Bhairava's Royal Brahmanicide

1. This greatly expanded revised version of my paper "Adepts of the god Bhairava in the Hindu tradition," presented to the Assembly of the World's Religions, 15-21 November 1985 (New York), is also appearing with further revisions in Sunthar and Elizabeth Visuvalingam, Transgressive Sacrality in the Hindu Tradition, Transgressive Sacrality Series vol.1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Rudra Press, 1989). The earlier section on “Bhairavanâth and Vaishno Devî” has been replaced with its theoretical equivalent in section 6 of this paper, and sections 5, 7 and 9 are also new. I am grateful to Prof. Harvey Paul Alper for having presented this full version to the pilot-conference on "Transgressive Sacrality in the Hindu Tradition," 15th Annual Conference on South-Asia, Univ. of Wisconsin, 8 November 1986 (Madison) for discussion. I thank my husband, Dr. Sunthar Visuvalingam, for having provided the basic interpretative framework for my materials on the Bhairava-cult and for allowing me to use his unpublished materials on the Vidûshaka. Thanks are also due to Dr. Hélène Brunner-Lachaux and Prof. F.B.J. Kuiper for detailed criticisms of this and earlier versions of the paper, and to Alf Hiltebeitel for his patient editing.

2. See P.V. Kane, History of Dharmashâstra, 2nd ed., Govt. Oriental Series (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1973), IV.10-31; 87-96 (expiations); II (1974), 147-151. See note 18.

3. See D. Lorenzen, The Kâpâlikas and Kâlâmukhas: Two Lost Saivite Sects (Delhi: Thomson Press, 1972); J.P. Parry, "Sacrificial Death and the Necrophagous Ascetic," in Death and the Regeneration of Life, ed. M. Bloch and J. Parry (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1982), pp. 74-110 and "The Aghori Ascetics of Benares" in Indian Religion, ed. R. Burghart and A. Cantlie (London: Curzon Press, & N. York: St. Martin's Press, 1985), pp.51-78; G.W. Briggs, Gorakhnâth and the Kânphatâ Yogîs (1938; rpt. Motilal Banarsidass, 1982), pp.218-27, 159-61; G. Unbescheid, Kânphatâ: Untersuchungen zu Kult, Mythologie und Geschichte Sivaitischer Tantriker in Nepal, Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Südasien Institut, Heidelberg University, vol. 63 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980).

4. In the Hindi film "Bhairavî of the Nether-world," (Pâtâla-Bhairavî), which played all over Northern India around 1985, the Tantric adept seeks magical powers through human sacrifice to the Goddess. The manner in which the unwitting hero-apprentice tricks the would-be Nepali executioner into himself becoming the victim corresponds exactly to one of the founding legends of the Nava Durgâ cult of Bhaktapur, itself associated with human sacrifice, recorded by G. Toffin, Société et Religion chez les Néwars du Népal (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1984), pp.468-69. Though the message of the film is modern and recommends the rejection of such dangerous powers, the scenario is the stereotyped traditional one.

5. Kubernâth Sukul, Vârânasî-Vaibhav (Patnâ: Bihâr Râstrabhâsâ Parishad, 1977), pp.102-7 (in Hindi); D.L. Eck, Banaras: City of Light (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983), pp.189-201; E. Visuvalingam, "Bhairava: Kotwâl of Vârânasî," in Vârânasî Through the Ages, ed. T.P. Verma et al., Bhâratîya Itihâsa Sankalan Samiti Publ, no.4 (Vârânasî: BISS, 1986), pp.241-60.

6. See N. Gutschow, Stadtraum und Ritual der newarischen Städte im Kathmandu Tal: Eine architekturanthropologische Untersuchung (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1982), pp.50-53; M. Slusser, Nepal Mandala: A Cultural Study of the Katmandu Valley (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1982), vol. I, pp.328,345-6; Toffin, Société et Religion, pp.441-2, 458-66; J.F. Vézies, Les Fêtes Magiques du Népal (Paris: Cesare Rancillo, 1981), pp.26-7. For Maharashtra, see Sontheimer, Birobâ, pp.97,192 (see note 101).

7. For Airlines emblem, see M. Anderson, Festivals of Nepal (London: Allen & Unwin, 1971), p.151; Vézies, pp.70, 162; for Bhaktapur, see Gutschow, pp.63,96-102; Slusser, pp.347-8; for Patan, see Anderson, p.145; Vézies, pp.65-66.

8. J. K. Locke, Karunamaya: The Cult of Avalokiteshvara/Matsyendranâtha in the Valley of Nepal (Katmandu: Centre of Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan Univ., 1980), pp.427-36. See note 70.

9. There are Jaina tantric texts, like the Bhairavapadmâvatîkalpa (1047 A.D.) of Mallisena (Mysore), dealing with transgressive Bhairava-type rituals of black magic, which need to be reconciled with the exaggerated role of ascetic self-denial and non-violence in Jaina orthodoxy. With Mahânâtha for her Bhairava, the Hindu Pûrneshvarî also received Jaina worship and the ritual founding of her pîtha is described in the Srîpadmâvatîpûjana, a Shâkta treatise.

10. "The god of the great temple of pilgrimage is--whatever be his name and his myth--the pure god, withdrawn into himself, the god of ultimate salvation. His most ‘terrible’ forms are besides considered at the limit to be not proper for the cult, because dangerous even for the devotees. They are relegated to the most inaccessible sites, surrounded with all kinds of taboos, pacified with appropriate offerings. . . . In short, even though the god is the master of the universe of which the temple is the centre, he does not have hic et nunc a direct function of protector. This is delegated to an inferior god, Bhairava being the protector of territory--kshetrapâla--in his classic form. The principal sanctuary does not pretend to represent the god in his supreme form--contradictio in terminis--but suggests to the maximum his renunciate nature as the final reason of the world"; M. Biardeau, L'hindouisme: Anthropologie d'une Civilization (Paris: Flammarion, 1981), p.149 (author's translation).

11. There are three basic iconographic representations of Bhairava which derive from this myth. As Brahma-shirash-chedaka he grasps by its hair the severed head whose dripping blood is greedily lapped up by his dog. As Kankâla-mûrti he is shown spearing a man or already bearing the latter's corpse (or skeleton) on his shoulder. In both cases, he is either naked or wearing a tiger or elephant skin, a garland of human skulls, snakes around his neck and arms, and is grotesque with dark-skin and monstrous fangs. Third, as the milder Bhiksâtana-mûrti he roams begging for alms (from the wives of the Seven Sages in the Daru forest).

12. G.S. Ghurye, Indian Sâdhus, 2nd ed. (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1964), p.103ff; Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.46; S. Sinha and B. Saraswati, Ascetics of Kashi: An Anthropological Exploration (Varanasi: N.K. Bose Memorial Foundation, 1978), p.93; Swami Sadânanda Giri, Society and Sannyâsin: A History of the Dasanâmi Sannyâsins (Rishikesh: Sadânanda Giri, 1976), p.21 (for list of madhis). See Briggs, Gorakhnâth, pp.10-11, for Gûdara, "the Aughar sect of Saivites founded by a Dasnâmi by the name of Brahmagiri, through the favour of Gorakhnâth, who is said to have invested the ascetic with his ear-rings" (cf. also Ghurye, p.107). The spear-emblem of the Mahânirvâni Akhâdâ is known as Bhairavaprakâsa (Ghurye, p.105; Giri, p.27) and, according to Briggs, the Dasanâmis, who were "special devotees of Bhairava" (p.12, note 4), also wore the hâl matangâ cord of the Kânphatâ Yogis. Bhairava is indicated by a black dot and line (respectively between and below two curved red horizontal lines indicating Hanumân), in the tîkâ of a Dasanâmi (loc. cit.)

13. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus, p.108. According to one of the informants of Sinha and Saraswati, Ascetics, pp.93-4, "there are 64 Madhis among the Shaiva Sannyâsis of which the Dasanâmis have 52 Madhis and the Nâthpanthis have 12, Bârahpanthi as they [the Nâths] call themselves. It is interesting that on the samâdhi of Bhartrhari, located in the fort of Chunar, the Nâthpanthis and the ascetics of Joona Akhara officiate by turn as priest and Mahanta. From the list of the Mahantas of the samâdhi, it transpires that in the line of Munnanâth, Kangalinâth, Jakhanâth and Tulsînâth--all Nâthpanthis--came Kamalânanda Bhârati and Jagadânanda Giri--the Dasanâmi. At present, a disciple of Jagadânanda Giri is acting as the priest of the samâdhi while a disciple of Sandhyânâth stays there and gets a share of the collections. All these point to a tradition that brings the Nâgas closer to the Nâthpanthi Yogis."

