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Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c14: Chapter Ten: The Forerunners of the Gorakhnāthīs

Gorakhnāth and the Kānphaṭa Yogīs c14

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Chapter Ten: The Forerunners of the Gorakhnāthīs

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DISSATISFACTIONS with life arose far back in India; and the ascetic¹ and the mechanisms of the austere life, are in evidence in the earliest literature. The Dīkṣa rite,² for example, includes elements which are already in the *Rig Veda* ascetic in form. And even then the contradiction of natural desire, mortification of the body by unnatural inhibitions of all its desires (the conception of *tapas*) occupies a large place. Early the term tapas, applies to ascetic practices in general. The efficacy of the endurance of discomforts and of the difficulties of performance are recognized. The enducement of ecstatic states, of hysteria, of trance and of excitements through drugs and sex stimulation likewise are then known. These point toward mystic union with Reality and the acquisition of unusual powers. Tapas engendered strength, great in the extreme, involving mystic and creative power. Creation itself had its rise in tapas.³ In the *Brāhmaṇas* Prajāpati practices tapas in order to acquire creative powers. In those writings also is found the recognition of the efficacy of asceticism in the pursuit of knowledge. ‘Heaven is established on the air, the air on the earth, the earth on the waters, the waters on truth, the truth on the mystic love (of the sacrifice) and that on tapas.’⁴ In the *Śatapata Brāhmaṇa* and afterwards, the gods create the worlds through the power of tapas.⁵ Further on, while some of the earlier *Upaniṣads* express doubts on the matter,¹ in the later (verse) *Upaniṣads*, from the *Kena* on, its value for the attainment of knowledge is recognized and is often insisted upon.² The *Jābāla* upholds an extreme asceticism and asks that men root out all desires.³ Rhys Davids says that the nearer we get to Buddhism, the greater the importance we see attached to *tapas* (self-torture). Nowhere else in the world, he says, has the art of pain been so much studied as in India.

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¹ On this and the two following sections, see *ERE*, vol. II, pp. 63 ff.

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² Keith, *Religion and Philosophy of the Veda*, vol. I, p. 301.

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³ *Rig Veda*, 10, 129, 3.

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⁴ *Ait. Br.*, 11, 6, 4.

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⁵ *E.g.*, 6, 1, 13.

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¹ *Bṛh. Up.*, 3, 8, 10; 4, 4, 22.

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² Keith, *Religion and Philosophy of the Veda*, vol. II, pp. 514 ff.; *Kena*, 33; *Praśna*, 1, 10; *Muṇḍ.*, 1, 2, 11.

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³ Radhakrishnan, *Indian Philosophy*, vol. I, p. 510.

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In the *Epics* austerities have become longer and harder and self-mortification has become a permanent idea and practice in the religious life of India. In the *Rāmāyaṇa* are to be found pictures of hermitage after hermitage famous for their ascetics who have acquired powers and privileges through prolonged austerities. The *Mahābhārata* in like manner sets forth this strenuous life.

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Again, in the *Upaniṣads*, asceticism is related to special stages in life.⁴ The conception of the *Āśramas*, ‘places of asceticism,’ arose complicating the old rules of life.⁵ In the the earliest *Upaniṣads* the ascetic ideal is scarcely more than an alternative way of life beside that of the student and householder; but, in the later *Upaniṣads* the four stages are ordered.⁶

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⁴ *Bṛh. Up.*, *Chānd Up.*, IA, 1923, p. 278.

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⁵ Keith, *Religion and Philosophy of the Veda*, vol. II, p. 587.

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⁶ E.g., *Jābāla*. See Deussen, *The Philosophy of the Upanishads*, pp. 367 ff.

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The powers of *tapas* and meditation, those arising from putting one’s self in rapport with creative force, are declared to be supernatural. In the old days the worshipper tried, through concentration on the hymns to Agni, to identify himself with the glowing world energy resident in all things. In *tapas* he expressed Agni’s eternal essence and activity, as illumination broke over the *tapasvin*. *Tapas* became the final world power out of which appeared the darkness, the primeval ocean, the creation: ‘From fervour kindled to its height eternal law and truth were born.’⁷ And in *Manu*⁸ we read, ‘Just by means of his own fixed attention (*dhyānāt*) he splits the egg in two.’ These attitudes, far apart in time, speak of the same view of extraordinary and creative power for man, and the means thereto.

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⁷ See *Rig Veda*, 10, 190, 1.

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⁸ 1, 12.

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In *Manu* the formal conditions and rules for the austere life are set forth.¹ Here the rights and privileges of the ascetic are confined to the twice-born. In the sixth lecture² are set forth in detail the third and fourth stages of life (*Āśrama*). While a considerable portion of the chapter is now obsolete, still, it exhibits the earlier ideal. In the third stage the individual lives a very strict life, but continues to perform certain ritualistic acts. His food is mostly wild stuffs, and he may restrict it greatly in well-known ways. Austerities such as the use of the five fires, uncomfortable clothes, and silence are described. In the fourth stage the man severs all family and social ties, takes to begging, eats little, meditates, is indifferent to every sort of condition, and looks upon life as unattractive.

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¹ And in other works on *Dharma* likewise. For references see *ERE*, vol. II, p. 89.

