Maharathi (mahārathī)

A maharathi is a great chariot warrior, rated in the epic's own accounting as able to fight ten thousand archers at once while commanding weapons, formations and troops. The ranking matters because Bhishma uses it, on the eve of the war, to grade every warrior on both sides, and because he pointedly rates Karna only half of one, which is meant as an insult and taken as one. Above the maharathi the epic places the atirathi and, at the summit, the very few called ratimaharathi or beyond counting.