14. E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl," p.247 (see note 5). Among the other Bhairavas of Haridwar, the Kâla Bhairava temple just before the Bilvakesvara Mahâdeva, though still officiated by a (female) Nâth, has fallen into the possession of the Ânanda Akhâdâ. The Kâla-Bhairava shrine (facing a Batuka Bhairava shrine), within the Pashupatinâth Mahâdeva temple now belonging to the Nirañjanî Akhâdâ, was (re-?)installed by a problematic Shravannâth, and the Nirañjanî Akhâdâ is itself located further downstream on the Shravannâth Ghât.

15. Abhinavagupta and the Synthesis of Indian Culture, ed. S. Visuvalingam, Kashmir Shaiva Series (Cambridge, Mass.: Rudra Press, 1989). For a preliminary discussion, see especially his paper presented to the national seminar (Shrinagar, 20-24 September 1986) on "The Significance and Future of Kashmir Shaivism," appearing in the same volume.

16. "O Death (= Time)! do not cast thy gaze most terrible with anger on me; (for) steadfast in the service of Shankara and ever meditating on him, I am the terrifying power of Bhairava!" Bhairavâstaka, v.4. Cf. L. Silburn, Hymnes de Abhinavagupta (Paris: Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 1970), pp.48,50,53. Also S. Kramrisch, Presence, pp.281-87; see note 18.

17. See Sunthar Visuvalingam, "The Transgressive Sacrality of the Dîkshita: Sacrifice, Criminality and Bhakti in the Hindu Tradition," the concluding paper to the present volume. I thank the Government of India, first the Ministry of Education and Culture, then the University Grants Commission, for having consistently supported these researches, which I am presently continuing with the Romain Rolland fellowship from the French Government.

18. The numerous versions of this Brahmasiraschedaka myth from the Purânas can be found assembled and partly analyzed in the following 5 works: H. von Stietencron, "Bhairava," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (= ZDMG), Supplementa I, Part 3 (1969), 863-71; W.D. O'Flaherty, Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Shiva (1973; rpt. Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1975), pp.123-7, and The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976), pp.277-86; S. Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva (Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1981), pp.250-300; E. Meyer, Ankâlaparamecuvarî: A Goddess of Tamilnadu, Her Myths and Cult, Beiträge zur SÜdasienforschung, SÜdasien Institut, Heidelberg University, vol. 107 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1986), esp. pp.36-8, 158-215 (kapparai = Brahmâ's head). The variations bear on a number of points like the father-son relationship between Brahmâ and Rudra, presence or absence of Vishnu, direct decapitation by Rudra or indirectly through Bhairava, the ascetic or transgressive connotation of Brahmâ's fifth head, and so on. In one version, the beheading episode is preceded by that of the emergence of the cosmic linga. I give below only an abridged and simplified rerendering of the Kûrmapurâna version.

19. Despite its general associations with ritual purity, the formless Omkâra, who assumes (human) form to laughingly reconfirm the eternal sexual biunity (mithuna) or twin (yâmala) nature of Siva, is itself already identified as a Mithuna (sexed couple) in Chândogya Upanishad (I.1.6); cf. note 115 infra. For the transgressive significance of Omkâra's laughter, see S. Visuvalingam, notes 6 and 7, in this volume.

20. For the oppositional identity of Yama and Kâla-Bhairava, expressing that between (the ritualization of) natural and (the lived experience of) initiatic death, see my "Kotwâl" (note 5), pp.253-56, and Stein, note 88 infra. Yamântaka is likewise identical with Yama; Stein, Dictionnaires des Mythologies (offprint; Paris: Flammarion, 1981), p.5. In fact, originally Yama himself seems to have had an initiatory function as in the Naciketas legend, which he would have retained in his later role of Dharmarâja.

21. J. Deppert, Rudra's Geburt: Systematische Untersuchungen zum Inzest in der Mythologie der Brâhmanas, Beiträge zur SÜdasien-Forschung, SÜdasien-Institut, Heidelberg University, vol. 28 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1977), p.129, note 1, rightly links the stuck-fast head of Brahmâ to the ‘rolling head’ of the Vedic Namuci, decapitated by Indra, and underlines the parallelisms with the Amerindian mythology treated by Lévi-Strauss, where the all-devouring, polluting head is again sometimes transformed into the moon (Soma). It would be interesting to attempt to reinterpret Lévi-Strauss' ‘transformation’ in the light of this analysis of the (transgressive) significance of the Brahmashiras (see note 117 below). For Vishvaksena, see ibid., pp.283-84.

22. The incessant resounding of the dancing Bhairava's anklet-bells can still be heard at a certain spot in Kâñci. See R. Dessigane, P.Z. Pattabiramin and J. Filliozat, Les Légendes Çivaites de Kâñcipuram: Analyse de textes et iconographie, Publications d'IFI no.27 (Pondicherry: Institut Français d'Indologie, 1964), items no.40 and no.49, p.44, no.65 (p.95).

23. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, pp.74-81, 92-95; Stietencron, "Bhairava," p.867; O'Flaherty, Origins of Evil, p.285; (see notes 3 and 18).

24. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, pp.82-3, 90-2. See W.D. O'Flaherty, Sexual Metaphors and Animal Symbols in Indian Mythology (1980, rpt. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), pp.17-61 on sexual fluids. See note 117.

25. See S. Visuvalingam's section in this volume on "The Royal Murder of the Brahman(ized) Dîkshita." Also J. Parry, "Death and Cosmogony in Kashi," Contributions to Indian Sociology, 15, Nos. 1 and 2 (1981), p.361; "Sacrificial Death," pp.80 and 102, note 14; see note 3 supra.

26. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, pp.17,76-87; cf., Briggs,pp.108-9; see note 3.

27. For the mahâpâtakas, see Kane, History of Dharmashâstra (see note 2) IV, pp.10-31, and II, pp.757ff. for food-pollution.

28. T. Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Zweite Ableitung, vol. 4, 2 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1979), p.66.

29. Biardeau, in M. Biardeau and C. Malamoud, Le Sacrifice dans l'Inde Ancienne, Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Sciences Religieuse, vol. LXXIX (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1976), pp.100-2.

30. Cf. E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl,", p.257; see note 5. For this equivocal logic of polarized values proper to myth but which is necessarily reduced and fragmented in their translation or development into sectarian and especially rationalizing philosophical thought, see J.-P. Vernant, Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (Sussex: Harvester Press; New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1980), chaps. 7 and 9, and especially pp.239-40.

31. The best analysis of the complex structural relation between Brahmâ, Vishnu and Rudra in terms of the Brahmanical sacrifice is found in Biardeau, Le Sacrifice, pp.89-106; L'hindouisme, pp.107-8 (see notes 29 and 10); and Dictionnaire des Mythologie (Flammarion: offprint, no date) on "Vishnu/Siva: Dieux suprêmes de la bhakti hindoue" (pp.134-8).

32. For the universally fundamental character of the blood-taboo, see L. Makarius, Le Sacré et la Violation des Interdits (Paris: Payot, 1974), p.22 and passim.

33. The non-dualistic Saivism of Kashmir has borrowed and inherited many elements like its cosmological schemas from earlier Pâñcarâtra schools prevalent in that region. Cf. A. Eschmann, "Varâha and Narasimha" and "Narasimha's Relation to Shaivism and Tribal Cults" in Cult of Jagannâtha, pp.101-6, also p.175 (see note 85 infra).

34. Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Le Mythe et le Culte (Paris: Mercure de France, 1969), pp.211-17; Marcel Detienne, Dionysus mis à Mort (Paris: Gallimard, 1977), p.204, and Dionysus à Ciel Ouvert (Paris: Hachette, 1986), pp.31-3,98. Cf. also the problem of the dionysiac Hyacinth, whose tomb lay beneath the statue of Apollo at Amyklai; Agamemnon's sacrifice to Dionysus in the sanctuary of Apollo; Delphos, eponyme of Delphi, born from the union of Apollo with Thyia who first served Dionysus and gave her name to the Thyiades who led their furious dances on Parnassus for both Dionysus and Apollo (Otto, loc. cit.). See also W. Burkert, Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1983), pp.123ff. The extent to which Dionysus can be (re-)interpreted in the light of the dialectic of transgressive sacrality and the symbolic configuration it has assumed around the figure of Siva-Bhairava (see Detienne, 1986, p.7) may be judged from S. Visuvalingam's section on "Divine Purity and Demoniac Power" in this volume.

35. Otto, Dionysus, pp.217, 151. In the Bacchantes of Euripides, Tiresias, the hoary Bacchant, belongs to Apollo, the other great god of Thebes, and alone among those close to Pentheus, he will be spared the animosity of Dionysus: "without outraging Phoibos, he honours Bromios, the Great God (Megas Theos)" (Detienne, 1986, p.46). "Finally theological speculation even identified them" (Otto, p.212; cf. also Detienne, 1986, p.92).

36. For the two poles, pathological and divine, of the Greek mania and its Dionysiac character, see Vernant in J.-P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet, Mythe et Tragédie II [henceforth MT II], (Paris: La Decouverte, 1986), pp. 18, 40 (wine), 241 (Rohde), 245, 260-7; criticized by Detienne, 1986, p.108, note 79; cf. also Otto, Dionysus, pp.101, 132-6; and Burkert, Homo Necans, p.184, note 25. Like Dionysus, Bhairava is even identified with the wine that flows freely in the Tantric orgies; see Otto, pp.107-8, and ch.12; Detienne, 1986, pp.45-66. It is the thread of transgressive sacrality that holds together the semantic fluctuations of the term unmatta meaning "drunk", "mad", even "foolish" and especially "ecstatically joyful." For the reductionist rationalism underlying the procedures of exclusion that finally made possible the modern endeavour to "capture" folly by clinically objectivizing its abnormal manifestations, see Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: a History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, 2nd ed. (London: Tavistock, 1971). For the confrontation of psychoanalysis and "enigmatic folly," see Transgressive Sacrality in the Hindu Tradition (see note 1).

37. See Otto, Dionysus, chaps. 3 and 16, for the intimate links of Semele (and Aphrodite) with the consort of Dionysus, Ariadne, who also dies during pregnancy and lies at Argos in the underground sanctuary of the "Cretan" Dionysus (pp.190-7; Detienne, 1986, p.105, note 45). Ariadne has also affinities with the humid element and the ocean, from which Aphrodite was born.

38. E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl" (see note 5), p.254; and pp.255-6 for bhairavî-yâtanâ; pp.257-60 for "purification," which may be understood rather as the re-inscription of transgression in a sacralizing symbolic order. See also Eck, Banaras, pp.324-44. Cf. O'Flaherty, Origins of Evil, p.167, on Indra; see note 18.

39. These secret traditions are being divulged only because the traditional pûjâris, who have recently been dispossessed of their rights in the Visvanâtha temple, now feel freer to speak about them, especially as they also fear that these rites have been discontinued.

40. For the variations of this formula, but based on the same principle of ascending interdictions and descending transgressions, see Kane, History of Dharmasâstra (see note 2) V, pt.2, p.1076, note 1744. For an informed discussion, see Abhinavagupta, Tantrâloka IV.24,247-53 (with commentary). The Kâpâlika's Brahmanhood is suggested by the legal exception that a Brahman (alone) may kill a Brahman.

41. Kramrisch p.264; O'Flaherty, Asceticism, p.126; Meyer, Ankâlaparamecuvarî, pp. 166-7, 36 (on malicious laughter); 37, 161-5 (on greed); see note 18.

42. Makarius, Le Sacré, pp.282, 287 (see note 32). Cf. the various instances classified in Dayak under djeadjea "acts contrary to nature" in R. Caillois, L'Homme et le Sacré, 2nd ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1950), pp.100-1, and in C. Lévi-Strauss, Les Structures Elementaires de la Parenté (1967; rpt. Paris: Mouton, 1971), pp.567-8. For the symbolic equivalence of noisemaking, eclipses, incest, unruliness and polychromy, see Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked: Introduction to a Science of Mythology I (1970; rpt. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986), p.312 and passim.

43. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.75; Deppert, pp.102-3; see notes 3 and 21.

44. See G.K. Bhat, The Vidûshaka (Ahmedabad: The New Order Book Co., 1959), pp.51, 258, for the donkey-voiced Vaikhânasa of the Kaumudîmahotsava; pp.127, 247, for Vasantaka's blasphemous lying in the Ratnâvalî. The most learned Shrotriyas of the Veda were barred by the legal-codes from giving witness at trials. For Dionysus' links with the ass, see Otto, Dionysus, p.179; see note 34.

45. Information and photocopy of relevant pages of manuscript by courtesy of Dr. G.J.S. (Alexis) Sanderson, Oxford.

46. In Râjasekhara's Karpûramañjarî where Kapiñjala, serving as "court-jester" (Bhat, Vidûsaka, p.135), finally officiates as the priest in the king's wedding brought about by the grace of Bhairavânanda.

47. By J.C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship and Society [henceforth IC] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp.45-58, on the central human head of the Agnicayana.

48. Sunthar Visuvalingam, Abhinavagupta's Conception of Humour: Its Resonances in Sanskrit Drama, Poetry, Hindu Mythology and Spiritual Praxis, Diss. Banaras Hindu University (1983).

49. See G.U. Thite, "Significances of the Dîksâ," Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 51 (1971), pp.163-73, for the "Brahmanization" (of even the ksatriya Indra) through the dîksâ (p.169) as "purification" (pp.171-2). See esp. infra note 127. In Deppert, Rudra's Geburt (see note 21), pp.lvi, 56, 82, 90, the contradiction between the apparent purification and the (symbolic) incest has led to the false assumption that the latter mahâpâtaka represents the symbolic exaggeration of Brahmanical ritual purity, unfortunately undermining the basic argument of this otherwise most original and stimulating book.

50. J.C. Heesterman, "Vrâtya and Sacrifice," Indo-Iranian Journal, 6 (1962), pp.1-37; and also his paper on "The Notion of Anthropophagy in Vedic Ritual," presented to the pilot-conference on "Transgressive Sacrality in the Hindu Tradition;" also IC, pp.40, 86, 92, 227 note 46 (see notes 1 and 47). The problem of the warrior-Brahman pointing to vrâtya-circles (ibid., pp.3,106) is retained in the aggressively militant (âtatâyin) Brahman who seems to point to Kâpâlika-type circles, and the Dharmasâstras are obsessed by the question whether slaying such a Brahman, who has otherwise no place in their official system of values, constitutes a Brahmanicide requiring expiation (p.162). Cf. Kane, History of Dharmasâstra (see note 2) II, pp.148-151; III (1973), pp.517-8; IV, p.19, where the possibility of the âtatâyin being full of tapas and expert in Vedic lore is raised.

51. In this case, it would have also been connected with Indra's pole (dhvaja) festival celebrated around the New Year; F.B.J. Kuiper, Varuna and Vidûsaka: On the Origin of the Sanskrit Drama [henceforth VV] (Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co., 1979), pp.134-7, 30. Kramrisch, Presence, pp.250-1, 294-5; Deppert, Rudra's Geburt, pp.3-6, pp.81-93, pp.265-284 (myths 1-4, 10); see notes 2 and 21. The term "Astakâ" indicates originally the eighth lunar day of the dark half of the month, and later especially of the months of Mârgasîrsa, Pausa and Mâgha, as a time particularly appropriate for the performance of funerary rites (srâddha). Because the year began in ancient times on the full moon of Mâgha, its eighth, considered even younger than the beginning of the year and marked by the first and most important festival, was called Ekâstaka, the wife of the Year, when those undertaking the Samvatsarasattra should undergo the dîksâ; Kane, History of Dharmasâstra (see note 2) IV, pp.353-6, note 805; V.1, p.660. In Atharvaveda III,10, Ekâstaka, the day of Indra's birth (v.12), is sung not only as the mother of Indra and Soma but also as the daughter of Prajâpati (v.13), apparently replacing the Usas of the Vedic New Year (Deppert, Rudra's Geburt, p.190).

52. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas (see note 3), pp.2,13,27,41,54-5 Mattavilâsa, 60 Prabodhacandrodaya, esp.80-1.

53. Kramrisch, Presence, pp.257-9; Makarius, Le Sacré (for transgressive magic); see notes 18 and 32.

54. See G. Dumézil, Mythe et Epopée I: L'Idéologie des trois fonctions dans les épopées des peuples indo-européens (Paris: Gallimard, 1968), pp.191-203, 213-20, 253 [henceforth ME I); M. Biardeau, "Etudes de Mythologie Hindoue [henceforth EMH]: Bhakti et Avatâra," part IV, vol. LXIII (1976), p.124 note 1, p.212 note 2; and part V, vol. LXV (1978), pp.121-5, 151-5 for its equivalence to the Pâsupatâstra obtained by Arjuna from Rudra, both parts in Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient (Paris); Kramrisch, Presence, pp.257-9, see note 18.

55. Though it is Dhrstadyumna who actually decapitates Drona, the Kâñcî myth makes Arjuna absolve himself of the Brahmanicide at its Kapâlamocana-like Caruvatîrtha, just as Asvatthâman does for his foeticide (Dessigane et al., Légendes Civaite, p.62; see note 22). It is through Sukra's Brahmanicide, identified with his consumption of wine and "hair" (= kaca), that Brhaspati's son Kaca wins the secret of immortality in the stomach-womb of the demoniac purohita.

56. Kramrisch, Presence, p.262; O'Flaherty, Sexual Metaphors, pp.213-32; see notes 18 and 24.

57. As major transgressions (mahâpâtaka), Brahmanicide and incest must be equated rather than opposed as by Deppert (supra note 51). Though from the orthodox psychoanalytic point of view, the parricide is the means to incest, transgressive sacrality even goes to the point of identifying the decapitation itself with incest as in the case of Parashurâma's matricide replacing his Brahman mother Renukâ's head with that of an untouchable woman. In the sacrificial ideology, it is the Brahman officiant himself who assumes the maternal role of giving (re-) birth to the sacrificer (Heesterman).

58. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, pp.28; 42,48 (Shankara); P. Jash, History of Saivism (Calcutta: Roy and Chaudhury, 1974), pp.65-6. For their links with Vedic Soma-sacrifice, see Lorenzen's "New Data on the Kâpâlikas," and especially its discussion by S. Visuvalingam, both in this volume.

59. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, pp.9,12,18-19,107,151,173; For Pâsupata-vow, see Kramrisch, Presence, pp.257-9, 290-1; see note 18.

60. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.167; see pp.155-6, 158, 164, cf. 67; for Vedic affiliation of Pâsupatas, see pp.103,105,114,131,142-3,149,151 (Honnaya),156,161-4. Bhagwan Deshmukh's lecture on epigraphic evidence of Kâlâmukha activity in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, cited in Times of India (13th Jan., 1985), mentions two such ascetics supervising the construction of temples dedicated to Siva in the form of Vîrabhadra and Kâlabhairava. Daksa's beheading by the former is a multiform of Bhairava's decapitation of Brahmâ. Yamunâcârya's and Râmânuja's confusion of the two sects in order to discredit the Kâlâmukhas (Lorenzen, pp.4-6) probably also reflects their perception of this continuity.

61. Heesterman, IC, p.27; "Vrâtya," p.15; see notes 47 and 50.

62. Biardeau, EMH IV, pp.231-6 (Bhîma); EMH V, pp.116,121-4 (Arjuna). For the "Brahmanization" of the ideal Kautilyan king through his basic qualification of "victory over the senses" which would have no doubt sublimated his petty self-interest into a dharmic imperialism (vijigîsâ), see Heesterman, IC, pp.131-2. See notes 54 and 47.

63. Biardeau EMH IV, pp.237-8. For Yudhisthira, see Dumézil, ME I, pp.152-4; Biardeau, EMH IV, p.231 (birth from Dharma); EMH V, pp.88, 94-119, for a systematic contrast between Yudhisthira's and Arjuna's respective claims to the status of ideal king, that is nevertheless heavily weighted in favour of Arjuna's royal bhakti. Hence see note 126.

64. David D. Shulman, The King and the Clown in South Indian Myth and Poetry, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), p.226; see pp.218-235. For the identification of dîksita and victim in the Asvamedha, see S. Visuvalingam's section in this volume on "The Royal Murder of the Brahman(ized) Dîksita."

65. Shulman, ibid., pp.256-75, where however only the "chastity" of Brhannadâ has been underlined. See esp. Biardeau, EMH IV, pp.207-8; V, pp.187-200 (see note 54); Hiltebeitel, "Siva, the Goddess, and the Disguises of the Pândavas and Draupadî," History of Religions 20 (1980), pp.147-74, where the androgynized Arjuna actually identifies himself with the royalty of the impure "Brahman" Yudhisthira. See notes 86 and 109.

66. Deppert, pp.80,153-5; see Heesterman IC, p.126 (Vrâtya); Biardeau, EMH V, pp.148-60 (Arjuna); see notes 21, 47 and 54. For Arjuna's "suicidal Brahmanicide," see Hiltebeitel, "Two Krishnas," p.24; see note 132.

67. See Eggeling, Satapatha Brâhmana, vol.5, pp.xviii-xxiv; and Dumézil, ME I (see note 54), pp.192, 213-20, 250, for Asvatthâman. See Hiltebeitel's contribution to this volume, for a telling example of the retention of sacrificial notations even in the magical transgression of a deviant "Muslim" figure Muttâl Râvuttan.

68. O'Flaherty, Origins of Evil, pp.160-1; see note 18. Dr. Niels Gutschow informs me that the only (ritual) clowns known to him in Bhaktapur are the manhandled Mûpâtras, apparently Newar for Mahâpâtras (= Mahâbrâhmanas), who are normally farmers hired to play the scapegoat role.

69. J. Parry, "Ghosts, Greed and Sin: The Occupational Identity of the Benares Funeral Priests," Man (N.S.) 15 (1980), 88-111. For the Vidûsaka being pampered with gifts, see Bhat, Vidûsaka, pp.59-61; food and modakas even soaked in wine, pp.67-73; parody of Brahman, 223 and passim. For the theoretical inclusion of the Dom, who is otherwise excluded from the empirical category of Mahâbrâhmana, see Veena Das, Structure and Cognition: Aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual, 2nd ed. (Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982), pp.148-9.

70. Unbescheid, Kânphatâ, pp.139-41; pp.130-51, for the problematic relation between the Kusles and the Nâths. Though patronized chiefly by the farmer (Jyapu) caste, the regular officiants at the original Pachali Bhairab at Pharping (my field-work in Sep-Oct 85) and the Bâgh Bhairab temple of Kîrtipur are Kusles; Nepali, Newars, pp.301-2, links it to the Baghoba or Vaghdeo of Maharashtra. See notes 3 and 93.

71. Parry, "Ghosts," pp.91-6: "The Funeral Priests as `ghosts'." Cârâyana, the Vidûsaka in the Viddhasâlabhañjikâ, actually dons the (left-over) clothes and ornaments of the king himself; see Bhat, Vidûsaka (see note 44), p.265. Cf. Eck, Banaras, (see note 5) pp.24, 193, 325, 344; and note 23 supra. For dîksâ as "mystical death," see Thite, "Significances of Dîksâ," pp.170-1; for embryonic death, see Heesterman, "Vrâtya," pp.30-1, note 86; see notes 49 and 50.

72. See D.M. Coccari in this volume, and idem, "The Bîr Babas: An Analysis of a Folk-Deity in North Indian Hinduism," Diss. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986; also Meyer, Ankâlaparamêcuvarî (see note 18), for the Tuluva Brahmeru-bhûta (p.165) and other Brahms (180-2) like the Jaina Brahmadeva and the Nâga-Brahma (see esp. p.182, note 4). Though there is no Brahmâ corresponding to the kapparai in the cult of Ankâlamman, the Mahâbrâhmana Vinâyaka plays a greedy role at the cremation-ground in the Brahmanicide myth (pp.36-7) and in the ritual. The Vidûsaka in the Adbhutadarpana is a marrow, fat, and meat-devouring Brahmarâksasa called, like Ganesa, Mahodara.

