 An Aghori at a ghat inVaranasi | |
| Total population | |
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| A few thousand[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Varanasi, North India |
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TheAghori (fromSanskrit:अघोर,lit. 'not dreadful', 'dreadless',IAST:aghora) are a Hindumonastic order ofasceticShaivitesadhus based inUttar Pradesh, India.[2] They are the only surviving sect derived from theKāpālika tradition, aTantric, non-Puranic form ofShaivism which originated inMedieval India between the 4th and 8th century CE.[2][3][4][5][6]
Similarly to their Shaivite predecessors,[2] Aghoris usually engage inpost-mortem rituals, often dwell incharnel grounds, smearcremation ashes on their bodies,[7] and use bones from human corpses for craftingkapāla (skull cups whichShiva and otherHindu deities are often iconically depicted holding or using) and jewellery.[3][4][5] They also practice post-mortemcannibalism, eating flesh from foraged human corpses, including those taken fromcremation ghats.[8][9]
Their practices are sometimes considered contradictory to orthodoxHinduism.[3][4][5][10] Many Aghorigurus command great reverence from rural populations and are widely referred to inmedieval and modern works of Indian literature, as they are supposed to possess healing powers gained through their intenselyeremitic rites and practices ofrenunciation andtápasya.[3][4][5]
Aghoris are Hindu devotees ofShivamanifested asBhairava,[3][4][5][11] and ascetics who seekliberation (mokṣa) from theendless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (saṃsāra). This freedom is attained through the knowledge thatthe Self (ātman) is identical to the eternal and formlessmetaphysical Absolute calledBrahman. Because of theirmonistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain thatall opposites are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracingintoxicant substances,pollution, and physical degradation through variousTantric rituals and customs is therealisation of non-duality (advaita) transcending socialtaboos, attaining what is essentially analtered state of consciousness and perceiving the illusory nature of all conventional categories.
Aghori rituals, which are performed precisely to oppose notions of purity commonplace in orthodoxHinduism, are typicallymacabre in nature.[12][13] The practices of Aghoris vary[4] and include living incemeteries, smearingcremation ashes on their bodies,[7] using human skulls for decoration and bowls,smoking marijuana,drinking alcohol, andseating in meditation on top of corpses.[14][15] Although contrary to mainstream Hinduism, these practices exemplify the Aghori philosophy of criticising commonplace social relations and fears through the use of culturally offensive acts.[12] Furthermore, they demonstrate the Aghoris' acceptance of death as a necessary and natural part of the human experience.[12][16]
Another unusual Aghori belief is that they attribute spiritual and physical benefits, such as the prevention of ageing, to theconsumption of human flesh. In 2006, an Indian TV crew witnessed one Aghori feasting on a corpse discovered floating in theGanges[8] and a member of theDom caste reports that Aghori often take bodies fromcremationghats (orfuneral pyres).[9]
In his bookYoga: Immortality and Freedom (1958), the Romanianhistorian of religion andUniversity of Chicago professorMircea Eliade remarks that the "Aghorīs are only the successors to a much older and widespread ascetic order, theKāpālikas, or 'wearers of skulls'."[2] According toDavid Lorenzen, there is a paucity of primary sources on the Kāpālikas, and historical information about them is available from fictional works and other traditions who disparage them.[3][17][2] VariousIndian texts claim that the Kāpālikas drank liquor freely, both for ritual and as a matter of habit.[3] The Chinese pilgrim to India in the 7th century CE,Xuanzang, in his memoir on what is nowNorthwestern Pakistan, wrote aboutBuddhists living with naked ascetics who covered themselves with ashes and wore bone wreathes on their heads, but Xuanzang does not call themKāpālikas or any particular name. Historians ofIndian religions and scholars ofHindu studies have interpreted these ascetics variously as Kāpālikas,JainDigambara monks, andPashupatas.[3]
