The Aghori (from Sanskrit: अघोर, lit. 'not dreadful', 'dreadless', IAST: aghora) are a Hindu monastic order of ascetic Shaivite sadhus based in Uttar Pradesh, India.^[2] They are the only surviving sect derived from the Kāpālika tradition, a Tantric, non-Puranic form of Shaivism which originated in Medieval India between the 4th and 8th century CE.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Similarly to their Shaivite predecessors,^[2] Aghoris usually engage in post-mortem rituals, often dwell in charnel grounds, smear cremation ashes on their bodies,^[7] and use bones from human corpses for crafting kapāla (skull cups which Shiva and other Hindu deities are often iconically depicted holding or using) and jewellery.^[3][4][5] They also practice post-mortem cannibalism, eating flesh from foraged human corpses, including those taken from cremation ghats.^[8][9]

Their practices are sometimes considered contradictory to orthodox Hinduism.^{[3][4][5][10]} Many Aghori gurus command great reverence from rural populations and are widely referred to in medieval and modern works of Indian literature, as they are supposed to possess healing powers gained through their intensely eremitic rites and practices of renunciation and tápasya.^[3][4][5]

Aghoris are Hindu devotees of Shiva manifested as Bhairava,^{[3][4][5][11]} and ascetics who seek liberation (mokṣa) from the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (saṃsāra). This freedom is attained through the knowledge that the Self (ātman) is identical to the eternal and formless metaphysical Absolute called Brahman. Because of their monistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain that all opposites are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracing intoxicant substances, pollution, and physical degradation through various Tantric rituals and customs is the realisation of non-duality (advaita) transcending social taboos, attaining what is essentially an altered state of consciousness and perceiving the illusory nature of all conventional categories.

Aghori rituals, which are performed precisely to oppose notions of purity commonplace in orthodox Hinduism, are typically macabre in nature.^[12][13] The practices of Aghoris vary^[4] and include living in cemeteries, smearing cremation ashes on their bodies,^[7] using human skulls for decoration and bowls, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, and sitting in meditation on top of corpses.^[14][15] Although contrary to mainstream Hinduism, these practices exemplify the Aghori philosophy of criticising commonplace social relations and fears through the use of culturally offensive acts.^[12] Furthermore, they demonstrate the Aghoris' acceptance of death as a necessary and natural part of the human experience.^[12][16]

Another unusual Aghori belief is that they attribute spiritual and physical benefits, such as the prevention of ageing, to the consumption of human flesh. In 2006, an Indian TV crew witnessed one Aghori feasting on a corpse discovered floating in the Ganges^[8] and a member of the Dom caste reports that Aghori often take bodies from cremation ghats (or funeral pyres).^[9]

In his book Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (1958), the religion scholar Mircea Eliade remarks that the "Aghorīs are only the successors to a much older and widespread ascetic order, the Kāpālikas, or 'wearers of skulls'."^[2] According to David Lorenzen, there is a paucity of primary sources on the Kāpālikas, and historical information about them is available from fictional works and other traditions who disparage them.^[3][17][2] Various Indian texts claim that the Kāpālikas drank liquor freely, both for ritual and as a matter of habit.^[3] The Chinese pilgrim to India in the 7th century CE, Xuanzang, in his memoir on what is now Northwestern Pakistan, wrote about Buddhists living with naked ascetics who covered themselves with ashes and wore bone wreathes on their heads, but Xuanzang does not call them Kāpālikas or any particular name. Historians of Indian religions and scholars of Hindu studies have interpreted these ascetics variously as Kāpālikas, Jain Digambara monks, and Pashupatas.^[3]

The Kāpālikas were more of a monastic order, states Lorenzen, and not a sect with a textual doctrine.^[3] The Kāpālika tradition gave rise to the Kulamārga, a subsect of Tantric Shaivism which preserves some of the distinctive features of the Kāpālika tradition.^[18] Some of the Kāpālika Shaiva practices are found in Vajrayana Buddhism,^[2] and scholars disagree on who influenced whom.^[19] Today, the Kāpālika tradition survives within its Shaivite offshoots: the Aghori order, Kaula, and Trika traditions.^[17][2]

Although akin to the Kāpālika ascetics of Medieval India and Kashmir, as well as the Kālāmukha of the Deccan Plateau, with whom there may be a historical connection, the Aghoris trace their origin to Baba Keenaram, a Shaivite ascetic who is said to have lived 150 years, dying during the second half of the 18th century.^[20][21] Dattatreya the avadhuta, to whom has been attributed the esteemed nondual medieval song, the Avadhuta Gita, was a founding adi guru of the Aghor tradition according to Barrett (2008: p. 33):

• Aghora Yoga
• Baul

• Media related to Aghori at Wikimedia Commons
• "Conversation with an Aghori Baba" videotaped in Varanasi archived at Ghostarchive.org on 18 June 2022
• Joël Gugler (2024), Cannibal monks (Aghori)