73. Heesterman, "Vrâtya," pp.10, 30; Thite, "Dîksâ," p.171; Otto, Dionysus, pp.121-4; see notes 50, 49 and 34.

74. Kâpâlikas, p79,note 29; see note 3. The Mahâbhârata myth not only serves as the missing link between the earlier and later forms of the Brahmanicide penance, between Sarasvatî and Gangâ, but also reveals the executioner and victim to be only the two poles of the single Mahâbrâhmana.

75. Dessigane et.al., Légendes Sivaites, p.63; see note 22. Though on the Gangâ bank, the inlet is on the opposite side of Manikarnikâ tank and the incoming water tastes differently from Gangâ water, as I was able to confirm myself during Manikarnikâ-Devî's festival on 12-13th May, 1986, for which the tank was emptied for cleaning.

76. See Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.30; Eck, Banaras, pp.112-20; Sukul, Vârânasî-Vaibhav, p.50; see notes 3 and 5. J. Irwin, "The Sacred Anthill and the Cult of the Primordial Mound," History of Religions 21 (1982), pp.339-60. It is possible to identify the primordial mound not only with the bisexual embryo but also with the world-egg (brahmânda) as the ovum before its fixation on the uterine wall; see F.B.J. Kuiper, "Cosmogony and Conception: A Query," Ancient Indian Cosmogony [henceforth AIC], ed J. Irwin (Delhi: Vikas, 1983), pp.90-137. Omkâra also embodies the unstructured (anirukta) ritual speech imitated by the dîksita's stammering.

77. Eck, Banaras, pp.238-51; J. Parry, "Death and Cosmogony in Kashi," Contributions to Indian Sociology, 15 (1981), pp.337-9, 351, 357. For Vishnu's foot, which invariably recurs at Hari-kî-Paurî (Haridwar) and other tîrthas on the Gangâ, see Kuiper, AIC, pp.41-55: "The Three Strides of Vishnu."

78. Parry, "Ghosts," p.94; see note 69. Also idem, "Death and Digestion: the symbolism of food and eating in north Indian mortuary rites," Man (NS), 20 (1985), p.612-30, for the pinda as fusion of male and female reproductive substances (kundagolaka), etc.

79. See Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth (1958; rpt. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965); also his Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: The Encounter Between Contemporary Faiths and Archaic Reality (1960; rpt. Glasgow: Collins, 1968), esp. chaps. 7-8. For the embryonic significance of the Harappan urns, see D.D. Kosambi, Myth and Reality (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1982), pp.67-81.

80. Heesterman, IC (see note 47), pp.54-5, 218 note 61; David D. Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition (New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press, 1980), pp.110-131, 243-67. For the wilderness as the "womb of kingship" see Heesterman, IC, pp.6, 118, 126, 142, 144, and 233, note 61.

81. Sukul, Vârânasî-Vaibhav, p.55; Eck, Banaras, pp.29-31, 182-8; Parry, "Death and Cosmogony," p.341; E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl," pp.247-9 (see notes 5 and 77).

82. Meyer, Ankâlaparamêcuvarî (see note 18), pp.191 (Gangammâ); 82, 139, 189, 196 (Irulappan); 185, 196 (Kâsî-Vallâlarâjan); 83, 144 (Kâsî-Visvanâtha as consort of Ankâlamman). This (re-)interpretation of the Goddess cult of the cremation-ground is based on S. Visuvalingam's review in Transgressive Sacrality (see note 1). For Vaisno-Devî, see S. Visuvalingam on K. M. Erndl's contribution in this volume.

83. Otto, Dionysus, pp.60, 71-3, 78, 90-2, 108-24, 134-5, 138-44, 152, esp. 189, 200-3; Burkert, Homo Necans, pp.125, 213, 232f; Detienne, Dionysus à Ciel Ouvert, pp.61-2; see note 34. For the official and civic character of the Athenian integration of the transgressive Dionysus, see J.-P. Vernant, Annuaire du Collège de France (Paris, 1983-84), pp.476-7.

84. Heesterman, IC, pp.26-44,91,94,102,104,etc.;see note 47.

85. G.C. Tripathi, "Navakalevara: The Unique Ceremony of the `birth' and `death' of the `Lord of the World'," in The Cult of Jagannâtha and the Regional Tradition of Orissa, ed. A. Eschmann, H. Kulke and G.C. Tripathi (Delhi: Manohar, 1978), p.260. See F.A. Marglin, Wives of the God-King: The Rituals of the Devadâsîs of Puri (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985) p.265, where the oldest Sabara, who transfers it, is expected to die within the year; and da Silva, Pouvoir; see notes 84 and 102.

86. Meyer, Ankâlaparamêcuvarî, p.37; cf. p.165; pp.192-3, 179-80, for the problematic relation between the "Saiva" king and the "Sâkta" Cempatavars. M.L. Reiniche, "Le temple dans la localité: Quatre examples au Tamilnad," L'Espace du Temple: Espaces, Itinéraires, Médiations, Purusârtha no.8 (Paris: EHESS, 1985), pp.107, 110 (Annâmalaiyâr); 102 (Kumbhakonam); 106 (Lingodbhava at Tiruvannâmalai). Brahmâ himself is the classic figure of the "pregnant male," comparable to the young Greek who had to imitate labor-pains, with appropriate cries and gestures, of a pregnant woman during certain sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus (Otto, Dionysus, p.195). For Dionysus himself was not only the "effeminate stranger" (Euripedes) whom Ino was asked to rear as a girl, but was also sometimes called "androgyne" (Otto, p.185). His cousin-victim Pentheus is travestied in the feminine attire of his Bacchant-devotee before being torn apart and it is the same actor who plays the role of his mother-devourer Agavé (Vernant, MT II, pp.251-2, 255-6); see notes 34 and 36. Cf. Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths (see note 80), pp.294-316.

87. E. Visuvalingam, "Bhairava's cudgel or Lât-Bhairava," (1986), pp.250-3 (see note 5). For its relation to the world-tree, the number 7, and tripartition, see M. Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Bollingen Series LXXVI (New Jersey: Princeton Univ. Press, 1964), pp.259-287 ("Shamanism and Cosmology"); pp.403-6 ("Ancient India: Ascensional Rites": yûpa as cosmic tree, Buddha's seven strides).

88. Rolf A. Stein, L'Annuaire du Collège de France (Paris), 1971-72, pp.499-510; 1972-73, pp.463-70; 1973-74, pp.508-17; 1974-75, pp.488-95; 1975-76, pp.531-6; 1976-77, pp.607-15. According to him (1974-75, p.490), the primitive form, alone retained in Sino-Japanese tantrism, of Bhairava's khatvânga "seems to have been a club formed of a skull fitted onto a long bone. It resembles the yamadanda, Yama's staff." I thank Prof. Stein for his off-prints.

89. Vernant, MT II, pp.251-54; Detienne, Dionysus à Ciel Ouvert, p.42; cf. Burkert, Homo Necans, pp.177, 198 note 14; see notes 36 and 34.

90. Biardeau, Dictionnaire, pp.89-90, 109-13; Stein, Annuaires, 1972-73, p.469; 1974-75, p.491; see notes 31 and 88. Also S. Visuvalingam's section on "The Inner Conflict of Man: The Royal Murder of the Brahman (-ized) Dîksita" in this volume. Nevertheless, Hiltebeitel's paper in this volume suggests that anthropomorphized posts like Potu Râju, and even the Muslim Muttâl Râvuttan, still conserve not only the symbolic values but also the bloody function of the Vedic yûpa.

91. Stein, Annuaires, 1971-2, pp.504-7; 1972-3, p.470; 1974-5, p.489; Briggs, Gorakhnâth, p.308; Anderson, Festivals, pp.41-6; Vézies, Fêtes, pp.23-4; Gutschow, Stadtraum, pp.81-96, see notes 88,3,7 and 6. Details of the funerary procession were supplied by courtesy of Dr. Niels Gutschow who made a special study of it on 13th April 1987 after our personal discussion of death symbolism in the Newar New Year festivals.

