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Mangala

Mangala ( Sanskrit: मङ्गल, IAST: ) is the name for Mars, the red planet, in Hindu texts. He is the god of war, celibate and sometimes linked to god Karttikeya (Skanda). His origins vary with different mythological texts; in some, he is the son of Bhumi, the Earth Goddess and Vishnu, born when he raised her from the depths of water in Varaha avatar. In other myths, he is born from Shiva's sweat or blood drop.

Mangala is the root of the word 'Mangalavara' or Tuesday in the Hindu calendar. The word "Tuesday" in the Greco-Roman and other Indo-European calendars is also dedicated to planet Mars, referring to "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of war and victory. Tiw was equated with Mars in other Indo-European mythologies. Mangala is considered auspicious.

Mangala is part of the Navagraha in Hindu zodiac system. The zodiac and naming system of Hindu astrology likely developed in the centuries after the arrival of Greek astrology with Alexander the Great, their zodiac signs being nearly identical. Technical horoscopes and astrology ideas in India came from Greece, states Nicholas Campion, and developed in the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE.

He is painted red or flame colour, four-armed, carrying a trident (Sanskrit: trishūla), mace (Sanskrit: gadā), lotus (Sanskrit: Padma) and a spear (Sanskrit: shūla). His mount (Sanskrit: vahana) is a ram. He presides over ( Tuesday).

Mangala (game)

Mangala is a traditional Turkish mancala game. It is strictly related to the mancala games Iraqi Halusa, Palestinian Al-manqala, and Baltic German Bohnenspiel. There is also another game referred as Mangala played by the Bedouin in Egypt, and Sudan, but it has quite different rules.

The game can be traced in Ottoman miniatures starting from the 16th century. According to the Turkish ethnologue Metin And, the "mancala" of The Arabian Nights (fifteenth night) could be directly related to this game. It was first described in 1694 by British orientalist Thomas Hyde. The game was also referred as Mangola in some later western works.

The classic mangala game is still known in Turkey, but mangala played in Gaziantep, in Southern Anatolia, is more similar to Syrian mancala La'b Madjnuni (Crazy Game). There are many other mancala variants played in Anatolia: Pıç in Erzurum, Altıev in Safranbolu, Meneli Taş in Ilgın, etc.