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RELIGIOUS SECTS
KARÁRI. The Karári is the worshipper of Devi, in her terrific forms, and is the representative of the Aghora Ghanta and Kápálika', who as lately only as seven or eight centuries ago, there is reason to suppose, sacrificed human victims to Kálí, CHÁMUNDÁ, CHHINNAMASTAKÁ, 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 practiced, 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
The same sort of story is told, but apparently with great injustice, of the Mohammedan Vyavahárís or Bohras, and of a less known Mohammedan sect, the Chiraghkesh: something of the same kind was imputed to the early Christians by their adversaries.
The following description of the Kápálika is from the Sankara Vijaya of Anandagiri:
चितिभस्मपूर्णकलेवरो नरकपालमालावृतगलः फालदेशरचितकज्जलरेखः सकलकेशरचितजटापारियाघ्रचर्मरचितकटिसूत्रकौपीनः कपालशोभितवामकरः सहनादघण्टाधृतदक्षिणकरः शम्भो भैरव अहो कालीश इति मुहुर्मुहुर्जपन् ।
“His body is smeared with ashes from a funeral pile, around his neck hangs a string of human skulls, his forehead is streaked with a black line, his hair is wove into the matted braid, his loius are clothed with a tiger's skin, a hollow skull is in his left hand (for a cup), and in his right he carries a bell, which he rings incessantly, exclaiming aloud, Ho, Sambhu, Bhairavaho lord of Kali." [See also Prabodhachandr., ed. Brockhaus, Act III, p. 53, v. 10.)
