Maheshi, Mahesi, Māheśī, Maheśī, Mahesī: 7 definitions
Introduction:
Maheshi means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit, Buddhism, Pali. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
The Sanskrit terms Māheśī and Maheśī can be transliterated into English as Mahesi or Maheshi, using the IAST transliteration scheme (?).
In Hinduism
Shaktism (Shakta philosophy)
Maheshi or Maheshvari refers to one of the seven mother-like goddesses (Matrika).—The Matrikas emerge as shaktis from out of the bodies of the gods: Maheshvari from Shiva. The order of the Saptamatrka usually begins with Brahmi symbolizing creation. Then, Vaishnavi. Then, Maheshvari, who resides in the hearts of all beings, breaths in life and individuality.
Shakta (शाक्त, śākta) or Shaktism (śāktism) represents a tradition of Hinduism where the Goddess (Devi) is revered and worshipped. Shakta literature includes a range of scriptures, including various Agamas and Tantras, although its roots may be traced back to the Vedas.
Purana and Itihasa (epic history)
Maheśī (महेशी) refers to an epithet of Goddess Durgā, according to the Śivapurāṇa 2.2.11. Accordingly as Brahmā said to Nārada:—“[...] O sage, seeing her [Durgā] who was Śiva’s Energy herself, directly in front of me, my lofty shoulders bent down with devotion and I eulogised her after due obeisance. [...] Thou hast manifested thyself as Śrī, a garland round Keśava’s form, who in the form of Earth holdest everything within, who art of yore the great Goddess (Maheśī) causing creation and the destruction of the three worlds and art beyond the three Guṇas”.
The Purana (पुराण, purāṇas) refers to Sanskrit literature preserving ancient India’s vast cultural history, including historical legends, religious ceremonies, various arts and sciences. The eighteen mahapuranas total over 400,000 shlokas (metrical couplets) and date to at least several centuries BCE.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
mahesi : ((mahā + isi), m.) the great sage. || mahesī (f.) a queen.
1) mahesi (မဟေသိ) [(pu) (ပု)]—
[mahanta+esa+i．mahanta+īsa．,ṭī．2．aṭṭhasā,yo．2．sūci．nirutti,nhā．1va2．]
[မဟန္တ+ဧသ+ဣ။မဟန္တ+ဤသ။ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၂။ အဋ္ဌသာ၊ယော။ ၂။ သူစိ။ နိရုတ္တိ၊နှာ။၁ဝ၂။]
2) mahesī (မဟေသီ) [(thī) (ထီ)]—
[maha+isa+ī．mahanta+īsa+a+ī．,ṭī．232．]
[မဟ+ဣသ+ဤ။ မဟန္တ+ဤသ+အ+ဤ။ဓာန်၊ဋီ။၂၃၂။]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) mahesi—
(Burmese text): မြတ်သော သီလက္ခန္ဓစသော ဂုဏ်ကျေးဇူးကို ရှာမှီလေ့ရှိသူ။
(Auto-Translation): One who seeks the noble virtues with reverence.
2) mahesī—
(Burmese text): မိဖုရား၊ မိဖုရားခေါင်ကြီး။
(Auto-Translation): Mother, great mother.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
Sanskrit dictionary
Māheśī (माहेशी):—[from māheśa > māhā] f. Name of Durgā, [Purāṇa]
Mahesi (in Sanskrit) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 大仙 [dà xiān]: “great sage”.
Sanskrit, also spelled संस्कृतम् (saṃskṛtam), is an ancient language of India commonly seen as the grandmother of the Indo-European language family (even English!). Closely allied with Prakrit and Pali, Sanskrit is more exhaustive in both grammar and terms and has the most extensive collection of literature in the world, greatly surpassing its sister-languages Greek and Latin.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Maha, I, Esa, Mahanta, Isha.
Starts with: Maheshitar, Maheshitri.
Full-text (+2): Rajamahesi, Khattiyamahesi, Mahesitthana, Mahesibhoga, Maheseyya, Aggamahesi, Mahesitta, Mahesika, Paccekabuddhamahesi, Maheshvari, Gavesin, Abbulihana, Kevalin, Pannadhaja, Mahisha, Da xian, Alandanagarajamahesi, Isha, Isi, Mahant.
Relevant text
Search found 23 books and stories containing Maheshi, Mahesi, Māheśī, Maheśī, Mahēsi, Mahanta-esa-i, Mahesī, Maha-isa-i, Maha-isa-ī; (plurals include: Maheshis, Mahesis, Māheśīs, Maheśīs, Mahēsis, is, Mahesīs, īs). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Kathasaritsagara (cultural study) (by S. W. Chitale)
The King’s Harem and Queens < [Chapter 2 - Political conditions]
Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History (by Zoltán Biedermann)
Apadana commentary (Atthakatha) (by U Lu Pe Win)
Commentary on the Biography of Nanda thera < [Chapter 2 - Sīhāsaniyavagga (lion-throne section)]
Introduction (commentary on the first stanza) < [Commentary on biography of Silent Buddhas (Paccekabuddha)]
Dipankara Buddha predicts Buddhahood for Sumedha < [Part 1 - Remote preface (dūre-nidāna)]
Garuda Purana (by Manmatha Nath Dutt)
Chapter CXXXIV - Maha Kausika Vratas etc < [Brihaspati (Nitisara) Samhita]
Chapter CCXXIII - The Tripura Vidya < [Dhanvantari Samhita]
Chapter XL - Maheshvara worship < [Agastya Samhita]
Skanda Purana (by G. V. Tagare)
Chapter 21 - Gotras, Pravaras etc. of the Residents of Dharmāraṇya < [Section 2 - Dharmāraṇya-khaṇḍa]
Chapter 72 - Victory of Durgā < [Section 2 - Uttarārdha]
Agni Purana (by N. Gangadharan)