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² *Manu*, vi, 1-87.

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The references given above will suffice to show how ascetic ideas developed and permeated the thought and life of ancient India. Such notions have prevailed continuously down to the present time.

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If it be objected that the conceptions of asceticism alluded to above form a one-sided picture, it must be remembered that this study has to do with Yogis whose practice is that of the Haṭha Yoga.³

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³ See Kirtikar, V. J., *Studies in the Vedanta*, chap. eight, and especially p. 134.

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Not only is there very early the presence of the ideas of asceticism, but also the figure of the ascetic himself, almost as he appears today, is found in the oldest literature. The ‘mad’ *muni* is described in the following hymn:⁴

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⁴ *Rig Veda*, 10, 136. The translation is from Griswold’s *Religion of the Rig Veda*, pp. 338 ff. See Marshall, vol. I. pp. 53 ff. and plates XLVIII and C for evidence of posture and other elements characteristic of Indian asceticism in the Indus Civilization.

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The hairy one supports the fire,
The poison-fluid, and heaven and earth;

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He is all sky to look upon,
The hairy one is called this light.
The Munis, girdled with the wind,
Wear garments soiled, of yellow hue;
After the wind’s course follow they,
When once the gods have entered them.
Transported with the ecstasy
Of Munihood we mount the winds;
Ye, mortal men, are able now
To see our bodies and no more.
He flies through regions of the air,
Beholding all the various forms,—
The Muni, who was made a friend
Of every god for ministry.
The steed of Vāta, Vāyu’s friend,
The Muni, by the gods impelled,
In both the oceans hath his home,
In eastern and in western seas.
Treading the path of sylvan beasts,
Gandharvas and Apsarases,
The hairy one knows every thought,
Sweet and most stimulating friend.
Vāyu has twirled for him; for him
He breaketh things most hard to bend;
When he, the hairy one, has drunk
With Rudra from the poison-cup.

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Concerning this hymn Keith says:¹

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¹ Religion and Philosophy of the Veda, vol. II, p. 402.

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He differs entirely from the Brāhman student or the man undergoing consecration, for his ecstasy is not connected either with the sacrifice or with any of the rites ancillary to it or to the entry of the youth into the full life of the community. His mortal body men see, but he himself fares on the path of the Apsarases, the Gandharvas, the beasts of the wild, he dwells in the east and the western ocean, the steed of Vāta, the friend of Vāyu, inspired by the gods. He knows secret desires, he is the dearest friend, he supports Agni and both the worlds, he is the heaven and the light, and his ecstasy, it seems, is due to a potent draught which, with Rudra, he drinks from a goblet, perhaps a reference to the use of some poison to produce exhilaration or hypnosis. His hair is long, his soiled garments are of yellow hue.

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Hauer, in *Der Yoga Als Heilweg*² expresses the opinion that in this hymn there are materials belonging to the Rudra- Śiva cycle. The hymn describes those primitive ecstatics who, under the intoxication of holy poisons, overcome all earthly difficulty, reach out to cosmic forces and become like the gods in possessing vision and unusual powers. They know the earthly fetters which bind men and know how to bring help to their fellows.

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² P. 12.

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The fifteenth book of the *Atharva Veda* appertains to the Vrātya, a seeker after ecstatic trance, a dealer in the supernatural, a type of Yogī. These were Āryans outside the sphere of Vedic culture who were admitted into Brāhman circles by means of ceremonial. Certain of their hymns, apparently, constitute such a ritual. They practised neither agriculture nor commerce nor did they follow the rules of the Brahmacharya.¹

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¹ See Vedic Index.

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Hauer² lays considerable emphasis upon the importance of this cult in the history of Yoga. The Vrātyas had intimate dealings with Prajāpati and were worshippers of Rudra-Śiva, holding an early form of the theistic Sāṅkhya-Yoga philosophy. He holds that they were ascetics, possessing a ritual, who later found their way into Brāhmanism. It is of interest to note that they laid emphasis upon the doctrine of the breaths, naming three, five, six, ten and even more, assimilating them to functions of the cosmic process. Among their severe practices (tapas) is mentioned that of standing for a year upright. They moved about the country in strange processions, using song and choral ceremonial, dealing out blessings and curses according as they were honoured or offended. Their clothing and ornaments were fantastic; their turban was peculiar and their white garments were marked with black figures. The Vrātya stood upon a cart drawn by horses and mules and carried a magic bowl and a spear. Before him went swift runners.

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² Der Yoga Als Heilweg, pp. 8 ff. Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda, vol. II, pp. 338, 402, does not follow Hauer with reference to the Vrātya.

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He was accompanied by a prostitute. The Vrātya represented the god and the prostitute the goddess. Their practices and ceremonial suggest the later Tāntric ritual in the use of intoxicating drink, flesh, and grain, and in the association of Rudra with the goddess. The Vrātya seems to have known the experiences of concentration, of soul expansion, of the enhancement of personality-consciousness similar to those described by Patañjali in connection with samādhi, experiences which occur when the man in trance is raised above his own narrow I, over time and space. He was the greatly honoured holy man, possessed of supernatural power, approximating divine personality, wandering about the country.

