Since the publication of the first edition of The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas in 1972, this work has remained the basic source on these two important Saivite religious sects that flourished in early medieval India. The book also contains a solid summary of the history and doctrines of the Pasupatas, the sect from which the Kalamukhas arose. This new edition includes two new appendices which describe the epigraphical and literary discoveries relevant to these sects made since 1972. The author also offers a new evaluation of the significance of the replacement of the Kalamukhas by the Virasaivas in north-western Karnataka in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The basic contribution of The Kapalikas and Kalamukhas has been to show that these sects were not the degraded cults – replete with hedonistic and sadistic practices and beliefs – that both traditional sources and modern scholars have often claimed. The author accepts that the religious practices of the Kapalikas reflect a revolt against conventional standards of propriety and religious orthodox, but argues that their aims were consonant with the larger context of Saivite Tantrism and its philosophical and ritual traditions. The Kalamukhas, for their part, also maintained somewhat heterodox religious practices, but the Kalamukha ascetics of Karnataka are shown to have been followers of the Pasupata tradition of Lakulisa rather than a tantric sect such as that of the Kapalikas.
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