honorifics
ऋषि ṛṣi
ṛṣi
root √dṛś — to see — a seer, a perceiver
A seer-sage. One who has perceived the Vedic hymns and stands as their transmitter. By the time of the epic, the title also covers ascetic sages and forest-dwelling teachers.
Originally the ṛṣis were the visionaries to whom the Vedic hymns were revealed — dṛṣṭa-mantra, “seers of the mantra.” By the time of the Mahābhārata the term has broadened to cover any sufficiently old, learned, forest-dwelling, ascetically powerful sage.
The Saptarṣi (seven rishis) are the constellation of the same name (the Big Dipper) and a recurring divine assembly. Vyāsa is sometimes counted among them; so is Vasiṣṭha, his ancestor.
In adhyāya 1 of the Mahābhārata it is the rishis — Śaunaka and his twelve-year-sacrifice colleagues — who receive Sauti and request the recitation. They are the audience the epic imagines for itself.