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Probably before 800 B.C. the Vaikhānasa¹ appears. The Parivrājaka, Bhikṣu, the wandering beggar and the Vānaprastha, or anchorite, are familiar forms before the rise of Buddhism. And the Upaniṣads know the Sannyāsī, the renouncer striving for the knowledge of the Brahma-Ātman.² Realizing the Ātman, men, liberated, exalted in mind,

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¹ See also Gāutama Dharma Śastra, vol. III, 26.

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² See Keith, Religion and Philosophy of the Veda, vol. II, pp. 589 ff.

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gave up completely the life of the family and the world and became wandering, homeless, celibate ascetics, without possessions, without responsibilities, devoted altogether to the life of the Ātman.³

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³ FORL, p. 52.

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With the story of the Buddha we meet full-fledged familiar asceticism. While Gāutama turned aside for extremes in this, as in all things, still, Brāhman and Jāin laid emphasis upon such a life. The description of the company to which the Buddha joined himself, as set forth popularly in *The Light of Asia*,⁴ is exact enough for illustration:

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⁴ Pp. 115, 116, 117.

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Midway on Ratnagiri's groves of calm,
Beyond the city, but below the caves,
Lodged such as hold the body foe to soul,
And flesh a beast which men must chain and tame
With bitter pains, till sense of pain is killed,
And tortured nerves vex torturer no more:
Yogīs and Brahmachārīs, Bhikshus, all
A gaunt and mournful band, dwelling apart.
Some day and night had stood with lifted arms,
Till—drained of blood and withered by disease—
Their slowly wasting joints and stiffened limbs
Jutted from sapless shoulders like dead forks
From forest trunks. Others had clenched their hands
So long and with so fierce a fortitude,

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The claw-like nails grew through the festered palm.
Some walked on sandals spiked; some with sharp flints
Gashed breast and brow and thigh, scarred these with fire,
Threaded their flesh with jungle thorns and spits,
Besmeared with mud and ashes, crouching foul
In rags of dead men wrapped about their loins.
Certain there were inhabited the spots
Where death-pyres smouldered, cowering defiled
With corpses for their company, and kites
Screaming around them o'er the funeral-spoils;
Certain who cried five hundred times a day
The names of Shiva, knit with hissing snakes
About their sun-tanned necks and hollow flanks,
One palsied foot drawn up against the ham.
So gathered they, a grievous company;
Crowns blistered by the blazing heat, eyes bleared,
Sinews and muscles shrivelled, visages
Haggard and wan as slain men's, five days dead;
Here crouched one in the dust who noon by noon
Meted a thousand grains of millet out,
Ate it with famished patience, seed by seed,
And so starved on; there one who bruised his pulse
With bitter leaves lest palate should be pleased;
And next, a miserable saint self-maimed,
Eyeless and tongueless, sexless, crippled, deaf;
The body by the mind being thus stripped
For glory of much suffering, and the bliss
Which they shall win—say holy books—whose woe
Shames gods that send us woe, and makes men gods
Stronger to suffer than Hell is to harm.

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A description from the *Rāmāyaṇa*¹ runs as follows:

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¹ Book 3, Canto 6. Griffith's translation.

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Vāikhānasas who love the wild,
Pure hermits Bālakhiyas styled,
Good Śamprakṣālas, saints who live
On rays which moon and daystar give:
Those who with leaves their lives sustain,
And those who pound with stones their grain:
And they who live in pools, and those
Whose corn, save teeth, no winnow knows:
Those who for beds the cold earth use,
And those who every couch refuse:
And those condemned to ceaseless pains,
Whose single foot their weight sustains:
And those who sleep neath open skies,
Whose food the wave or air supplies,
And hermits pure who spend their nights,

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On ground prepared for sacred rites:
Those who on hills their vigil hold,
On dripping clothes around them fold;
The devotees who live for prayer.
Or the five fires unflinching bear. . .

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There is no need to continue to set forth the presence of the ascetic in ancient India but it is interesting to read about the ascetics whom the Greeks met during Alexander's sojourn in India in 326 B.C.¹

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¹ The Cambridge History of India, vol. I, pp. 358ff. Quoted by permission of Macmillan and Company, Publishers.

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At Takshaçilā, so far as we know, the Greeks first noticed Indian ascetics. The report reached Alexander himself of a strange set of men who were to be seen naked somewhere near the city, 'practising endurance, men commanding a great reverence among the people. It was no use his sending for them, since they would certainly refuse to come: those who wished to learn their secret must go to them. Alexander, however, on his side, felt he could not go to them consistently with his dignity: so he chose an envoy, a Greek officer named Onesicritus, who had been a disciple of the Cynic philosopher, Diogenes, a figure obviously akin to the Indian ascetics. Onesicritus, in the book he afterwards wrote, gave an account of his interesting mission, and we may still read it in Strabo's version. He found fifteen ascetics some ten miles from the city, sitting naked and motionless in a sun so burning that one could not even walk over the stones with bare feet. Onesicritus could only communicate with them through a series of three interpreters, but he made them understand that the Yavana king would like to learn their wisdom. The ascetic to whom he first addressed himself answered bluntly that no one coming in the bravery of European clothes—cavalry cloak and broad-brimmed hat and top-boots, such as the Macedonians wore—could learn their wisdom. To do that, he must strip naked and learn to sit on the hot stones beside them. Another answered more mildly that it was really very creditable for such a man as Alexander to desire to know something of the deeper wisdom, but one must remember that to attempt to convey their teaching through three interpreters, common men incapable of understanding more than the mere words, would be like trying to make water flow clear through mud. They seem however to have made an attempt, and then they asked Onesicritus whether among the Yavanas there was any teaching of this kind, and he told them about Pythagoras and Socrates and his old master, Diogenes. The ascetics seemed pleased, but expressed regret that the wise men of the Greeks had clung to such superfluities as clothes. One of these ascetics was ultimately persuaded by the rāja of Takshaçilā to accompany Alexander and return to clothes and a worldly life. His companions considered it an apostasy, and followed him with reproaches. The name of this Indian, who remained a notable figure in Alexander’s entourage, was one which Plutarch reproduces as ‘Sphines,’ but the Greeks, catching among the Indian words of greeting which he exchanged with his fellow-countrymen, the word, *kalyāṇa*, ‘lucky,’ came to call him Kalanos.

