Herambasuta

Herambasuta is known from a literary reference in the tenth‑century work Śaṅkaravijaya attributed to Ānandagiri; the text reports that he led a cult of Ucchiṣṭa Gaṇapati. The attestation is textual and polemical rather than biographical, so his place in history is reconstructed from this passage and subsequent scholarly commentary (for example R. G. Bhandarkar, who described the group as an imitation of Kaula worship). The sources do not supply a life narrative, dates, or a provenance beyond situating him within the medieval Tantric milieu and the vamachara Ganapatya current.

The cited sources provide no physical description or iconography for Herambasuta himself. The record presents him as a human Tantric yogi and cult leader; the Śaṅkaravijaya notes that his followers wore a red mark on the forehead as a group identifier, but offers no details about Herambasuta's personal attire or bodily features.

Sources do not ascribe supernatural powers to Herambasuta. Instead they describe his teachings and the ritual emphases of the movement he led: leadership of Ucchiṣṭa Gaṇapati worship (ritual centered on ucchiṣṭa, i.e. leftover/ritually impure food), incorporation of Pañca Makāra (the five transgressive elements associated with some Tantric practices), the removal of caste restrictions for followers, and permissive sexual conduct described by the Śaṅkaravijaya as 'promiscuity was allowed.' Modern scholarly commentary (R. G. Bhandarkar) has read these features as akin to Kaula forms of worship.