Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

SR No.: 001743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 432
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & Literature
File Size: 23 MB

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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
attributed to them or could have been an independent sect like the Kálāmuhas who shared almost similar practices. Both the Kāpā likas and the Haddasarakkhas were characterised alike with uncleanliness and impurity. The Jaina monks were directed to remain pure and clean in the presence of others lest they might be thought even worse than the Haddasarakkhas. 2
The Kāpālikas and the Haddasarakkhas were supposed to be versed in various supernatural powers and inagical practices. In the Samarāiccakaha of Haribhadra also, the gambler Maheśvaradatta, who later became a Kápā lika, is mentioned as an expert in garuda-mantra--the mystic formula for curing the snake-bites.* These sects were versed in the art of divining the treasure-troves ( nihi) by practising certain mystic formulas like the Maha kala-mama.In the Yaśastilaka also the śaiva Haraprabodha is shown to have been an expert in divining the underground treasures. 6 Certain heinous practices have always prevailed amongst the Kāpālikas, but the references in the text make it clear that their sect was a popular one during this time.
These accounts of the NC. are firmly supported by the literary as well as archaeological sources. In the
1. Kālāmuhas were also a sect akin to the Kāpālikas. Their six distinc
tive marks were : cating food in skull, besmearing body with ashes of a dead-body, eating the ashes, holding a club, keeping a pot of wine and worshipping the god seated therein (Bhandarkar, op. cit., p. 181). According to Dakshina Ranjana Shã'tri, the Kāpālikas in a later period gave up bearing the Kipāla skull ), although they were still Styled as Kāpālikas. But the other section of the Kāpālikas, wbich did not approve of this retrograde step, kept on bearing Kāpāla and were called Kalamuha or Kālāvadana.--"The Lokyatikas and the
Kapalikas', IHQ., Vol. 7 ( 1931 ), pp. 125-37. 2. Baca ar ESHTE te sfatuladt HUFFT-NC. 3, p. 81. 3. "37665" ff Satar à fagutta fiat ar fh11571_NC. 3, p. 585; Brh.
Vr. 3, p. 789. 4. Samarāiccakaha, Book IV. 5. NC. 3, p. 387. 6. Yašastilaka, Bk. IV; Handiqui, op. cit., p. 89.