P.s. the verse has several parallels I can dig up for you if you don't know them, and it is historically important because it shows that for orthodox brāhmaṇas at this time, contact with an initiated Śaiva is as polluting as contact with an untouchable -- which I hope makes one hesitate to place Śaivism under the rubric "Hinduism", at least for the early medieval period.


On 8 June 2013 12:56, Patrick Olivelle <jpo@uts.cc.utexas.edu> wrote:
Does anyone know whether the term "kāruka" has a specifically Śaiva technical meaning -- perhaps a special kind of initiate? I see this in a verse:

kāpālikāḥ pāśupatāḥ śaivaś ca saha kārukaiḥ |
dṛṣṭāś ced ravim īkṣeta spṛṣṭāś cet snānam ācaret ||

Thanks.

Patrick
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