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object

Khatvanga

Objects · Rituals · Traditions

A named skull-topped staff of tantric image and story. Not a khatvanga flattened onto kapala, kangling, or a generic staff.

Vedic tradition

  • Khatvanga is historically related to Staff.

    Dowson seats the Khatwanga as Siva’s club with a skull at the end (also called Khinkira) among his carried emblems — khatvanga staff kinship, not kapala/kangling flatten and not the Solar-race prince Khatwanga alone.

    from John Dowson · A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, 1879

    historically related to · sourced · documented

sources