Mahīdhara was a 16th-century commentator of the Vedas. His treatises include the Mantramahodadhi of ca. 1588, and the Vedadipa. The latter concerns the Vajasaneyi-samhita of the White Yajurveda. Mahīdhara's namesake is a legendary mountain described in the Mahabharata, which is also an epithet of Vishnu. The commentaries of "Sayana", Skanda, Venkata, Mahīdhara, etc are of recent times. All of them belong to a time later than Yaska's. According to Swami Dayananda these commentaries were gross misinterpretations. Swami Dayanada based his commentary on the Brahmanas and the Nirukta and rejected all other commentaries. His interpretations are based mainly on the etymological method.
Mahīdhara was equally an important commentator on the Yajurveda; but from his Bhasya it is quite evident that he was a Vāma mārgi and believed in the Tantrika school of ritualists.It is useless to quote here a number of instances as the following one instance will convince the reader that something was seriously wrong with him. While explaining the Mantra गणानां त्वा गणपति हवामहे प्रियाणां त्वा प्रियपति हवामहे निधीनां त्वा निधिपति हवामहे वसो मम । आहमजानि गर्भधमा त्वमजासि गर्भधम् ॥१९ ।।
Mahīdhara remarks: 'अत्र गणपति शब्देन अश्ववो वाजी प्रहीतव्यः । 'Here the wordGanapati means a horse. Then he adds: महिषी स्वयमेवाश्वशिश्नमाकृष्य स्खयोनौ स्थापयति । गर्भधं गर्भस्य धारयितृ रेतः । त्वमजासि गर्भधम् । अश्वदेवत्यम् । वाजी अश्वो रेतो दधातु मयि वीर्य स्थापयत् । आकृष्य च त्वं हे अश्व, अजासि क्षिपसि गर्भधं रेतः |तं च गर्भधं रेतः आ अजासि | उत्सक्थी तस्याः । कथं तदाह । अञ्जि लिङ्ग संचारय । अनक्ति भाकृष्य क्षिपसि ॥ "The wife of the sacrificer, in the presence of all the priests, lies with the horse nearby and then she addresses the horse and requests him.....". Thus Mahīdharainterprets this and the following nine verses in words which are not reproduceable even in the semi-obscurity of a learned European language.Here Mahīdhara deserves all censure for going too far to translate the wordganapati in the sense of a horse-which has NO support in the entire sanskrit language. For comparison, below is the english rendering by Swami dayananda's bhasya here: " We invoke Thee, O Lord and Protector of the numerous orders;who art also the Lord of all that is dear and near to us- of all the treasures and precious objects. Thou pervadest." We feel, when we see that a very well-known and simple word, like ganapati, has been interpreted as "horse", that Mahīdhara 's mind was not free from ill-conceived pre-notions against Vedic teaching. Actuated by such grossly erroneous ideas, he wrote whatever he could. He ought to have read and consulted the Satapatha Brahmana in this connection before he proceeded to comment upon such Mantras.
