[45]. One of the names of the divinity of war, whose images are covered with vermilion in imitation of blood. (Qy. the German roodur, ‘red’)[596]. [Rudra, ‘the roarer,’ originally “god of storms.”]
[46]. The Pleiades.
[47]. The festival of the birth of this son of Ganga, or Jahnavi, is on the 10th of Jeth. Sir W. Jones gives the following couplet from the Sancha: “On the 10th of Jyaishtha, on the bright half of the month, on the day of Mangala,[[A]] son of the earth, when the moon was in Hasta, this daughter of Jahnu brought from the rocks, and ploughed over the land inhabited by mortals.”
[A]. Mangala is one of the names (and perhaps one of the oldest) of the Hindu Mars (Kumara), to whom the Wodens-dag of the Northmen, the Mardi of the French, the Dies Martis of the Romans, are alike sacred. Mangala also means ‘happy,’ the reverse of the origin of Mongol, said to mean ‘sad’ [‘brave’]. The juxtaposition of the Rajput and Scandinavian days of the week will show that they have the same origin:
| Rajput | Scandinavian and Saxon. |
| Suryavar | Sun-day. |
| Som, or Induvar | Moon-day. |
| Budhvar | Tuis-day. |
| Mangalvar | Wodens-day. |
| Brihaspativar[a] | Thors-day. |
| Sukravar | Frey-day. |
| Sani, or } -var | Satur-day[c] |
| Sanichara } |
(a) Brihaspati, ‘he who rides on the bull’; the steed of the Rajput god of war [probably ‘lord of prayer,’ or ‘of increase,’ confounded in the original note with Vrishapati, ‘Lord of the bull,’ a title of Siva.]
(b) Sukra is a Cyclop, regent of the planet Venus.]
(c) [See Max Müller, Selected Essays, 1881, ii. 460 ff.]