Charnel Ground Items, Śmāśānikas, and the Question of the Magical Substratum of the Early Tantras

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This chapter explores attestations of ‘skull-magic’ in the early Tantras. Scholars have usually traced these elements back to the marginal milieus of Śaiva Kāpālika ascetics, who were known for their antinomian rituals that heavily relied upon objects procured from the cremation ground, and who were stereotypically por- trayed through their five-insignia attire (pañcamudrā); however, the chapter argues that in the description of the ‘wrathful magic rituals’ (abhicāra) attested in the early Śaiva and Buddhist Tantras, we find depictions of a different type of ‘wild’ practitioner that does not entirely conform to the type of Kāpālika ascetic but rather points to a more archaic, pre-Tantric magical substratum dealing with exorcism of demons and skull-magic that could have been subsequently inte- grated into the textual corpora of Tantric traditions. The authors’ underlying hypothesis is that the manipulation of skulls, corpses, and animal parts for magi- cal purposes, known in non-Tantric texts as śmāśānikakarmas, may point to a group of cremation ground specialists already in existence prior to the historical emergence and textual codification of Tantric traditions.