92. Author's translation of Toffin, Les Néwars, p.512; cf. pp.509, 516, 250 (see note 4).

93. References to G.S. Nepali, The Newars: An Ethno-Sociological Study of a Himalayan Community (Bombay: United Asia Publ., 1959), pp.359-69; Anderson, Festivals, pp.127-37; Slusser, Nepal Mandala, pp.97, 264, 268-9; and Gutschow, Stadtraum, pp.138-46, 58-63, (see notes 7 and 6), M. Allen, The Cult of Kumari, pp.17-20, are completed below by my own field-work at Kathmandu from 25th Sep. ~~(beginning of Indra Jâtrâ)~~ till 28th Oct. 85, and from 22nd Sept till 7th Nov. 1988, facilitated by a grants from the C.N.R.S. "équipes" 299 and . For its derivation from the New Year festival of Vedic cosmogony, the role of Asura-Varuna, and the later role of the jarjara (= dhvaja) in the preliminaries of the Sanskrit drama, see Kuiper, VV, supra note 53. ~~According to the~~ Brhat Samhitâ, the pole should preferably be from an Arjuna tree, and another staff should also be raised as Indra's mother. Another Grhya-Sûtra prescribes the Indrayajña with oblations to Indrânî, Aja Ekapâda, Ahirbudhnya, etc. to be performed on the full-moon day itself of Bhâdrapada (see Ekapâda-Bhairava, note 106 below). Kane, History of Dharmasâstra, II, pp.824-6, derives from the Indramaha the annual raising of a bamboo staff in the Deccan and other places on the first day of Caitra, which corresponds to the Bhaktapur Bisket Jâtrâ where the pole is identified with Bhairava (= Kâsî-Visvanâth) instead. I thank Dr. Niels Gutschow for details on the Indra Jâtrâ and the Mahâpâtras at Bhaktapur.

94. See Allen, Cult of Kumâri, pp.48-60; Slusser, Nepal Mandala, pp.311-20; Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths, pp.138-92, 223-43 (see notes 93, 6 and 80); and esp. S. Visuvalingam's review-article "Are Tamil Temple Myths really Tamil?" presented to the VIth World Tamil Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 15-19th November 1987. See Kane, History of Dharmasâstra IV, pp.530-2 for Mahâlayasrâddha; and Anderson, Festivals, pp.138-141, for the Sorah Srâddha.

95. Anderson, Festivals, pp.156-63; Slusser, Nepal Mandala, pp.47-8, 235,238-9; Gutschow, Stadtraum, pp.135-8 (see notes 7 and 6). I was unable to study the exchange of swords in October 1977, as the grants to study the festival-season have been released only in 1988, and with the rapid erosion of traditional structures there is no guarantee that the ritual will still wait to be studied after 12 years.

96. E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl," p.252; see note 5. For the equation of the fallen Indra-pole with the victimized dîksita, see S. Visuvalingam's treatment of the Brahman Cârudatta condemned as an "untouchable" to be executed by cândâlas as an offering to the goddess at the stake in Act 10 of the Mrcchakatikâ in Transgressive Sacrality, see note 1.

97. Sukul, Vârânasî, pp.205-6 (on Kapâli-Bhairava), 103-5, 247-8; Krtyakalpataru p.54 and Kâsîkhanda 33.114-5 cited by Sukul on pp.260-1; 105, 121; see note 5. Sukul (p.121) had suggested a separate Kula Stambha supposedly erected by Asoka only because he recognized the wholly Hindu character of the Mahâsmasâna Stambha.

98. Stein Annuaires (see note 88), 1971-72, p.504; 1972-73, pp.464-5; 1973-74, pp.509-11; 1975-76, pp.535-6; 1976-77, p.609. For Rudrapisâca, see Eck, Banaras, p..339; Sukul, pp.37-8; see note 5. For Brahmanâla, see Sukul, pp.51-2; Parry, "Death and Cosmogony," p.343 and note 8; see note 25. Researchers into Near Death Experiences (NDE), especially those who have undergone it themselves, should not have much difficulty, despite the Indian cultural context, in recognizing the inner coherence of this mythico-ritual universe,

99. Sukul, pp.71-2, 119, 121 (citing Kâsîkhanda 100.99), 150-2, 250, 347-8; E. Visuvalingam, "Kotwâl," pp.252, 255; see note 5.

100. Anderson, Festivals, p.43; see note 7. Dr. Mary Searle Chatterjee kindly shared with us her summary of the two versions, now included in her as yet unpublished paper on "Religious Division and the Mythology of the Past." Dr. Chatterjee added that she had seen a painting for sale in Britain of human-sacrifice being offered at a "Somnâth temple" (label) in Benares. Ghâzî Miyâ's annual wedding with Zohra Bibi, celebrated on the first Sunday of Jyesthâ (May-June) by the Muslims of Adampura, also appears to have been an unconsummated tragic union. For the victim as bridegroom, see esp. S. Visuvalingam on Mrcchakatikâ Act X; see note 96.

101. G.D. Sontheimer, Birobâ, Mhaskobâ und Khandobâ: Ursprung, Geschichte und Umwelt von Pastoralen Gottheiten in Mahârâstra, Schriftenreihe der SÜdasien-Institut der Universitatät Heidelberg, vol 21 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976), pp.29-30, 200-2, 252 (Mhaskobâ); pp.46, 48, 184, 196 (Birobâ); 61-3, 240-1 (two wives). See also his "Some Incidents in the History of the God Khandobâ," Asie du Sud: Traditions et Changements, Proceedings of the VIth European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, 8-13 July 1978 (Paris: C.N.R.S., 1978); "The Mallâri/Khandobâ Myth as Reflected in Folk Art and Ritual," Anthropos 79 (1984), pp.155-170. See also Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths, pp.267-94 for Vedic antecedents.

102. R.N. Nandi, Religious Institutions and Cults in the Deccan (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973), pp.114ff. on "The Beginnings of Tantric Cults," esp.121-2: "Stambhesvarî"; cf. Eschmann, "Hinduization of Tribal Deities in Orissa: The Sâkta and Saiva Typology," in Eschmann et al. ed., The Cult of Jagannâtha, pp.79-97; Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism, p.37; and Nepali, The Newars, pp.298-305, for the "aboriginal origin" of the Nepali Bhairavas; see notes 85, 28 and 93. For a cogent critique of such genetic approaches seeking to explain Hindu divinities like Jagannâtha or Bhairava (purely) in terms of their evolution from non-Brahmanical, even pre-Aryan, substratums, see J.C. Gomes da Silva, Pouvoir et Hierarchie (Bruxelles: Unversité Libre de Bruxelles, in press).

103. Sontheimer, Birobâ, pp.29,31,95-7,243 (Gosavî); pp.176-9,284.

104. Marglin, Wives, p.273; 243-7: daitâs' consanguinity with the king; their representing Jagannâtha, pp.256, 261, 276-9; king as sweeper: pp.241, 254, 258; obscenities and dissolution of caste-boundaries including the Brahman/daitâ opposition during the car-festival, p.275; Pati Mahâpâtra: pp.250-1, 264-75; Ganesa: pp.249, 271 (see note 84).

105. Marglin, Wives, p.197; see note 84. While reporting on the secret Kaula (Bhairava-) cakrapûjâ being performed in the Jagannâtha temple, Marglin (p.218) refers to the rumours of a secret underground chamber located beneath the inner sanctum, pointing out parallels of cakrapûjâs being performed below the sanctum elsewhere (p.328, note 4); there is one, now in disuse, in the Benares Aghori ashram. Cf. note 123 infra.

106. Heinrich von Stietencron, "The Saiva Component in the Early Evolution of Jagannâtha," pp.119-23; and A. Eschmann, H. Kulke, G.C. Tripathi, "The Formation of the Jagannâtha Triad," pp.174-5, 189, Cult of Jagannâtha (see note 85), also pp.104-5.

107. Charles Malamoud, "Village et forêt dans l'idéologie de l'Inde brâhmanique," in Archives Européennes de Sociologie, XVII (1976), pp,3-20, esp. p.10, note 36.

108. Tripathi, "Navakalevara," pp.236-8. There is also the inexplicable procedure of drawing the inverted figure of a man on the tree followed by the sacrifice of an "animal" in the form of a white gourd, before the Jagannâtha-tree is actually cut down (pp.247-9). Interestingly, the lama explains the inverted khatvânga suspended just over the kapâla recipient of the alchemical fire-place by the practice, unattested in the texts, of the adept being (mystically) decapitated while upside-down (Stein, Annuaire, 1976, pp.534-6). See notes 85 and 88. But compare S. Visuvalingam's treatment of the motif of the "inverted tree" in the Kâttavarâyan narrative in this volume.