The Kāpālikas were more of a monastic order, states Lorenzen, and not a sect with a textual doctrine.[3] The Kāpālika tradition gave rise to theKulamārga, a subsect of Tantric Shaivism which preserves some of the distinctive features of the Kāpālika tradition.[18] Some of the Kāpālika Shaiva practices are found inVajrayana Buddhism,[2] and scholars disagree on who influenced whom.[19] Today, the Kāpālika tradition survives within its Shaivite offshoots: the Aghori order,Kaula, andTrika traditions.[17][2]
Although akin to the Kāpālika ascetics ofMedieval India andKashmir, as well as theKālāmukha of theDeccan Plateau, with whom there may be a historical connection, the Aghoris trace their origin toBaba Keenaram, a Shaivite ascetic who is said to have lived 150 years, dying during the second half of the 18th century.[20][21]Dattatreya theavadhuta, to whom has been attributed the esteemed nondual medieval song, theAvadhuta Gita, was a foundingadi guru of the Aghor tradition according to Barrett (2008: p. 33):
Lord Dattatreya, an antinomian form of Shiva closely associated with the cremation ground, who appeared toBaba Keenaram atopMount Girnar in Gujarat. Considered to be theadi guru (ancient spiritual teacher) and founding deity of Aghor, Lord Dattatreya offered his own flesh to the young ascetic asprasād (a kind of blessing), conferring upon him the power of clairvoyance and establishing a guru-disciple relationship between them.[22]
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Aghoris also hold sacred theHindu deityDattatreya as a predecessor to the Aghori tradition. Dattatreya was believed to be an incarnation ofBrahma,Vishnu, andShiva united in the same singular physical body. Dattatreya is revered in all schools of Tantra, which is the philosophy followed by the Aghora tradition, and he is often depicted in Hindu artwork and its holy scriptures of folk narratives, thePuranas, indulging in Aghori "left-hand" Tantric worship as his prime practice. Aghoris are known for controversial rituals such asshava samskara orshava sadhana (a worship ritual in which a corpse is used as altar) to invoke the mother goddess in her form as SmashanTara (Tara of the Cremation Grounds).
In Hindu iconography, Tara, likeKali, is one of the tenMahavidyas (wisdom goddesses) and once invoked can bless the Aghori with supernatural powers. The most popular of the ten Mahavidyas who are worshiped by Aghoris areDhumavati,Bagalamukhi, andBhairavi. The male Hindu deities primarily worshiped by Aghoris for supernatural powers are manifestations ofShiva, includingMahākāla,Bhairava,Virabhadra,Avadhuta, and others.
Barrett (2008: p. 161) discusses the "charnel ground sādhanā" of the Aghora in both its left and right-handed proclivities and identifies it as principally cutting through attachments and aversion and foregrounding primordiality; a view uncultured, undomesticated:[23]
The gurus and disciples of Aghor believe their state to be primordial and universal. They believe that all human beings are natural-born Aghori. Hari Baba has said on several occasions that human babies of all societies are without discrimination, that they will play as much in their own filth as with the toys around them. Children become progressively discriminating as they grow older and learn the culturally specific attachments and aversions of their parents. Children become increasingly aware of their mortality as they bump their heads and fall to the ground. They come to fear their mortality and then palliate this fear by finding ways to deny it altogether.
In this sense, the Aghora sādhanā is a process of unlearning deeply internalised cultural models. When this sādhanā takes the form of charnel ground sādhanā, the Aghori faces death as a very young child, simultaneously meditating on the totality of life at its two extremes. This ideal example serves as a prototype for other Aghor practices, both left and right, in ritual and in daily life."[23]
Lord Aghora, an antinomian and annihilater form of Shiva closely associated with the cremation ground, who appeared toBaba Keenaram atop Girnar Mountain in Gujarat. Considered to be theadi guru (ancient spiritual teacher) and founding deity of Aghor, Lord Dattatreya offered his own flesh to the young ascetic asprasād (a kind of blessing), conferring upon him the power of clairvoyance and establishing a guru-disciple relationship between them.[24]
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