Samharini (संहारिणी, IAST: Saṃhāriṇī) is a Sanskrit-origin Hindu girl-name meaning “She who withdraws and dissolves creation”. From saṃhāra (drawing together, dissolution) and the agent suffix -iṇī, Saṃhāriṇī names Lalitā as the divine power who lovingly withdraws the universe back into herself at the end of each cosmic cycle.

Meaning, etymology & significance

Saṃhāra (from sam + hṛ, to draw entirely together) refers to the final cosmic dissolution, the third of the three great divine acts alongside creation and preservation. As Saṃhāriṇī, the Goddess is not a goddess of destruction in a fearsome sense alone, but rather the compassionate mother who recalls her children — the manifest worlds — back into the warmth of her own being when their time is complete. This dissolution is understood in Śākta philosophy as the highest grace, releasing souls from the cycle of rebirth.

Saṃhāriṇī is an epithet shared by Kālī and Durgā as well, linking Lalitā's benign sovereignty to the fierce transformative power of the mahādevīs. Pronounced sam-HAA-ri-nee; the anusvāra (ṃ) gives a nasal quality to the first syllable.

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Scriptural source

Samharini 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, Samharini aligns with the Shatabhisha nakshatra, under the Kumbha rashi (Moon sign). Its Chaldean name-number is 5.