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Mahākāla
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Mahākāla

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Mahākāla (, ) is a deity common to Hinduism and Buddhism.

Key facts

Deity.type
Hindu
Deity.image
Mahakala and Companions LACMA M.77.19.11.jpg
Deity.caption
Mahākāla and companions
Deity.name
Mahakala
Deity.deity_of
God of Time, Maya, Creation, Destruction and Power
Deity.abode
Śmaśāna (but varies by interpretation)
Deity.consort
Parvati as Mahakali
Deity.weapon
Khanda, Trishula, Hammer (in Japanese depictions)

via Wikipedia infobox

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

18 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Description
  • In Hinduism
  • In Buddhism
  • Tibetan Buddhism depictions
  • Two-armed forms
  • Four-armed forms
  • Six-armed forms
  • Other forms
  • In China
  • In Japan
  • In Sikhism
  • See also
  • References
  • Citations
  • Works cited
  • Further reading
  • External links

Mahākāla (, ) is a deity common to Hinduism and Buddhism.

In Buddhism, Mahākāla is regarded as a ("Protector of the Dharma") and a wrathful manifestation of a Buddha, while in Hinduism, Mahākāla is a fierce manifestation of the Hindu god Shiva and the consort of the goddess Mahākālī; he most prominently appears in the sect of Shaktism.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mahākāla” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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