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Lanman points out¹ that Onesicritus reported with great accuracy the interviews which he had with Hindu ascetics:

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¹ *Harvard Theological Review*, October, 1918, p. 358.

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That is the best doctrine, which rids the spirit not only of grief but also of joy; and again, that that dwelling-place is the best, for which the scantiest equipment or outfit is needed.

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Alberuni describes practices of Yoga.²

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² *Alberuni’s India*, vol. I, p. 69. His date is in the eleventh century. See p. 443.

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Reference must be made to ancient notions concerning the aims, the powers and the privileges issuing from ascetic practices. In the *Rāmāyaṇa*, for example, the renowned superiors of hermit settlements were held in the highest reverence and talked of the greatness of the boons and rewards that they had won. And throughout Indian literature is found abundant testimony on these points. Among the aims of asceticism may be mentioned first the attainment of the ecstatic condition. Originally, perhaps, this department of experience was reserved for the medicine man; but, in the *Upaniṣads* at least, the sage seeks such states of soul. The figure already exhibited from the *Ṛig Veda* is in a frenzy. This muni is also addicted to poisons. And it is clear that from ancient time drugs and sex stimulations were used for the same ends of ecstasy and trance.

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For the *Atharva Veda* Professor Radhakrishnan’s summary will suffice:³

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³ *Indian Philosophy*, by S. Radhakrishnan, vol. I, p. 121. Quoted by permission of Macmillan and Company, Publishers.

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We hear of great ascetics who obtain the mastery of nature by *tapas*. They reduce the elemental forces to their control by this asceticism. It was then well known that ecstatic conditions could be induced by the mortification of the body. Man can participate in divine power by the hidden force of magic. The professors of magic and witchcraft were accepted by the Vedic seers, and their calling was dignified, with the result that magic and mysticism soon became confused. We find people sitting in the midst of five fires, standing

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on one leg, holding an arm above the head, all for the purpose of commanding the forces of nature and subduing the gods to their will.

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Reference has already been made to supernatural and creative powers engendered by asceticism. All sorts of marvellous things were won through protracted and extreme penance. And all down through India's past are to be found men who through asceticism have realized the impossible. Dhruva¹ is a famous example. Viśvāmitra, the Kṣatriya, by most severe and protracted austerities compelled the gods to grant him the birth and rights of a Brāhman.² This story from the *Epic* belongs to an earlier period. Nahuṣa by *tapas* won for himself the rank of Indra.³ From the other *Epic* two examples may be cited. Rāvaṇa acquired, through ascetic practices, invulnerability to death by gods or demigods, and Virādha secured immunity against all kinds of weapons. The *Rāmāyaṇa* is full of mighty saints, miracle-workers.

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¹ Mahābhārata, Viṣṇu parvā, 1, 11, 12. See Dawson, Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology, p. 91.

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² Muir, Sanskrit Texts, vol. I, pp. 388 ff.

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³ Muir, Sanskrit Texts, vol. I, p. 307.

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*Manu* recognizes the power of asceticism.

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Whatever is hard to be traversed, whatever is hard to be attained, whatever is hard to be reached, whatever is hard to be performed, all may be accomplished by austerities; for austerity (possesses a power) which it is difficult to surpass.⁴

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⁴ 11, 239 ff.

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Since the Yogīs are a monastic order, it may be of interest to look for a moment at the development of the monastic idea in India. The institution is old. The Buddha organized his followers and set up his characteristic institution, the Saṅgha. The establishments of the order flourished and became in later centuries great in size, importance and wealth. There may be a question as to whether the Buddha originated the institution.⁵ Barth thinks that the organization of the Saṅgha was perfected before the time of Aśoka.⁶ But, in the Jāin faith, evidences seem clear that Mahāvīra was the last of a long line (twenty-four in all) of leaders. Of these his immediate predecessor as *tīrtha-kara* died some 250 years before him. Farquhar¹ puts the order of Sannyāsīs before those of the Buddhists and Jains. Earlier organizations were probably much simpler and perhaps were only places of residence for the rainy season.² The Yātīs and the Cārvākas seem to have had a simple sort of monastic organization. The major ascetic orders of the present time, of all sects, have their maṭhas, or monasteries, and many of these institutions are old.

