[Advaita-l] Question regarding mahAlasA/mhALasA

[Venkata sriram P]

Namaste Anandji,
 
The great Rg Vedic Scholar Br.Sri Narendra Kapreji, with whom i very close, is a maharashtrian & Hyderabadi.  In due course of discussion with him on various 
topics, this topic came up and i asked him about this issue.
 
He showed an ancient hand-written manuscript of mallari mahatmya which was written 
by his own grandfather.  Shri Kapreji does the parayana of this regularly.
 
His version is quite different.  
 
mallari is the corrupted form of sanskrit word "mallAri" (malla+ari). ari implies enemy and
malla is the name of the demon.  Interestingly, he says malla is another name of tArakAsura and "mallAri" is the Son of Siva.  Mallari is none other than Subramanya / Skanda. And among skanda's two wives valli & devasena, mahalsa is the aspect of Devasena.  
 
This sanskrit word "skanda" later became corrupted in marati as kanda>khandoba. 
 
Moreover, he says that mallari utsava also coincides with skanda shashti which falls in 
Margasira Shashti.   
 
This was the view of my acharya Br.Sr. Narendra Kapre Ji.
 
regs,
sriram