Elements of Hindu Iconography v2.c15.57

v2.c15.57

We learn a little more about the Kāpālikas from stray mention made of them in a number of books. For instance, Kṛishṇamiśra in his *Prabodhachandrodaya* introduces a Kāpālika as a character in that drama who describes himself in the following words: “My necklace and ornaments consist of human bones; I live in the ashes of the dead and eat my food in human skulls. I look with my eyes made keen with the ointment of yōga and I believe that though the different parts of the world are different, yet the whole is not different from God. O! Digambara! listen to our rites: after fasting we drink liquor from the skulls of Brāhmaṇas; our sacrificial fires are kept up with the brains and lungs of men which are mixed up with their flesh, and the offerings by which we appease our terrific God are human victims covered with gushing blood from the horrible cut on their throats. I contemplate on the lord of Bhavānī, the mighty God who creates, preserves and destroys the fourteen worlds whose glory is revealed in the Vēdas as well as in his deeds." The Śaṅkaravijaya of Anantānandagiri states that when Śaṅkara went to Ujjayini, the foremost men of all the sects living there came for a religious disputation with him. Among them one sect of Kāpālikas had the following characteristic feature and doctrines. They wore sphaṭika (crystal beads), the arddha-candra (an ornament shaped like the crescent moon) and the jaṭā (or matted heir). Their God is Bhairava, the author of creation, protection and destruction; they believe that all other gods are subservient to him. Bhairava has eight different aspects namely Asitāṅga, Ruru, Caṇḍa, Krōdha, Unmatta Bhairava, Kāpāla, Bhīshma and Saṃhāra-Bhairava corresponding to Vishṇu, Brahmā, Sūrya, Rudra, Indra, Chandra, Yama and the Supreme Being respectively. This class of Kāpālikas was taken by Śaṅkarāchārya, states Anantānandagiri, into the fold of Brahmanism. But another subject of Kāpālikas headed by one Unmatta-Bhairava came to wrangle with Śaṅkara; he had smeared his body with the ashes of the dead and wore a garland of skulls; his forehead was marked with a streak of black stuff. The whole of the hair of his head was turned into jaṭās. He wore a kaṭisūtra and a kaupīna consisting of tiger's skin and carried in his left hand a skull and in the right a bell. He was calling out the names of Śambhu, Bhairava and Kāḷīśa. He said that their mōksha consisted in joining Bhairava after death. Śaṅkara rejected this class of Kāpālas as incorrigible. Living with one's wife happily in this world as does Chandraśēkhara (Śiva) with his consort Pārvatī in heaven, is also considered by the Kāpālikas as mōkshā. It is certain that this sect of Śaivas were freely indulging in human sacrifices, for there are literary evidences to this effect. Bhavabhūti introduces in his drama Mālatī-Mādhava a Kāpālika who, for having attained