https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=KapalikaKapalika - Revision history2026-07-31T12:16:31ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Kapalika&diff=141230&oldid=prev2402:3A80:1AD9:E78C:F26E:42C8:C5B:29F1 at 04:27, 4 August 20212021-08-04T04:27:30Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|Non-Puranic form of Shaivism}}<br />
{{about||the 2013 Malayalam film|Kapalika (film)|the 1973 Malayalam film|Kaapalika}}<br />
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[[File:DevelopmentofShaivism.jpg|thumb|350px|The Kāpālika tradition and its offshoots in [[Shaivism]].]]<br />
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The '''Kāpālika''' tradition was a [[Tantra|Tantric]], non-[[Puranic]] form of [[Shaivism]] in [[India]].<ref name=lochtefeld349>{{cite book |author=James G. Lochtefeld |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC&pg=PA349 |year=2001 |publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8 |page=349}}</ref><ref name=Flood2003>{{cite book|author=Gavin Flood|title=The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKBxa-MNqA8C|year=2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-99868-7|pages=212–213}}</ref> The word is derived from ''[[Kapala|kapāla]]'', meaning "skull", and ''Kāpālika'' means the "skull-men". The Kāpālikas were an extinct sect of Shaivite ascetics devoted to the [[Hindu god]] [[Shiva]] dating back to the 8th century CE, which traditionally carried a skull-topped trident (''[[khatvanga]]'') and an empty [[skull]] as a begging bowl.<ref name=lochtefeld349/><ref name=Flood2003/> Other attributes associated with Kāpālikas were that they revered the fierce [[Bhairava]] form of Shiva by emulating his behavior and characteristics,<ref name=lochtefeld349/><ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|page=4}}</ref> smeared their body with ashes from the [[cremation ground]]s,<ref name=lochtefeld349/> wore their hair long and [[Matted hair|matted]],<ref name=lochtefeld349/> and engaged in rituals with blood, meat, alcohol.<ref name=lochtefeld349/><ref name=Flood2003/><br />
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According to David Lorenzen, there is a paucity of primary sources on Kāpālikas, and historical information about them is available from fictional works and other traditions who disparage them.<ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|page=xii}}</ref> Various Indian texts claim that the Kāpālikas drank liquor freely, both for ritual and as a matter of habit.<ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|page=5}}</ref> The Chinese pilgrim to India in the 7th century CE, [[Xuanzang|Hsuan Tsang]], in his memoir on what is now northwest Pakistan, wrote about Buddhists living with naked ascetics who cover themselves with ashes and wore bone wreathes on their heads, but Hsuan Tsang does not call them Kapalikas or any particular name. Scholars have interpreted these ascetics variously as Kāpālikas, [[Digambara|Digambara Jains]], and [[Pashupata Shaivism|Pashupatas]].<ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|pages=15–16}}</ref><br />
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The Kāpālikas were more of a monastic order, states Lorenzen, and not a sect with a textual doctrine.<ref>{{cite book|author=David N. Lorenzen|title=The Kāpālikas and Kālāmukhas: Two Lost Śaivite Sects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4hm-k6fKs4C |year=1972|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-01842-6|page=xi}}</ref> The Kāpālika tradition gave rise to the [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kulamārga]], a category of Tantric Shaivism which preserves some of the distinctive features of the Kāpālika tradition.<ref>Sanderson, Alexis. [http://www.alexissanderson.com/uploads/6/2/7/6/6276908/sanderson_2014_the_saiva_literature_jist_kyoto_(1).pdf "The Śaiva Literature."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104838/http://www.alexissanderson.com/uploads/6/2/7/6/6276908/sanderson_2014_the_saiva_literature_jist_kyoto_(1).pdf |date=4 March 2016 }} Journal of Indological Studies (Kyoto), Nos. 24 & 25 (2012–2013), 2014, pp.4-5, 11, 57.</ref> Some of the Kāpālika Shaiva practices are found in [[Vajrayana Buddhism]], and scholars disagree on who influenced whom.<ref>Ronald Davidson (2002), ''Indian Esoteric Buddhism'', Columbia University Press. pages 202-218</ref> Today, the Kāpālika tradition survives within its Shaivite offshoots: the [[Aghori]] order, [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula]], and [[Trika]] traditions.<br />
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==Literature==<br />
Dyczkowski (1988: p.&nbsp;26) holds that [[Hāla]]'s [[Prakrit literature]] poem, the ''[[Gaha Sattasai]]'', is one of the first extant literary references to a kapalika:<br />
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<blockquote>One of the earliest references to a Kāpālika is found in Hāla's Prakrit poem, the ''Gāthāsaptaśati'' (third to fifth century A.D.) in a verse in which the poet describes a young female Kāpālikā who besmears herself with ashes from the funeral pyre of her lover. Varāhamihira (c500-575) refer more than once to the Kāpālikas thus clearly establishing their existence in the sixth century. Indeed, from this time onwards references to Kāpālika ascetics become fairly commonplace in Sanskrit&nbsp;...<ref>Dyczkowski, Mark S. G. (1988). ''The canon of the Śaivāgama and The Kubjikā Tantras of the western Kaula tradition''. SUNY series in Kashmir Śaivism. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-88706-494-9}}, {{ISBN|978-0-88706-494-4}} Source: [https://books.google.com/books?id=qoZIJMGo4W0C&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=V%C4%81m%C4%81c%C4%81ra&source=bl&ots=MfmKHrqqkl&sig=gJGdk8G_oFGes6-jiv8ijNq1lk0&hl=en&ei=aDFqS_rHCdGTkAWewry2DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=&f=false] (accessed: Thursday February 4, 2010)</ref></blockquote><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Aghori]]<br />
* [[Kashmir Shaivism]]<br />
* [[Kaula (Hinduism)|Kaula]]<br />
* [[Mahasiddha]]<br />
* [[Mattavilasa Prahasana]]<br />
* [[Pashupata Shaivism]]<br />
* [[Vajrayana]]<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* [[Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend]] ({{ISBN|0-500-51088-1}}) by Anna L. Dallapiccola (London : Thames & Hudson, 2002).<br />
* ''Kapalikas and Kalamukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects'' ({{ISBN|0-520-01842-7}}) by David N. Lorenzen (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1972).<br />
* ''Mattavilasaprahasana'' by [[Māni Mādhava Chākyār]]<br />
* ''[[Ankalaparamecuvari]] : a goddess of Tamilnadu, her myths and cult'' ({{ISBN|3-515-04702-6}}) by Eveline Meyer (Stuttgart : Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH, 1986)<br />
* ''The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism.'' by Gavin Flood. 2003. Malden: Blackwell.<br />
* ''Indian Esoteric Buddhism.'' by Ronald Davidson. 2002. Columbia University Press.<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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[[Category:Hindu tantra]]<br />
[[Category:Shaiva sects]]<br />
[[Category:Vajrayana]]</div>2402:3A80:1AD9:E78C:F26E:42C8:C5B:29F1