View source for Khaṭvāṅga

{{Short description|Staff associated with Indian religions}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2016}}
{{Infobox deity<!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Hindu mythology-->
| type       = Buddhist
| image      = Khatvangam.jpg
| caption    = Khatvanga
| name       = Khatvanga
| Sanskrit_transliteration = {{IAST| Khaṭvāṅga}}
| Devanagari = {{lang|sa|खट्वाङ्ग}}
}}

A '''khaṭvāṅga''' ({{langx|sa|खट्वाङ्ग}}) is a long, studded staff or club with a skull at the top. The weapon is found in the iconography of [[Tantra|Tantric]] [[Hinduism|Hindu]] as well as [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetian]] [[Vajrayana Buddhism]]. It is variiously described as "a skull - topped club, a skull - mounted trident, or a trident - staff on which three skulls are impaled".<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert Beer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IvrAAAAMAAJ |title=The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs |publisher=Serindia Publications |year=1999 |isbn=9780906026489 |page=250}}</ref> 

==Fabrication==
Originally, the khatvāṅga was made of bones, especially, the long bones of forearm or the leg of human beings or animals. Later, wood and metal were used.  The khatvāṅga is a long club with skulls engraved on the body.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}
==Hinduism==

[[File: Brungi_with_Khatwanga.jpg |thumb|270px|right|Guard of lord Shiva — Bhringi, holding a Khatvanga, Kadile Papahareshwar Temple at Nirmala, [[Telangana]], [[India]]]]

The Hindu deity Shiva is sometimes depicted carrying the khatvanga, thus referred by the epithet  ''khatvāṅgī''. The weapon is referred in [[Bhavabhuti|Bhavabhuti's]] ''Mālatīmādhava'' and [[Shiva Stuti|Śiva Stutī]] of [[Narayana Panditacharya]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Hemakuta: Recent Researches in Archaeology and Museology : Shri C.T.M. Kotraiah Felicitation Volume, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQVuAAAAMAAJ|author=A. V. Narasimha Murthy|publisher=Bharatiya Kala Prakashan|year=2001|page=160|isbn = 9788186050484}}</ref>

==Vajrayana Buddhism==
[[File:MET DP318675.jpg|thumb|270px|right|Pictured here is an ivory ''khaṭvāṅga'', 15th century Chinese art, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].]]

In the [[Vajrayana]] of [[Tibetan Buddhism]], the symbol of the skull-topped trident (''khaṭvānga'') is said to be inspired by its association with the [[Kapalika|Kāpālikas]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Beer, Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3804Ud9-4IC&q=shaivite+charnel+ground&pg=PA102 |title=The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols |date=2003 |publisher=Serindia Publications |isbn=1-932476-03-2 |page=102 |access-date=February 3, 2010}}</ref> 

Khatvanga is originally understood as [[Hayagriva (Buddhism)|Tibetan Hayagriva]]'s weapon. It evolved as a traditional ritualistic symbol in [[Religion in Tibet|Tibetan religions]] and [[Tantra|Tantric traditions]] like [[Vajrayana Buddhism]], and in the [[Vajrayana]] of [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. The khatvānga was also used as tribal [[shaman]] shafts.

Author [[Robert Beer]] states that "The form of the Buddhist ''khaṭvāṅga'' derived from the emblematic staff of the early Indian [[Shaivism|Shaivite]] ''[[yogi]]s'', known as ''[[kapalika]]s'' or "skull-bearers". The ''kapalikas'' were originally miscreants who had been sentenced to a twelve-year term of penance for the crime of inadvertently killing a [[Brahmin]]. The penitent was prescribed to dwell in a forest hut, at a desolate crossroads, in a [[Shmashana|charnel ground]], or under a tree; to live by begging; to practice austerities; and to wear a loin-cloth of hemp, dog, or donkey-skin. They also had to carry the emblems of a [[human skull]] as an alms-bowl, and the skull of the Brahmin they had slain mounted upon a wooden staff as a banner. These Hindu ''kapalika'' ascetics soon evolved into  extreme outcaste adherents  of the "[[Vamachara|left-hand]]" [[Tantra|Tantric path]] (Sanskrit: Vāmamārga) of ''[[Shaktism|shakti]]'' or goddess worship. The early Buddhist tantric ''yogins'' and ''[[yogini]]s'' adopted the same goddess or ''dakini'' attributes of the ''kapalikas''. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup, ''damaru'', flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped Tantric staff or ''khaṭvāṅga''".<ref name="auto">{{cite book|author=Beer, Robert|date=2003|title=The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols|publisher=Serindia Publications|isbn=1-932476-03-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3804Ud9-4IC&q=shaivite+charnel+ground&pg=PA102|page=102|access-date=February 3, 2010}}</ref>

Robert Beer relates how the symbolism of the khatvāṅga in the Vajrayana of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the [[Nyingma]] school founded by [[Padmasambhava]], was a direct borrowing from the Shaiva [[Kapalika]]s, who frequented places of austerity such as [[charnel ground]]s and [[Crossroads (mythology)|crossroads]] as a form of "left-handed path" ([[vamachara]]) [[sādhanā]].<ref name="auto"/> In Padmasambhava's iconographic representations, the khatvanga represents his scribe, biographer and spiritual consort [[Yeshe Tsogyal]]. The weapon's three severed heads denotes [[moksha]] from the three worlds ([[Trailokya]]); it has a rainbow sash representing the [[Five Pure Lights]] of the [[mahābhūta]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Weapons of Shiva]]
[[Category:Buddhist ritual implements]]
[[Category:Weapons in Buddhist mythology]]