Talk:Mahakala

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I think the page is OK, really. Wished all deities of the Buddhist tantric pantheon were

described this nice! rudy

[edit] "Chintamani" link confusing

The section on third representation of Mahakala describes him as holding a wish-granting gem, then translates that phrase as the Sanskrit word chintamani. Although the translation itself is good, the link leads to a geographical/political article about a place named Chintamani--not the "wish-granting gem" in Buddhist iconography, which would probably interest readers of this article much more. Do any experts on Buddhism want to write the second "Chintamani" article (and decide which one gets the disambiguation note)?

--Ingeborg S. Nordén 22:39, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Non-English caption

mGon po yid bzhin nor bu - Can someone please replace this caption with an English caption describing the image? Tritium6 17:04, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology of the name

I'm not a Sanskrit scholar, but I'm pretty sure the etymology of this name is a mess; kala in this case (without a long ā) refers to black, so his name is the Great Black One, which makes quite a bit of sense when you look at the image, and has nothing to do with time (which is kāla). rudy 22:49, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

You're quite correct, although the name does have a long a (mahAkAla). The etymology given in the article sounds like a "folk" etymology or else has been misinterpreted. In this case, "-kAla" comes from the adjective "kala" meaning "black," from IE root kel "black (spotted)", not from kel "to drive", whence kAla (Skt. "time") and celer (Lat. "fast"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.152.168.162 (talk) 07:52, 22 October 2007 (UTC)