Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c15.56

v2.c15.56

"Thus the Kāpālas say, 'He who knows the true nature of the six *mudrās*, who understands the highest *mudrā*, meditating upon himself as in the position called *bhagāsana*, reaches *Nirvāṇa*. The necklace, the golden ornament, the ear-ring, the head-jewel, ashes, and the sacred thread are called the six *mudrās*. He whose body is marked with these is not born here again. Similarly, the Kālāmukhas teach that the means of obtaining all desired results in this world as well as the next are constituted by certain practices such as using a skull as a drinking vessel, smearing oneself with ashes of the dead body, eating the flesh of such a body, carrying a heavy stick, setting up a liquor-jar and using it as a platform for making offerings to the Gods, and the like. ‘A bracelet made of Rudrāksha-seeds on the arm, matted hair on the head, a skull, smearing oneself with ashes etc.,’—all this is well known from the sacred writings of the Śaivas. They also hold that by some special ceremonial performance men of different castes may become Brāhmaṇas and reach the highest *āśrama*: ‘by merely entering on the initiatory ceremony (*dīkshā*) a man becomes a Brāhmaṇa at once; by undertaking the Kāpāla rite a man becomes at once an ascetic.”