Kapāla
Kapāla, “skull, skull-bowl”
Grammar: masculine or neuter noun: “skull; a bowl or dish”.
Meaning: the skull, the bowl of the head; a begging bowl made from a skull; and also a vessel of the yajña, in which the puroḍāśa (the rice cake offering) is offered.
In the scriptures: the word is tied above all to Bhagavān Śiva as Kapālī, “the one with the skull”:
- When the fifth face of Brahmā mocked Śiva, Śiva nipped it off with the tip of his fingernail, and the severed head stuck fast to his left palm. At Badarikāśrama Śiva then told Nārāyaṇa, “I am a Mahākāpālika; I have come seeking bhikshā” (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 2).
- The brahma-kapāla, the skull of Brahmā, still clung to Śiva’s hand. Vishṇu told him to bathe in a lake that would be famed as the Kapālamocana kshetra, “where the skull is let go”, and that Śiva would be known as Kapālī. Maheśvara bathed there according to vidhi, and the skull fell from his hand (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 3).
- In the Hari-Hara form, the one form of Śiva and Keśava, the weapons held were cakra, khaḍga, śaṅkha, hala, Śārṅga, Pināka, śūla, Ajagava, khaṭvāṅga, kapāla and ghaṇṭā. Seeing it, the devas headed by Brahmā knew that the two are one (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 36).
- In the Sarva-pāpa-mocana stava, Maheśvara praises Vishṇu with the word in its yajña sense: “You are the kapāla, the ulūkhala (mortar), the araṇi (the fire-sticks); you are the yajña vessel āraṇeya”, and the ladles sruk and sruva are his forms (Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 60).
- Śiva took the form of a beautiful naked (digambara) youth, wearing a vanamālā, with a kapāla in his hand, and went begging among the āśramas; the bhikshā he received he took in this begging skull (Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21–22).
Related terms: Kapālī · Kapālamocana · Kāpālika · Khaṭvāṅga · Puroḍāśa
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 2, 3, 36, 60
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Saro Māhātmya, Chapters 21, 22