A mahant is a religious superior, in particular the chief priest of a temple or the head of a monastery. The Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 word mahant is from Prakrit

Prakrit

Prakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...

 mahanta-, from Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 mahat "great". The priest, pundit, gyani

Gyani

A gyani is someone learned in the Sikh religion and who often leads the congregation in prayers, such as Ardas, or in singing . The word "Ghian" in Punjabi means knowledge...

, or pastor of any well-known religious place would be a mahant. In the Swaminarayan Hindu Faith, the mahant is an ascetic, who is the head and leader of the temple and has religious responsibilities as a preacher.