Mars (Mangal)

Astronomical Introduction

The planet Mangal (Mars) has a diameter of 6,800 kilometres. It remains at an average distance of 230 million kilometres from the Sun. Moving at an average speed of 24 kilometres per second, it completes one full revolution around the Sun in 687 days. One rotation on its own axis takes 25 hours. Mangal also has two small satellites, named Phobos and Deimos.

Puranic Account

According to the Puranas, Mangal is one of the Navagrahas, the nine grahas, the celestial "graspers" that act upon human life. He is also called Angaraka, Bhauma, and Kumara. He is described in the Brahmanda Purana 2/23/84, the Matsya Purana 93/10 and 127/4, and the Vishnu Purana 2/12/18. His golden chariot is drawn by eight horses. In the solar system, this graha comes after the Earth. He is masculine in nature, a Kshatriya (of the warrior order) and of cruel (krura) temperament.

kartikeya anurupaya surupaya namah namah (Padma Purana 1/24)

"Salutations, salutations to him who is of like form to Kartikeya, the one of beautiful form."

He is the lord of all things red in colour. Mangal is a second form of Swami Kartikeya, the commander of the army of the gods. The Mahabharata holds that Mangal was born from the very body of Bhagavan Kartikeya:

tatah sharirat skandasya purushah pavakaprabhah (Mahabharata 3/19/24)

"Then from the body of Skanda there came forth a being radiant as fire, the great graha who arose among the creatures and their protectors."

According to the Brahmavaivarta Purana (1/9/21), Mangal's mother is the Earth (Prithvi) and his father is Bhagavan Vishnu:

upendra-bijat prithivyam tu mangalah samajayata

"From the seed of Upendra (Vishnu), Mangal was born upon the Earth."

This belief is accepted in the Skanda Purana as well: that Mangal was born of the Earth from a drop of Bhagavan Vishnu's perspiration. According to the Vamana Purana, Mangal was born when Bhagavan Shiva slew the great asura Andhaka. According to the Padma Purana, at the time of the destruction of Daksha's yajna, Virabhadra was born from a drop of Shiva's sweat; passing through all the pathways of the netherworlds (Patala), he set the seven seas ablaze. After Virabhadra had destroyed the yajna that Daksha was performing in honour of Brihaspati, Shiva commanded him to withdraw far from the Earth and dwell there in the form of Mangal. In Babylonian legend Mangal is described as a graha of cruel influence, and was called by the name Numia.

Mangal is regarded as Bhauma, the son of the Earth, and hence Bhauma is one of his names. He is the representative of shakti (power): that power which keeps in motion the life born of the Sun and the Moon as father and mother. Being the embodiment of power, he is held to be the commander-in-chief of the gods.

The Person Influenced by Mangal

Mangal is youthful, red in complexion, with a lustre like fire; the hair is curly and glossy. The build is short, the belly small, the waist slim, and the chest prominent. His gaze is full of anger; the reddened eyes are fearsome and ferocious like a lion's. Both lips are even and alike. He is tamasic in quality, restless, daring, yet of a generous and charitable disposition. His constitution is of pitta (the bilious humour). He is skilled in destroying enemies.

If Mangal is malefic (ashubha), the person is ready to kill or be killed at the slightest provocation, has a roaring voice, and is ill-omened.

Influence on the Body

In the body, Mangal governs the marrow, blood, liver, lips, stomach, chest, and arms. He directs strength, valour, pride, courage, menstruation, intensity of sexual desire, anger, falsehood, malice, and slander of others. A benefic (shubha) Mangal is beneficial to king and subjects alike; but in his malefic periods he brings harm to both, in the form of plunder, murder, war, and terrorism.

Rashi and Graha Relationships

Remedies

According to the Padma Purana, by worshipping on a Tuesday when the Moon is in Svati nakshatra (one of the twenty-seven lunar mansions) and by reciting the 21 names of Mangal, the native is freed from debt and becomes wealthy.