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Gauri Shankar Mishra, Aghori Baba drinking from a human skull.

The Aghori are a Hindu sect believed to have split off from the Kapalika order (which dates from 1000 CE) in the fourteenth century AD. Both Kapalika and Aghori sects are worshipers of Lord Shiva. Aghori means non-terrifying in Sanskrit, and may refer to how members of the sect view death. This extremely secretive community is known to live in graveyards, wear ash from the pyre, and use human bones from graveyards for rituals.

Aghori ascetics, while being devotees of the Hindu god Shiva, are monists who adhere to the common Hindu belief in liberation (moksha) from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara). This liberation is a realisation of the self's identity with the absolute. Because of this monistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain that all opposites are identical and that the conventional Hindu distinctions between purity and impurity are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracing pollution through various practices is the realization of non-duality through transcending social taboos, and seeing the illusory nature of all conventional categories.

In essence, Aghoris base their beliefs on two principles. First, that the gods are perfect. Second, that the gods are responsible for everything; every rock, tree, animal, and even every thought. Due to this, everything that exists must be perfect, and to deny the perfection of anything would be to deny the gods. For this reason, Aghoris are known to prove their faith by challenging pre-conceived notions of the grotesque, and find the beauty or perfection in such conventionally taboo notions as, for example, cannibalism.

Although akin to the Kapalika ascetics of medieval Kashmir, with whom there may be a historical connection, the Aghoris trace their origin to Kina Ram, an ascetic who is said to have lived 150 years, dying during the second half of the eighteenth century^[1]. Kina Ram is thought to have been an incarnation of the Hindu god Shiva, as have been each of Kina Ram's successors. Necrophagy, the eating of corpse flesh, is attested to by a sixteenth century Persian source and in nineteenth century British accounts.

The Aghori ascetic is himself a symbol of the god Shiva. He goes naked or wears the shroud of a corpse, he covers himself in the ashes of the cremation ground--which would be polluting for an orthodox Brahmin--and his ritual practices are symbols of his non-dualistic beliefs. The corpse upon which he meditates is a symbol of his own body and the corpse devouring ritual is a symbol of the transcendence of his lower self and a realisation of the greater, all pervading self.

Due to the secrecy of this religious sect, no official figures are available. At the end of the nineteenth century there were an estimated two or three hundred Aghori ascetics in Varanasi, though now there are perhaps as few as twenty living in their main centre. The Aghoris do, however, have a large lay following, and devotees from the Indian middle classes.

The main akhada of Aghoris is Kina Ram's hermitage or ashram in Varanasi. Kina Ram's samadhi is a centre of piligrimage for aghoris and aghori devotees. Here Kina Ram is buried in a tomb or samadhi which is a centre of pilgrimage for Aghoris and Aghori devotees.Another centre is Aghor sodh sansthan,ravindrapuri, varanasi. Apart from this, any cremation ground would be a holy place for an Aghori ascetic.

1. ^ Parry, Jonathan P. (July 1994). Death in Banaras. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521466253. 

Other references:

• Dhallapiccola, Anna. Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend. ISBN 0-500-51088-1
• Svoboda, Robert. Aghora: At the Left Hand of God. ISBN 0-914732-21-8

• Sadhus and Yogis of India
• Dolf Hartsuiker's Shaiva Sadhu page
• Main American page for followers of Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ramji
• Division of Religion and Philosophy St. Martin's College: Aghoris
• American Aghori in Vice (magazine) .
• ABC News Story on Aghoris