Kapalikas
Kapalika ( Sanskrit kāpālika , Hindi kāpālik, कापालिक ) or Kapalin was a tantrische sect Hindu Shivaism . The Kapalikas were ascetics who carried a skull bowl (Sanskrit kāpāla ) and a staff adorned with a skull. Little is known about the Kapalikas, but they can be proven through numerous mentions in literature, religious writings and inscriptions. So they are z. B. Mentioned in Ramanuja and Yamuna , in the hagiography of Shankara or in the Kathasaritsagara
The skull cult of the Kapalikas refers to a myth in which Shiva cuts off the middle of the five heads of the god Brahma and wanders around as an ascetic in atonement, with Brahma's head as an alms bowl. According to another narrative, Brahma insulted Shiva, whereupon the latter created the angry Bhairavan who cut off Brahma's head. Shiva in his low form as Bhairavan then had to go around as a begging Kapilaka. This is the usual version performed at the Teyyam ritual theater in Kerala .
The teachings of the Kapalikas are also called Somasiddhanta , which refers to the sexual union of Shiva and Uma . There may be a reference to later Tantric teachings in which such sexual symbolism also appears.
The Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay describes in the novel Kapalkundala , published in 1866 (German 1886) against the background of the Kapalika cult and the Kali worship, the fate of a young woman who is brought up in a remote forest by a Kapalik, and her tragic end Love story.
literature
- Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson, Michael York (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Hinduism. London (et al.), Routledge 2008
supporting documents
- ^ CH Tawney, NM Penzer (translator): The Ocean of Story. A Translation of Somadeva's Kathāsaritsāgara. Sawyer, London 1924–1928 (with negative connotations throughout)