Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 376

13. JAINISM AND OTHER FAITHS
357
substance of the Kāpālika doctrine, called also Mahabhairavānu sāsana, Paramesvare-siddhānta, and Somasiddhānta in Krşņamisra's play. Like Bhairavānanda in Rājasekhara's Karpūramañjarī, the Kāpālika in Prabodhacandrodaya puts forward exaggerated claims of miraculous powers, and one of the avowed objects of the Kāpālika cult is the attainment of the supernatural Yogic powers known as the Siddhis. It is noteworthy that the Kāpālika is once addressed in the play as Kulācārya", which shows that, although the Kaula and the Kāpālika cults were distinct from each other, Kāpālikas were sometimes confused with Kaulas owing to certain resemblances in their practices. The Kaulas are not, as a rule, associated with human sacrifices; yet it is at the instance of a Kulācārya that Māradatta orders preparations for a human sacrifice in the Mahābhairava temple in Yasastilaka, Book I. Members of both sects would seem to have indulged in objectionable practices, but it was the Kāpālikas who were more prominently connected with rites involving the sacrifice of human beings.
In the fourth Act of Ksemisvara's Candakausika, composed in the first half of the tenth century, Dharma appears in the guise of a Kāpālika, armed with a club, and carrying a skull in his hand; and decorated with ashes and human bones. He declares that he is about to attain certain magical powers: control over a goblin who has entered into a corpse, possession of a thunderbolt and magic pills and paints, union with a demoness, and the knowledge of alchemy (dhātuvāda) and the elixir of life ( rasāyana ). There no doubt that the Kāpālikas were charlatans and adepts in black inagic, but those who sought to discover the elixir of life and practised alchemy were not necessarily Kāpālikas.
That the Kāpālika cult is much earlier than the tenth century is shown by the wellknown episode in Bhavabhūti's Malatimadhara, Act V,
he Kāpālika Aghoraghanta attempts to sacrifice Mālati before the goddess Karālā or Cāmundā. This episode is based on the story of Vidūşaka in Kathasaritsagara 3. 4. 158 ff., or rather on Guņādhya's Brhatkathā, of which the former work is a summary. Although the fanatic, who attempts to sacrifice king Adityasena's daughter before the idol of
1 30gara laitsta a
Agrar: qogel HERACY: I eto. 3. 32. 2 7074-77 for are 3**...
! 3 A drunken but otherwise innocent Kápālika appears in the lattavilāsaprahasana of
the Palláva King Mahendravikramavarman (first quarter of the 7th century A. D.). About the same time Hsuan-tsang met the first Hindu ascetics of his journey at Kāpisi, north of Kabul: they had their bodies smeared with ashes and wore a chaplet made of skulls. They were no doubt Saiva ascetics, but probably not Ka palikas. Grousset: In the footsteps of the Buddha, p. 93.
Palláva King line Hsüan-tsang mas hodies smeared