Mahakala, 12th century briefkaart

Mahākāla (Sanskrit) is a Dharmapala ("protector of dharma") in Vajrayana Buddhism, and a deity in Chinese en Japanse Buddhism, particularly in the Vajrayana school. He is known as Daheitian (大 天) in Chinese and Daikokuten (大 天) in Japanese. Mahākāla belongs to the fourth hierarchy of deities. In Hinduism, Mahakala is a name of Shiva (as, for example, at the Shiva temple in Ujjain that is more than once mentioned by Kālidāsa), but it is al also a name of one of his prime wachtants (Sanskrit: gaṇ a): along with Nandi, which is one of Shiva's watchmen, and so is often represented outside the main doorway of early North Indian temples.