The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1237 page)

p
lika practice aimed at a vision of, and possession (
ave
a
) by, a deity or power (
akti
), in order to achieve perfection (
siddhi
). Practice included the consuming of corpse-flesh and scatalogical substances, meditation whilst seated on a corpse, sexual rites with low-caste women, and animal, human, and self-sacrifice. The K
p
likas were scorned and feared by orthodox Brahmanism, and if a brahman saw one, he would stare into the sun to purify himself. The K
p
likas were absorbed into the
N
thas
and
Aghor
s
.

 
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Kapila
.

A legendary figure, traditionally recognized as the founder of
S
khya
. He is said to have lived during the late 7th or early 6th cent. BCE though these dates precede his supposed authorship of the
a
itantra
(
c.
100 BCE–200 CE) and other texts. Today, thousands of pilgrims gather at the point by the island Sagar where the river
Ga
g
is said to have come to earth, and here they visit the hermitage (
rama
) of the sage Kapila.