109. See Biardeau, "L'arbre samî et le buffle sacrificiel," Autour de la Déesse Hindoue, ed. M. Biardeau, Collection Purusârtha no.5 (Paris: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1981), pp.215-43. For the maternity of the androgynized dîksita, see notes 65 and 87.

110. Sontheimer, Birobâ, pp.249, 252, 183-6, 204f.; Marglin, Wives, pp.327 note 1, 264 (for Jagannâtha as Kâlî), see notes 101 and 84. The stone-pillars representing the goddesses Pîtabalî and Khambesvarî, along the Orissan trunk road, are dubbed lingas, and the rock-goddess is encircled by a "sakti" to become a svayambhû linga as at the Bhairavî-temple at Purânacuttack; Eschmann, Cult of Jagannâtha, pp.95-6 (see note 85).

111. For a similar explanation of the supposedly "foreign" origin of the Greek Dionysus in terms of his transgressive otherness institutionalized through the controlled trance, the officialized thiase, the festive komos, the theatre, etc. at the very heart of Greek civilization, see Vernant, in Vernant and Vidal-Naquet, MT II, pp.246, 251, 255, 257, 259, 269; the transgressive dimension is underlined especially at p.105 by V-Naquet, and by Detienne, Dionysus mis à Mort, pp.7-8 (see notes 36 and 34).

112. Author's trans. of Biardeau, L'Hindouisme, p.162, cf. p.164; cf. Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism, pp.17, 32, 36-7; see notes 10 and 28.

113. Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.49; see note 3. For the Kaula "deradicalization" of Kâpâlika ideology, and the role of the esoteric Krama school, see Alexis Sanderson, "Purity and power among the Brahmans of Kashmir," in The Category of the Person: Anthropology, Philosophy, History, M. Carrithers, S. Collins and S. Lukes, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986), pp.190-216; "Mandala and Agamic Identity in the Trika of Kashmir," in Mantras et Diagrammes Rituels dans l'Hindouisme (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1986), pp.169-214.

114. Abhinavagupta, Tantrâloka, Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies no. LVII (Bombay: 1936), vol.11, chap.29.10 (transgression); 11-13 (wine); 83-9 (comm.), 142-9 (mantric power due to neutralization of opposing vital airs in the median channel); 96ff (dûtîyâga); 97-8 (transgressive definition of brahmacârin); 101-3 (transgression of caste, incest); 104-15 (sexualization of consciousness); 115-28 (yâmala sântodita state); 128-9 (kundagolaka); 129-142 (vîryaviksobha); 156-61 (bhairavâstakapadam); 162-3 (yoginîbhû); 181-5 (internalized cremation through the all-devouring Kâla-Fire of the universal dissolution); 138-9 (pisâcâvesa, demoniac possession when a higher state of consciousness is blocked at a lower level instead of vice-versa). This description of the Kulayâga has been "conflated" with the practices of the Puri râjagurus (Marglin, Wives, pp.217-42; see note 84), and from my manuscript of the Unmattâkhyakramapaddhati, analyzed in my Ph.D. Diss. (Paris, 1981). See also K.C. Pandey, Abhinavagupta: An Historical and Philosophical Study, 2nd ed. (Varanasi: Chowkhamba, 1963), pp.607-23; and Abhinavagupta, Parâtrimsikâvivarana, KS no. XVIII (Bombay: 1918), pp.45-51. The yâmala state can be usefully compared to the sexually differentiated roles of Mitra and Varuna when this dual divinity mythically unites with the divinized courtesan Urvasî in the Purânas.

115. Parry, "Sacrificial Death," p.81; Marglin, Wives, pp.224-5, 237; 224, 239-40 (kulâmrta); 218, 233-4 (cremation-ground); see notes 3 and 84.

116. See notes 114 and 19. The conceptions of mithuna and yâmala are indissociable in Tantric doctrine and practice as attested to particularly by the Yâmala group of Tantras, sub-divided into Brahma-, Rudra-, Jayadratha- and other Yâmalas. "Internal evidence suggests that the Yâmalas were produced by circles which developed a tendency towards Sâktism. P. Ch. Bagchi--perhaps exaggeratedly--credits the authors of the Yâmalas--by tradition they were the eight Bhairavas, manifestations of Siva--with some important new developments, among which are the Sâkta orientation and the rendering accessible of their sâdhanâ to non-Brahmans"; see Goudriaan, Hindu Tantrism, p.22; cf. p.11; see note 28.

117. Eliade, Shamanism, pp.411, 414; see also pp.421-7 for "Shamanism among the Aboriginal Tribes of India" particularly the Savaras; see note 87. For honey, see C. Lévi-Strauss, Mythologiques II: Du Miel aux Cendres (Paris: Plon 1967) and Introduction to a Science of Mythology III: The Origin of Table Manners (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), pp.412-22; see notes 42, 21 and 24.

118. See Heesterman, IC, p.35; Nepali, Newars, pp.298-305, even asserts the "tribal origin" of Bhairava; see notes 47 and 93; cf. note 101-2.

119. Kuiper, VV, pp.35-7, 75-6, 102-6, 166-8, 193; AIC, pp.48-9; see notes 51 and 76. For some of the fundamental issues involved in this problematic transformation, see Biardeau's review of VV in Indo-Iranian Journal (1981), pp.293-300.

120. W.E. Hale, Asura in Early Vedic Religion (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986), who is however unable to explain Rgveda X.124 from his purely evolutionistic perspective (pp.86-92), whereas Kuiper, VV, pp.13-42, has provided a coherent interpretation of this "transfer of sovereignty" to Indra in terms of his mythical dialectic. It would be sound methodological procedure to provisionally separate the significance of Varuna from the evolution of the Asuras before reintegrating the Asura Varuna of the Rgveda; contrast Kuiper, VV, pp.5-13.

121. Deppert, Rudra's Geburt (see note 21), pp.85-6, 134-44 (sacral kingship of the pre-Aryan Middle-Eastern type), 233-5. Cf. Kuiper, VV, pp.24-6 for Varuna's ksatra.

122. See G. Dumézil, Les dieux souverains des Indo-Européens, 2nd ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1977), pp.55-85, and especially his Mitra-Varuna, 2nd ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1948); Kuiper, AIC, pp.9-22; VV, pp.45-6, 59-60 (see notes 76 and 51). Dumézil's and Kuiper's positions had remained irreconcilable because the former had come to perceive Mitra-Varuna primarily in sociologizing terms as the priestly summit of the trifunctional hierarchy whereas the latter continued to relegate Mitra to the underworld simply because he shares the Asurahood of his twin Varuna, despite the recognized difficulties of Mitra's partiality for the upperworld and the mythic interferences with Indra; cf. Kuiper, "Remarks on the Avestan Hymn to Mithra," Indo-Iranian Journal (1961-2), pp.36-60; esp. 46-53, 57-9; "Some Observations on Dumézil's Theory," Numen, 8 (1961), pp.34-45. A transgressively dialectical approach would equate Varuna, as the underworldly pole of Dumézil's Mitraic first function, with the demoniac tribal Bhairava intruding from the embryogonic chaos beyond the Vedic universe; cf. Gomes da Silva's paper on "Hierarchy and Transgression" presented to the Transgressive Sacrality Conference (see note 1). We thank Prof. F.B.J. Kuiper and the late Prof. G. Dumézil for having so sympathetically encouraged our efforts to synthesize their respective insights into the basic structures of Vedic religion.

123. Heesterman, IC, pp.95ff.,228 note 1; see note 47. For the socio-economic transformations and the technological innovations that determined the emergence and conditioned the growth of early Buddhism from its Magadhan cradle, see D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline (Delhi: Vikas, 1970), where the rise to prominence of the merchant-classes and the expansion of commercial circuits should be especially emphasized.

124. This necessarily modifies L. Dumont's thesis of the total secularization of kingship in Hindu India; cf. Biardeau, supra notes 33, 64 and 68; and esp. Hiltebeitel, "Towards a Coherent Study of Hinduism," Religious Studies Review, 9 (1983), pp.206-11.