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⁵ See ERE, vol. VIII, p. 799.

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⁶ Religions of India, p. 127.

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¹ ‘The Fighting Ascetics of India,’ *Bulletin of the John Rylands Library*, vol. IX, No. 2, July, 1925. Oldenberg traces the institution to the Sannyāsī. (*Buddha*, p. 32.)

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² See *ERE*, vol. VII, p. 214. It is difficult to conceive of schools or orders of ascetics without establishments of some kind. Cf. *Hindu Civilization*, by R. K. Mookerji, p. 220.

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Since the Yogīs are one of the chief divisions of the Śaivite ascetics,³ attention will now be drawn especially to the line of ascetic orders out of which they have come.

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³ In this section on Śaivite sects Bhandarkar’s *Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems* has been freely used.

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As reported in a previous chapter, Śiva is the ideal ascetic. He exhibits both the get-up, the austerities and the powers arising from the pursuit of such activities. Even in the hymn to the ‘mad’ muni are discernible attributes such as the master Yogī, Śiva, exhibits.

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The Yogīs are the residue of ancient Śaivite sects which began as philosophies and became ascetic orders.⁴ More particularly are they Pāśupata Śaivas. However, influences of decadent Buddhism are clearly indicated in the Nepalese traditions of the Gorakhnāthīs and both Buddhist and Tāntric characteristics in the legends from Bengal. The chief of the Śaivite sects which precede the Kānphaṭas were the Pāśupata, the Lakulīśa, the Kālāmukha and the Kāpālika (and the Aghorī?) all of which are Pāśupata. The Kānphaṭas share many things with the earlier orders and do not differ so very much from them. The Pāśupata sects, as such, have almost completely disappeared. A few Aghorīs may be seen now and then. They are old Kāpālikas and a few Aughars who are Kāpālikas reformed under the influence of Kabīr.⁵

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⁴ Hopkins, *Religions of India*, p. 487.

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⁵ FORL, p. 347.

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The earlier name, Maheśvara is an equivalent of Pāśupata. Here Paśupati is represented as having used the five topics of the sect. This makes the god their original teacher, much as the Gorakhnāthis make Ādinātha, as Śiva, the original teacher of the Yogīs. In South India Lakulin or Lakulīśa is said to be the original teacher of the order. Lakulīśa became a name for the schools of the Pāśupatas, at least after the eleventh century. Likewise the Kālāmukhas were called Lakulīśas. Bhandarkar concludes that these three names cover about the same period of time.

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Lakula was a general term by which Śiva sects were called, another was Pāśupata. Later arose out of this original Lakulīśa-Pāśupata sect the three systems, Pāśupata, Kālāmukha and Kāpālika. These sects were more extreme and less rational than the other Śaivites. Bhandarkar says that from 934 to 1285, in inscriptions, Lakula was a general name designating sects of Śiva.¹

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¹ Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems, p. 121. See Fleet, JRAS, 1907, pp. 419 ff.

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One of the early references to Pāśupatas² is in the Atharva Śiras where their vow is recorded. They are enjoined to give up greed and anger; to realize forgiveness; to mutter the syllable oṃ; to practice the meditation which issues in perception. There the Pāśupata device of besmearing the body with ashes is used with the words:

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² On the systems of the Nakulīśa-Pāśupata see Sarva Darśana Sanghra, pp. 103 ff.

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The ash is fire, the ash is water, the ash is earth, everything is ash, the ether is ash, the mind, the eyes and other senses are ashes.

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The Pāśupata vow is enjoined for the removal of the noose with which the Paśu or individual soul is tied. This practice is calculated to effect deliverance from the trammels of life. The expression, ‘Paśu-pāśa vimokṣa’, which means ‘the loosening of the noose tied round the neck of beings,’ is characteristic of the Pāśupata sect.

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The Mahābhārata knows the Pāśupata³; and the sect, which is represented as open to all classes, is charged with subverting caste. Here perhaps the name is that of a new Śaivite school of theology.⁴

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³ Hopkins, The Great Epic, p. 118.

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⁴ E.g., 12, 285, 321-350; 13, 14-18, 160-161.

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In the centuries around the Christian Era, perhaps two centuries before, the school was well known and contained many noted men.¹

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¹ See Bhandarkar, p. 117.

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In the Vāyu Purāṇa (c. fourth century A.D.) is found a statement concerning the peculiar Yoga of the sect with its various forms of physical and intellectual discipline. A section of the Purāṇa introduces the Lakulīśa as a sub-sect of the Pāśupatas. They are known in inscriptions of the fifth century.² The sect entered Nepāl in the eighth century,³ where the cult is still popular, as it is in other parts of the Himālayas. Śaṅkara (c. A.D. 850 ) criticized the teachings of the Pāśupatas, and in the twelfth century Rāmānuja did likewise, and named four classes of them, Kāpāla, Kālāmukha, Pāśupata and Śaiva.⁴

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² Hopkins, Religions of India, p. 482.

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³ Smith, Catalogue of Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, pp. 280 ff.

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⁴ For this list see also Bhandarkar, JASBy, vol. XXII, p. 158.

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Śaṅkara⁵ says:

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⁵ Thibaut, The Vedanta Sutra with Sankara's Commentary, pt. I, p. 453.

