This description of Śaivas in some texts is paralleled by similar treatment of Vaiṣṇavas in several texts.  Recently, Rosalind O'Hanlon of Oxford gave a paper on some Jātinirṇaya texts where the Vaiṣṇavas are also listed as having a very low status.  All these kinds of descriptions simply reflect sectarian animosities, and simply point to a fact that there was no comprehensive standardization of such categories in the name of a unified Hinduism.

Madhav Deshpande

On Sat, Jun 8, 2013 at 10:36 PM, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11@gmail.com> wrote:

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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Madhav M. Deshpande
Professor of Sanskrit and Linguistics
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
202 South Thayer Street, Suite 6111
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1608, USA

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