125. For the identification of the royal kirîtin Arjuna with the avatâra-Krishna in the rsi-couple Nara/Nârâyana, see Biardeau, EMH V, pp.89-94, 177; for Arjuna's Rudraic dimension, neglected by her, see Hiltebeitel, "Siva," pp.151-60; see notes 54 and 65. Born from the anger of Krishna-Nârâyana, it is Rudra himself who precedes Arjuna into the battle-field and is really responsible for the carnage; see J. Scheuer, Siva Dans le Mahâbhârata, Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Science Religieuses, vol. LXXXIV (Paris: PUF, 1982), pp.279-91 ("Siva et la Guerre-Sacrifice"); also pp.222, 228, 241-2 and passim. During our pilgrimage (June 1985) to Badrînâth, the Râwal himself confirmed that there was a "bhairavî-cakra" beneath the main image, and Dr. J.C. Galey informs us (oral communication, Feb. 86) that formerly the king used to ride to battle wearing the arm-band of Bhairava supposedly kept beneath the image of Badrînâth.

126. For Dharma forms as much a bi-unity with Arjuna as Krishna does, which also explains the peculiar joking-relationship between Krishna and Yudhisthira as when they flatter each other with the credit for Bhîsma's fall. Kuiper, "Some Observations," pp.42-4, rightly deduced that Yudhisthira as the incarnation of Dharma (= Rta) must represent Mitra-Varuna, but had difficulty reconciling the underworldly Varuna with the passive sacral purity of the upperworldly Pândava. Biardeau, "Contributions à l'étude du mythe-cadre du Mahâbhârata," Bulletin de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient, 55 (1969), pp.97-105, seeks to reconcile Dumézil's Mitra and Kuiper's Varuna within a totalizing Hindu perspective by seeing in Dharma the prolongation, profoundly transformed by the renunciation ideal, of the socio-cosmic order of the Vedic Rta. Cf. supra notes 65 and 67. Nevertheless, Kuiper had already suggested the typological equation of the sûdra-Vidura with the epic Varuna and ambivalent purohita-figures like Usanâ Kâvya and Visvarûpa (VV, pp.93-101), which would imply that Yudhisthira himself is a (royal) Mahâbrâhmana.

127. Heesterman IC (see note 47), pp.27,92; cf. pp.4, 43-4, 155, 200, 232 note 32, 154, 208 note 12; see esp. note 49 supra.

128. See Kuiper, VV, pp.67-74: "Varuna as a Demoniacal Figure and as the God of Death" for his links with his successor Yama-Dharmarâja associated with the Fathers (pitr); pp.60-6: for the close association with Death and the Fathers of the virûpa-Angirasas, who are later the repository of the magical practices of the Atharvaveda. Instead of seeing in the dog Dharma that accompanies Yudhisthira to heaven the transgressive dimension of the Brahmanized Dharmarâja, Biardeau's Hindu bhakti is obliged to purify Yama's dog, and all the other impure symbols invested in "The Royalty of Yudhishthira," of the pollution of Death; EMH V, pp.109-10. See Manu X.51-6, cf. Deppert, Rudra's Geburt, pp.59-62 (on cândâla), D. White's paper on "Dogs, Dice and Death," to the Transgressive Sacrality conference (see notes 21 and 1), and Sontheimer's contribution to this volume.

129. Cf. Gomes da Silva, Pouvoir et Hiérarchie (see note 102); we thank the author for sending the typescript of his Lévi-Straussian critique of (the prolongations of) Durkheimian sociologism (in Louis Dumont's anthropology of Indian civilization). For Râmânuja, see Lorenzen, Kâpâlikas, p.6. See note 3.

130. See Biardeau, Le Sacrifice, pp.99 note 2, 25 note 1; Shulman, The King and the Clown, pp.247-8; see notes 29 and 64.

131. Anderson, Festivals, p.235. Bhîmasena's twelve-yearly visit to Lhasa in the form of a Newar farmer is linked with their embryonic thirteenth year of exile (p.238). The impure aspects of the menstruating Krishnâ are very well described in A. Hiltebeitel, "Draupadî's Hair," Autour de la Déesse Hindoue, pp.179-214. See notes 7 and 109.

132. See A. Hiltebeitel, "The Two Krishnas in One Chariot: Upanishadic Imagery and Epic Mythology," History of Religions, 24 (1984), pp.1-26, where he points out that on occasion Arjuna/Krishna are compared to Indra/ Varuna or Siva/Brahmâ on the single chariot of Brahman. They are again identified as the doubled Krishna while helping Agni in the sexualized sacrifice of consuming the Khândava forest. See Heesterman, IC, p.151, for the early function of the purohita as charioteer for the king and Krishna's role in this context; pp.79, 151 (king as Brahman); pp.37-8, 42 for the polluting king/purohita relation (esp. contrast p.155); see note 47.

133. See M.-C. Porcher, "La Princesse et le Royaume: sur la représentation de la royauté dans le Dashakumâracarita de Dandin," Journal Asiatique 273 (1985), pp.183-206. Like the northern dombikâ (dance), the southern ulâ, could also be seen as an expression of this universalizing dialectic rather than as a sexual contradiction, as in D.D. Shulman, King and Clown, pp.312-24; see note 64. The brahmacarya of the "chaste" Hanumân in the Râmâyana is interpreted in folk-variants rather as an exaggerated virility matching that of Vrsâkapi.

134. O'Flaherty, Asceticism (see note 18), pp.104-11, 146-64; see note 64. For the deconstruction of (Tamil) bhakti through the dialectic of transgressive sacrality, see S. Visuvalingam's concluding section in this volume.

135. See G. Toffin, "Les Aspects Religieux de la Royauté au Népal," Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 48/1 (1979), pp.53-82; "Dieux souverains et rois dévots dans l'ancienne royauté de la vallée du Népal," L'Homme 26 (1986), pp.71-95, esp. p.84 note 19 raising the problem of Bhairava, and Sontheimer Birobâ, pp.192, 250; see note 101. For Brahmâ's inability to create, see O'Flaherty, Origins of Evil, p.284 (see note 18). Cf. Shulman, Tamil Temple Myths (see note 80), p.90ff. and especially S. Visuvalingam's section on "The Inner Conflict of Man" in this volume.

136. See S. Visuvalingam's treatment of the contributions of D. Coccari, A. Hiltebeitel and G.D. Sontheimer in this volume.

137. G.J. Held, Mahâbhârata: An Ethnological Study (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1953), pp.182-85. The link with Kâla-Bhairava on the one hand and the angry Guru on the other, is perhaps to be found in Siva, who emerged as the furious Mrtyuñjaya/Kâlakâla from the linga to slay Yama when the latter tries to forcibly claim Mârkandeya destined for Death at the (perennial) age of sixteen. All field-work in Banaras was carried out with the indispensable help of Mr. Om Prakash Sharma. I also thank all the numerous devotees of Bhairava in India and Nepal for allowing me to participate freely in their cult and aiding me to understand it better.

138. Vézies, Les Fêtes, pp.72-5. We had the good fortune to witness this festival in April 1985, with a grant accorded by the C.N.R.S. "équipe" 249, and to interview all the participants, above all the dhâmi himself. For Amsuvarman, see Slusser, Nepal Mandala, p.337. See note 6.

139. Slusser, Nepal Mandala, pp.291-2, 237; p.239, note 101 for Vajra-Bhairava; see note 6. During our fieldwork in July 85 in Ladakh, the lamas often described terrifying figures like Yamântaka in the gonpas as "Bhairava," who is already called "destroyer of Yama" (= Yamâri) in his Purânic origin-myth.

140. It was Asakâji Vajrâcârya, the teacher of the Astamâtrkâ dances to the Sâkya boys at Pâtan, who also gave me the details of the eight cremation-grounds haunted by the astabhairava of the Valley. According to him, some Vajrâcâryas still worship Bhairava at these sites in order to obtain various siddhis.

141. Rgveda V.62.1: rtena rtam apihitam dhruvam vâm .... See Nepali, Newars, p.300; Slusser, Nepal Mandala, p.237; see notes 93 and 6. See S. Visuvalingam's treatment of judicial terror in "Psychoanalysis, Criminal Law and Sacrificial Dharma," in Transgressive Sacrality; see note 1.

142. See S. Visuvalingam's section, especially note 58, on "Criminal Gods and Demon Devotees: Sacrifice, Bhakti and Terror," in this volume.