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The Maheśvaras (Śaivas) maintain that the five categories, viz., effect, cause, union, ritual and the end of pain were taught by the Lord Paśupati (Śiva) to the end of breaking the bonds of the animal (i.e., the soul): Paśupati is according to them, the Lord, the operative cause.

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Their famous statement is that Paśupati is the Lord (Pati) and man his creature (paśu) is bound by the fetter (pāśa of the world, and requires to be set free by the Lord. In more expanded form, the five categories may be set forth thus: (1) Effect (kārya), includes the evolution of pradhāna and the individual soul (paśu); (2) Cause (kāraṇa), Īśvara or Maheśvara (Pati) and pradhāna as efficient and material aspects of the whole creation, Pati possessing unbounded power of acting and knowing; (3) Union (Yoga), absorption in meditation or muttering the syllable oṃ, contemplation embracing both action and the cessation of action; (4) bathing in ashes, besmearing the body with ashes, sleeping in ashes, mutterings, absurd and obscene practices; (5) final deliverance (dukhānta), total destruction of misery and the acquirement of special powers.

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Rāmānuja¹ says:

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¹ Thibaut, *Vedanta Sutras with Ramanuja's Commentary*, p. 520.

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They maintain the general material cause to be constituted by Paśupati. They further hold the wearing of the so-called 'mudrā' badges and the like to be means to accomplish the highest end of man.

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In Devendra's *Mahārāṣṭri Tales*, the Pāśupata ascetic, really a highway robber,

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Wears a diadem of long matted hair; his limbs are strewn with ashes; in his fist he holds a trident; he is encircled with evil-averting amulets; his fingers are busy with his hermit's token.²

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² Wi., p. 80.

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Bloomfield³ describes the Pāśupatas as persons who practice deceit and violence, as robbers and would-be murderers.

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³ *JAOS*, vol. XLIV, p. 232.

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Even in the *Great Epic*⁴ they are looked upon with disfavour.

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⁴ 12, 285, 194-195.

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They bear the brand of the *liṅga* on forehead, arms, breast and navel. Farquhar⁵ states that they laid emphasis on the worship of the *liṅga*, an aspect of Lakulīśa practice. Suggestive *Epic* expressions as recorded by him are: *ūrdhva-liṅga*, *sthira-liṅga*, *ūrdhva-retas* and *mahāśepo-nagno*. Their marks are the necklace, the golden ornament, the ear-ring, the head-jewel, ashes and the sacred thread—'owning these one is not born again.'⁶

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⁵ *FORL*, p. 103.

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⁶ Thibaut, *Vedanta Sutras with Ramanuja's Commentary*, p. 521.

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The Lakulīśa⁷ are a sub-order of the Pāśupata. The word *Lakula* or *Nakula*, means 'club' and the reference is to the Lord-of-the-Club or the Lord-Bearing-a-Club. Probably the name belongs to a great religious teacher of the school of the Pāśupatas, who carried a club. He has been indentified with Śiva. There is an interesting note in the *Vāyu Purāṇa*,⁸ and in the *Liṅga Purāṇa*⁹, which in the form of prophecy states that Maheśvara in the *Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana* would incarnate as a Brāhman by the name of Lakulin, entering a dead body thrown into a cemetery; and that he would have four disciples who would be Pāśupatas. Thus the movement seems to have its beginning in Gujrāt. Or, as it is otherwise stated, Śiva through his Yogic powers, entered a dead body in a cemetery and became incarnated as Lakula at Kāyāvaroḥaṇa in the Lāṭa Country, Baroda. The inscription at Ekliṅgajī states that Śiva was incorporated in the country of Broach and that he carried a club. The place is located at Karwar in Baroda State and there is still there a temple to Lakulīśa.¹ The teaching of the sect can be traced to the first century of our era². The great Harṣa was a disciple of the faith³. The sect spread also into Merwār and Rājputāna. During the period, 550–900 it spread into the south as well. The Pāśupatas were designated by the name Lakulīśa and were widely worshipped on the plains of India⁴. Lakula was reincarnated in Chilluka in South India in the tenth century⁵. This means evidently that a revival of the movement set in there at that time. It appeared in Melpāḍi, North Arcot, about 1020 and spread to the south. The Kālāmukhas, or ‘Black Friars’ were active in teaching the doctrine in the south in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

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⁷ See *Archaeological Report*, 1906-7, pp. 179 ff. Here evidence shows the cult to be widespread.

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⁸ Chap. 21, vv. 204-212.

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⁹ Chap. 24, vv. 124-137.

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¹ FORL, p. 146.

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² Bhandarkar, *JASBy*, vol. XXII, p. 57.

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³ ERE, vol. VI, p. 702.

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⁴ *Archæological Survey of India Report*, 1915-16, p. 50.

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⁵ ERE, vol. XI, p. 68.

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Temples of the tenth century at Purāṇādhiṣṭhāna (near Śrīnagar in Kashmīr) and that of Pāyar Cave have figures of Lakula on them.⁶ The Ekaliṅgajī inscription of the tenth century, written in Devanāgarī, begins with an obeisance to Lakulīśa. The date of the temple is A.D. 791. Temples of the seventh to the tenth centuries, as for example, that at Jharapatan (seventh century) show Śiva with but two arms, holding a short club, mahāśeponagno.

