Kalamukha

(“black face”) Extinct monastic sect
whose members were devotees (bhakta)
of the god Shiva and whose name may
refer to their practice of marking their
heads with a black streak. Little is
known about their doctrines or practices. While there are contemporary literary references to the Kapalikas,
another extinct Shaivite ascetic community, the only sources for the
Kalamukhas are a series of inscriptions.
From these inscriptions we know that
the Kalamukhas were strongest in the
Karnataka region, although they were
also present in other southern Indian
regions. They flourished between the
ninth and thirteenth centuries.