Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c7.s2.t5: Kerari

Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus c7.s2.t5

Language: English

Kerari

c7.s2.t5.1

The Kerári is the worshipper of DEVI, in her terrific forms, and is the representative of the Aghora Ghanta and Kapálika,† who, as

c7.s2.t5.2

* This sect appears in the Sankara Vijaya, as the Uchchishtha Ganapati, or Hairamba sect, who declare that all men and all women are of one caste, and that their intercourse is free from fault.

c7.s2.t5.3

पुंस्त्वां सर्वजातिकानामेक जातिवदित्येकोधम्मः स्त्रीणामसर्व
जातिकानामेकजातिवदित्येको धम्मः । तासाञ्चतेषाञ्चसंयोगे वियो
गेच दोषाभावः ।

The same sort of story is told, but apparently with great injustice of the Mohammedan Byabaharis or Borahs, and of a less known Mohammedan sect, the Cheraghkesk : something of the same kind was imputed to the early Christians by their adversaries.

c7.s2.t5.5

† The following description of the Kapálika, is from the Sankara Vijaya of Anandagiri.

c7.s2.t5.6

चितिभस्मपूर्णकलेवरः नरकपालमालावतंसः पाशवेरचित
कण्ठजलेखः सकल केशरचितजटापारिः व्याघ्रचर्मरचित कटिसूत्र

c7.s2.t5.7

lately only as seven or eight centuries ago, there is reason to suppose sacrificed human victims to *Ka'li', Chamunda', Chhinnamastaka'*, and other hideous personifications of the *Sakti* of *Siva*. The attempt to offer human beings in the present day, is not only contrary to every known ritual, but it would be attended with too much peril to be practised, and, consequently, it cannot be believed that this sect is in existence: the only votaries, if any there be, consisting of the miscreants who, more for pay than devotion, inflict upon themselves bodily tortures, and pierce their flesh with hooks or spits, run sharp pointed instruments through their tongues and cheeks, recline upon beds of spikes, or gash themselves with knives, all which practices are occasionally met with throughout India, and have become familiar to Europeans from the excess to which they are carried in Bengal at the *Charak Pújá*, a festival which, as a public religious observance, is unknown any where else, and which is not directed nor countenanced by any of the authorities of the Hindus, not even by the *Tantras*.

Cites (1)

Śaṅkaravijaya (Vyāsācala) — Vyāsācala, Sanskrit