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⁶ *Archæological Survey of India Report*, 1915-16, p. 75.

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The Nakulīśa-Pāśupatas are described by Mādhava in his *Sarva Darśana Saṅgraha*.⁷ Their system was the doctrine of the Pañcādhyāyi, the main source of the later Śiva systems. It aims at a union of the soul with Śiva by pious mutterings, meditation and the cessation of all action so that the state of mere feeling is attained. By Yoga practices they attained miraculous powers of assuming various shapes and forms, and received messages from the dead. According to them, the religious emotions were to be excited by song and dance, by laughter, by simulating the acts and gestures of one in love, by speaking wildly, by wearing ashes and flowers from images in the temples and by loud uttering of the sacred sound, *hum*, like the sound of *vasat*, an imitation of a sound ascribed to a bull. Some think that the obscene postures depicted in Hindu temples are traceable to their behaviour.¹ All of this is very like that praxis ascribed to the Pāśupatas and the Kālāmukhas. Texts of the Yogis are not ignorant of the substance of them.

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⁷ Chap. six.

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¹ Gopi Nath Rao, *Elements of Hindu Iconography*, vol. II, pt. 1, p. 23, note.

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Special postures are attributed to them and bathing and sleeping in sand instead of ashes is mentioned. They dispensed charity to all comers at their institutions.

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The Kālāmukhas are closely associated with the Lakulīśas, in fact they were the ‘black friars’ who, as exponents of the Lakulīśa doctrines were responsible for its spread in the south during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. An inscription of the twelfth century (1177) notes Lakulīśa and Kālāmukha as one and both as Pāśupata.² Technically they were more extreme in their practices than the Kāpālakas, but there was no *popular* distinction between them.

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² Bhandarkar, *Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, etc.*, p. 120.

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They were distinguished by a black streak on the forehead.³

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³ *Indian Iconography*, vol. II, pt. 1, p. 25.

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The system is referred to in Rāmānuja’s Commentary on the Vedānta Sūtra.⁴ The passage is as follows:

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⁴ See Thibaut’s Translation in *SBE*, p. 521.

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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 the ashes of a 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 Rudrākṣa-seeds on the arm, matted hair on the head, a skull, smearing oneself with ashes, etc. All this is well known from 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 (*dīkṣa*) a man becomes a Brāhmaṇa at once; by undertaking the Kāpāla rite a man becomes at once an ascetic.

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This sect is still active. The members seem to be extremely horrible in character. They worship Śiva as Mahākāla (the great destroyer) or as Kāpālabhṛt (skull-wearer). Kapālin is Bhāirava, the most terrible form of Śiva¹. With these are sometimes associated the possibly more revolting Aghorī. The latter, at least, are cannibalistic. Some modern sections of the cult are of recent origin. The Aghorī Yogīs of the Panjab are somehow related to these orders and that some Aughars were cannibals was admitted to the author during inquiries in that region in the winter of 1924. These disgusting features of the cult are associated with tāntra and the east of Bengal and Assam, and are supposed to be conducive to the acquisition of supernatural powers. These persons are looked upon by the populace with feelings of abhorrence and fear. It is a horrible and demoniacal sect. They seem to be a specialization within the Pāśupata cult rather than a true sect; and are close to Vāmacāra Śāktas, for they offer licentious homage to Śakti and Bhāirava. (The practice of making no discrimination in food is an old Pāśupata one.)

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¹ Vāiṣṇavism and Śāivism, etc., p. 128.

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However, the Kāpālikas (‘wearers of skulls’, they wore skulls around their necks) were known fairly early. They are mentioned in the Daśa-Kumāra-Carita (see below) of the sixth century, and as early as the seventh century in Mahārāṣṭhra. Hiuen Tsang (in India 630-645) saw them and described them as wearers of skulls.

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One of the characters in Bhavabhūti’s (eighth century) Mālatī-Mādhava is a Kāpālika. (See below.) Śaṅkara, so Mādhava says, was in controversy with Kāpālikas. Ānandagiri describes them. Rāmānuja held them to be extreme in their practices and Moshan Fani (seventeenth century) mentions them.

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A general description of them would be as follows: They went about naked, wore a cap while travelling, smeared their bodies with funeral ashes, were armed with a trident or sword, carried a hollow skull for a cup or begging bowl, were half-intoxicated with spirits which they drank from the hollow skull, were known to commit acts of violence; their garments (when they wore them) were of patch-work, they slept on the ground,¹ and wore a rosary of rudrākṣa seeds. They offered human sacrifices to Cāmuṇḍā in order to obtain magic powers, and often resorted to tricks to ensnare victims.² Dust from their feet was supposed to cure disease and water from the washing of their feet drove away demons.³ The powers which they acquired included the ability to fly through the air. Their wits were sharpened by the use of wine, eating disgusting food, and the embrace of the Śakti of Bhāirava. They were always lewd, and on occasion carried off maidens.⁴

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¹ JAOS, vol. XLIV, p. 208.

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² JAOS, vol. XLIV, p. 213.

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³ JAOS, vol. XLIV, p. 203.

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⁴ JAOS, vol. XLIV, p. 218.

