mahatma
‘wise and holy person in India’
Lexical development traced from the Tamil root:
Skt. mahatman < maha ‘great’ + atman ‘soul, principle of life’ < atma ‘essence, breath, soul’ < aatmaa < etmen < Tamil ātaṉ
mahatma
English words derived from Tamil ātaṉ connoting ‘soul, spirit’