Mangalvar Vrat Katha · मंगलवार व्रत कथा

A brahmin and his wife had no children, and it grieved them deeply. Hoping for a son, the brahmin went to the forest to worship Hanuman, while his wife stayed at home and kept the Tuesday fast, eating only after offering food (bhog) to Hanuman at the end of the fast.

One Tuesday she was unable to make the offering, and she vowed that she would not eat until she had offered bhog to Hanuman on the next Tuesday. For six days she went without food or water, and on the Tuesday she fainted. Pleased by her devotion and resolve, Hanuman blessed her with a son.

The boy was named Mangal. When the brahmin came home and saw the child, he asked whose it was. His wife told him that Hanuman, pleased with her Tuesday fasts, had given her the boy, but the brahmin did not believe her. One day, finding his chance, he threw the boy into a well.

When he returned home and his wife asked where Mangal was, the boy came running in behind him, smiling. The brahmin was astonished. That night Hanuman appeared to him in a dream and told him that he himself had given them the son. The brahmin rejoiced to learn the truth, and from then on husband and wife both kept the Tuesday fast.

The katha ends by saying that whoever keeps the Tuesday fast and reads or hears this story is freed from troubles by Hanuman's grace.

This is the katha read during the Tuesday (Mangalvar) vrat of Hanuman. It is a folk katha with no single fixed text; the published versions tell the same story, some giving names to the brahmin and his wife. The retelling above keeps only what at least two of the versions linked below agree on.

The katha is read or heard on Tuesdays during the worship of Hanuman, as part of the Tuesday vrat, often with the Hanuman Chalisa. Customs vary by family and region.