In Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism)

Source: academia.edu: A Critical Study of the Vajraḍākamahātantrarāja (II)

Mahākaṅkāla (महाकङ्काल) is the husband of Caṇḍākṣī: the name of a Ḍākinī (‘sacred girl’) presiding over Jālandhara: one of the four Pīṭhas (‘sacred spot’) present within the Cittacakra (‘circle of mid’), according to the 9th-centruy Vajraḍākatantra. The Cittacakra is one of three Cakras within the Tricakra system which embodies twenty-four sacred spots or districts resided over by twenty-four Ḍākinīs whose husbands (viz., Mahākaṅkāla) abide in one’s body in the form of twenty-four ingredients (dhātu) of one’s body.

Caṇḍākṣī has for her husband the hero (vīra) named Mahākaṅkāla. She is the presiding deity of Jālandhara and the associated internal location is ‘top of the head’ and the bodily ingredients (dhātu) are ‘hair on head’ and ‘body’.

Source: academia.edu: The Structure and Meanings of the Heruka Maṇḍala

Mahākaṅkāla (महाकङ्काल) is the name of a Vīra (hero) who, together with the Ḍākinī named Caṇḍākṣī forms one of the 36 pairs situated in the Vajracakra, according to the 10th century Ḍākārṇava chapter 15. Accordingly, the vajracakra refers to one of the four divisions of the sahaja-puṭa (‘innate layer’), situated within the padma (lotus) in the middle of the Herukamaṇḍala. The 36 pairs of Ḍākinīs and Vīras [viz., Mahākaṅkāla] each have one face and four arms; they hold a skull bowl, a skull staff, a small drum and a knife; they are dark-bluish-black in color.

Source: OSU Press: Cakrasamvara Samadhi

Mahākaṅkāla (महाकङ्काल) is the name of a Ḍāka (male consort) and one of the deities of the Cakrasaṃvara-maṇḍala or Saṃvaramaṇḍala of Abhayākaragupta’s Niṣpannayogāvalī, p. 45 and n. 145; (Cf. Cakrasaṃvaratantra, Gray, David B., 2007).—The Cakrasaṃvara mandala has a total of sixty-two deities. [...] Three concentric circles going outward, the body, speech and mind wheels (kāya-vāka-citta), in the order: mind (blue), speech (red), and body (white), with eight Ḍākinīs each in non-dual union with their Ḍākas, "male consorts".

Associated elements of Caṇḍākṣī and Mahākaṅkāla:

Circle: kāyacakra (mind-wheel) (blue);
Ḍākinī (female consort): Caṇḍākṣī;
Ḍāka (male consort): Mahākaṅkāla;
Bīja: jāṃ;
Body-part: forehead;
Pīṭha: Jālandhara (Jālaṃdhara);
Bodily constituent: keśa-romanī (head/body hair);
Bodhipakṣa (wings of enlightenment): vīrya-ṛddhipāda (power of effort).

Source: MDPI Books: The Ocean of Heroes

Mahākaṅkāla (महाकङ्काल) is the name of a deity mentioned in chapter 50 of the 10th-century Ḍākārṇava-tantra: one of the last Tibetan Tantric scriptures belonging to the Buddhist Saṃvara tradition consisting of 51 chapters.—Accordingly, “Now, I will explain the characteristic of Mahākaṅkāla. [A practitioner,] devoting himself to the yoga of the donkey-formed, can stop a rush of thought. [The channel of] the balanced bodily constituents is well meditated on the seat [located] at the top of a mountain (viz, at the top of the head). [It] faces downwards, appears to be the stalk of a lotus, and runs to all [regions in one’s body] as [spreading] streaks of lightning. [...]”.

context information

Tibetan Buddhism includes schools such as Nyingma, Kadampa, Kagyu and Gelug. Their primary canon of literature is divided in two broad categories: The Kangyur, which consists of Buddha’s words, and the Tengyur, which includes commentaries from various sources. Esotericism and tantra techniques (vajrayāna) are collected indepently.

See also (Relevant definitions)

Full-text (+30): Candakshi, Jalandhara, Viryarddhipada, Sarvadhatu, Kesa, Virya, Yogabhavana, Sukhamaya, Romani, Sarvasampurna, Gardabhakriti, Jam, Gardabha, Hakara, Mastaka, Ekatantu, Nabhi, Tantu, Yogatman, Manthanayoga.

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