Mangala Gauri Mantra
ॐ ह्रीं श्रीं मंगलगौर्यै नमःIn Devanagari, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English — with the meaning of every word, and the one syllable most people pronounce wrongly.
Who Mangala Gauri is
Mangala Gauri is the auspicious face of Parvati honoured in the household rites of married women across Maharashtra and the Deccan, among Telugu households and widely in North India. Her name joins mangala, the quality of well-being and good fortune, with Gauri, the radiant consort of Shiva. She is approached not as a warrior but as the steady presence that guards the saubhagya of a living husband and the quiet order of the home. Regional mahatmyas describe her seated images, often two-armed or four-armed, holding lotus and gesture of blessing, her complexion fair. The Tuesdays of the month of Shravana are her special season, when women gather to retell her vrat-katha and offer turmeric and vermilion. She is thereby distinguished from fierce or unmarried forms of the Goddess by this exclusive concern with the married state already entered.
The Shravana Tuesday vow
The vrat-katha most commonly printed for Mangala Gauri tells of a merchant named Dharmapala and his son, who was destined to a short life. The son’s wife kept the Mangala Gauri vow, and by the merit of her observance his life was saved. The story is retold on the Shravana Tuesdays when the vow is kept, most often by newly married women during the first five years of marriage, who offer turmeric and vermilion and pray for the wellbeing of their husbands. Such narratives are not found in the early Sanskrit Puranas; they belong to the living regional tradition that has fixed Mangala Gauri as the deity of the Shravana Tuesday vow and of the married woman’s ongoing well-being.
The mantra, in six scripts
The seed mantra, and the form most devotees chant daily. No initiation is required — it is open to anyone, including a parent chanting for a child.
- ॐ
- oṃ — Om
- ह्रीं
- hrīṃ — the seed-syllable Hrīm
- श्रीं
- śrīṃ — the seed-syllable Śrīm
- मंगलगौर्यै
- maṅgalagauryai — to Mangala Gauri
- नमः
- namaḥ — homage
The syllable people get wrong
The velar nasal ṅ in maṅgala is commonly replaced by an ordinary dental n, yielding “man-gala” instead of the correct maṅ-ga-la; the loss of the ṅ sound also shortens the first syllable and severs the word from its auspicious Sanskrit root.
When Mangala Gauri is chanted
Weekday. Tuesday
Festival. Mangala Gauri Vrat on Tuesdays of Shravana
Questions
Have your chart read before you decide
Chanting is yours to do, and free. But which deity your situation calls for — and whether a mantra alone is the right response — depends on your chart. Sometimes it is; sometimes it is not.
- Over 30 years in the Guru–Sishya Parampara, from the age of five
- He reads every chart himself — 60 minutes, one to one, never delegated
- Charts are read only between sunrise and sunset, following tradition
Related
Chanting is yours to do. Some things are performed for you.
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