'Aghora Mārga': origini storiche e mitologiche di una via yogica estrema

Abstract

This paper aims to propose some historical and mythological data about a particular tantric path called aghora mārga. Its followers, the aghorīs, are known for their necrophagous practices. The origins of this yogic path are ascribed by some scholars to the medieval nātha yogins and by other scholars to an even earlier tantric school, that of the skull bearers, the kāpālikas. Through some uninterrupted chains of masters, the aghorīs are still present today mainly in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Their austere yogic practices found their divine archetype in the terrifying god Kāla-bhairava of puranic and agamic memory.