Pushkarekshana (पुष्करेक्षणा, IAST: Puṣkarekṣaṇā) is a Sanskrit-origin Hindu girl-name meaning “She whose eyes are beautiful as the lotus”. A bahuvrīhi compound of puṣkara (lotus) and īkṣaṇā (eyes, gaze), this name declares that Lalitā's eyes have the dark, wide, compassionate beauty of fully blossomed lotus flowers.

Meaning, etymology & significance

Puṣkara here means lotus and īkṣaṇā (from īkṣ, to see) refers to the eyes or the act of seeing. Puṣkarekṣaṇā thus means 'she whose eyes are like lotuses' — a classical convention of Indian aesthetics and devotional poetry that compares the large, dark, gentle eyes of the deity or beloved to lotus petals floating on still water. For Lalitā, this epithet is especially significant because her compassionate gaze is said to bestow liberation on those it falls upon.

Lotus-eye epithets such as this one appear across Sanskrit literature for both goddesses and gods (cf. Padmākṣī, Kamalākṣī), and in Śrīvidyā texts Lalitā's gracious glance is itself understood as a form of śaktipāta (descent of grace). Pronounced push-ka-rek-sha-naa, the name Puṣkarekṣaṇā is long but singularly evocative.

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Scriptural source

Pushkarekshana 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, Pushkarekshana aligns with the Hasta nakshatra, under the Kanya rashi (Moon sign). Its Chaldean name-number is 4.