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In Bhavabhūti’s Mālatī-Mādhava appears Aghoraghaṇṭa, a Kāpālika, priest of Cāmuṇḍā and Kāpāla Kuṇḍalā (skull-earring), a nun, devotee of Cāmuṇḍā and pupil of the ascetic, practising Yoga, enjoying magic powers, Śaktas, wearing necklaces of skulls, and carrying heavy rods from which hung strings of bells. The nun kidnaps the heroine of the play, in the dead of night, and places her before the image of Cāmuṇḍā in a temple near a cemetery, where she is to be killed and offered to the goddess by the ascetic. (But Mādhava rescues her and slays Aghoraghaṇṭa).

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The description of the wizard, Kāpālika, in the Daśa-Kumāra Carita is as follows:⁵

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⁵ JAOS, vol. XLIV, p. 212.

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His body is ornamented with glittering pieces of skulls; he is smeared with ashes of the funeral fires; he wears braids that look like a streak of lightning; with his left hand he is sacrificing steadily into a fierce fire crackling sesame and mustard. In front of him stands one of the aforementioned servants with folded hands, saying: ‘Issue your command; wherewith can I serve you?’ He is told to fetch the princess, Kanakalekhā, and he does so. (She is rescued from becoming a human sacrifice in the nick of time).

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Anandagiri’s description is found in the Śaṅkara-vijaya and shows the standard get-up of the Kāpālikas.

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His body is smeared with ashes from a funeral pyre, around his neck hangs a string of human skulls, his forehead is streaked with a black line, his hair is twisted into a matted braid, his loins are clothed with a tiger’s skin, a hollow skull is in his left hand (for a cup), and in his right hand he carries a bell which he rings incessantly, exclaiming aloud, ‘Ho, Śambhu, Bhāirava,—Ho, Lord of Kālī.¹

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¹ JAOS, vol. XLIV, pp. 206, 207; and Wi., p. 264.

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In the *Prabodha Chandrodaya*² are found the following statements:

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² Taylor’s Translation, pp. 38 ff.

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My necklace and ornaments are of human bones; I dwell among the ashes of the dead and eat my food in human skulls. I look with eyes brightened with the antimony of Yoga, and believe that the parts of this world are reciprocally different, but that the whole is not different from God. . . . After fasting we drink liquor out of the skulls of Brāhmans; our sacred fires are fed with the brains and lungs of men mixed up with their flesh, and human victims covered with the fresh blood gushing from the dreadful wound in their throats, are the offerings by which we appease the terrible god (Mahā Bhāirava). . . . I contemplate the Lord of Bhavānī, the powerful god who creates, preserves and destroys the fourteen worlds, whose glory is both revealed in the Vedas and displayed in his works. The might of our religion is such that I control Hari-Hara and the greatest and most ancient of the gods; I stop the course of the planets in the heavens; I submerge the earth in water, with it mountains and cities, and I again drink up the waters in a moment . . . He who resembles the gods, whose crest is the lunar orb, and who with delight embraces women beautiful as Pārvatī, feel supreme bliss.

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Who has enjoyed happiness independent of visible objects? The soul that lives without spiritual abstraction is in a state of felicity. But why do you pray to become like stones?

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Accompanying the Kāpālika is a Kāpālinī in attire similar to his, with heavy breasts, addicted to spirits, who with her companion, at the command of Bhāirava, dances. It is stated in this connection that,

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without renouncing the pleasures derived through the organs of sense, the eight great siddhis may be obtained.

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Among these powers are the following: whatever a man desires he may obtain; the laws of nature are under his control; the body's size may be diminished or enlarged at will; and he may transport himself in an instant to any part of the universe.

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Rāmānuja in his Commentary³ makes Kāpālas say:

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³ Thibaut, Vedānta Sūtras with Ramanuja’s Commentary, pp. 520, 521.

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He who knows the true nature of the six mudrās, who understands the highest mudrā, meditating on himself as in the position called bhagāsana¹, reaches Nirvāna 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 again

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¹ He meditates on himself as seated in the pudendum muliebre. See Indian Buddhist Iconography, etc, by B. Bhattacharya

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In the Dabistān² is an account of Yogis who know no prohibited food . . They also kill and eat men. . . There are some of this sect who having mixed their excretions and filtered them through a piece of cloth, drink them, and say that such an act renders a man capable of great affairs, and they pretend to know strange things. They call the performance of this act atilea and also aknon They have all originated from Gorakhnāth. The author of this work saw a man, who singing the customary song, sat upon a corpse, which he kept unburied until it came into a state of dissolution, and then ate the flesh of it, this act they hold extremely meritorious

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² (c 1670) vol II, p 129

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More recent references to these ascetics are numerous ³

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³ See ERE, vol I, p. 211.

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Wilson⁴ states that the Kāpālikas have merged into other sects, particularly into the Kānphaṭas, but that these must all have been contemporary sects for some time.

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⁴ Wks., p. 18.

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From the foregoing accounts it is clear that the sects have much in common. A composite picture drawn from these descriptions would exhibit many traits discernible today in the sect of the Kānphaṭas.

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The question of the date of Gorakhnāth as the founder of the Kānphaṭa Yogis now arises and becomes the subject of the following chapter.

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