Mahaghrasa (महाग्रासा, IAST: Mahāgrāsā) is a Sanskrit-origin Hindu girl-name meaning “She who consumes everything in the great dissolution”. From mahā (great) and grāsa (a mouthful, consumption), this name portrays the Goddess as the cosmic devourer who reabsorbs the entire universe into herself at the end of each age.

Meaning, etymology & significance

The root grāsa derives from the verb gras, meaning to swallow or devour, and in its highest theological sense points to the Goddess's power of universal reabsorption called mahāpralaya. She does not destroy out of malice but draws all manifest existence back into her infinite womb with boundless love. This name appears in the Lalitā Sahasranāma to honor the Devī's role as the ultimate ground into which all names and forms dissolve.

Lalitā bears this name to affirm that even the fiercest cosmic function belongs to her gracious sovereignty. Pronounced mah-haa-GRAA-saa, the word is uncommon as a personal name but carries profound spiritual significance for devotees.

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Scriptural source

Mahaghrasa appears in the Lalitha Sahasranama, among the sacred names of Lalitha.

Astrology — nakshatra, rashi & numerology

By the standard Vedic correspondence between a name’s first syllable and the lunar mansion, Mahaghrasa aligns with the Magha nakshatra, under the Simha rashi (Moon sign). Its Chaldean name-number is 8.