kapala
कपाल kapālaA skull, and specifically the skull-bowl carried by Kapalika and Aghori ascetics, used as a begging bowl and drinking cup; the emblem from which the Kapalika 'skull-bearers' take their name.
Where this term appears
- Do Aghoris really eat human flesh? Journal
There is no evidence that Aghoris kill people to eat them, and the lurid charge of human sacrifice belongs to freelance criminals, not to the Aghor tradition. What…
- The Aghorīs Lineages
…anasi and the skull falls from his hand at the spot ever after called Kapāla-mocana , "the releasing of the skull." The Kāpālika ascetic imitates this penance.
- Who is Bhairava? Deities
The moment the head falls, the skull, the kapāla , sticks fast to Bhairava's palm and will not come loose.
- Why do Hindus cremate their dead? Essentials
This is the meaning of the striking rite the son performs at the height of the burning, the kapala kriya , the breaking of the skull.
- The Fierce Guardians Treatise
…set at the eight directions — Asitāṅga, Ruru, Caṇḍa, Krodha, Unmatta, Kapāla, Bhīṣaṇa and Saṃhāra, each with his own colour and mount and temperament, from the drunken to the annihilating.