ed. Calcutta; Firma K.L. Mukhopadhay, 1962.
• Lorenzen, David. The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1972. ISBN 81-208-0708-1