The story of MARS god

                                       Om Dharani garba samboodham
                                       vidyud kaanthi samaprabham
                                       kumaaram sakthi hastamcha
                                       mangalam pranamaam yaham

Kuja's Bija Mantra
The Bija mantra is most powerful and potent, ensure physical and mental cleanup and purity before chanting this mantra.

Om kraam kreem kroum saha bhoumaya namaha

About Kuja:

In Sanskrit, 'KU' means earth and 'JA' means birth. Lord Kuja is also known as Angaaraka, Mangalan, Rudhir, Bhauma and Sevvai. Kuja is the commander-in-chief of gods. He is a warrior, who rides a ram and known for qualities such as masculine, courage, bravery and patience.

Kuja is associated with the planet Mars and is his vehicle to influence the living beings on earth according to one's karma (deeds). Kuja is also associated with the color Red and aggression, he is also known as the fierce planet, only next to Sun.

Puraanas has it that, Lord Vishnu's perspiration fell in the ocean and turned into a Coral and  Lord Kuja emerged from Coral.

The story of MARS God
Lord Brahma began creating the universe, as he created seven rishis (sages), he instructed them to aid him in his creation by engaging in procreation. The seven rishis are Vashishta, Marichi, Pulastya, Pulaha, Atri, Angiras and Kratu.

According to another scripture there is a slight variation in the names of Sapta Rishis - Vashista, Kashyapa, Atri, Jamadagni, Gautama, Vishwamitra and Bharadwaja.

Bharadwaja was a great sage, having received several boons through penance, was practising ascetism and lived in the banks of the river Narmada. One day, as he set out of his ashram, he saw a few apsaras bathing in Narmada, his eyes fell on an apsara and was filled with love in his mind and approached an apsara and told his feelings to her. On seeing the great sage, the apsara too began falling in love with him and they got married. The sage now began leading marital life and forgot all his duties of a sage. Soon, a beautiful, strong baby was born to them.

Having stayed with sage Bharadwaja for a long time, the apsara decided to leave behind the baby and ascended back to the heavens, the sage now realized that he has been ignoring his duties as a sage, and so, he too left the baby in the banks of the river Narmada and went on to do severe penance.

The goddess of earth - Bhoomadevi, saw the baby, picked up and cared for the baby, just like her own son. As time passed by, the baby has grown into a small boy and one day, the boy asked Bhoomadevi as to who his father was and that he has never seen his father. Bhoomadevi decided not to hold onto the secret anymore and revealed everything to the boy and took him to Bharadwaja, stopped his penance and explained everything to the sage.

On seeing this strong and beautiful boy, the sage's heart was filled with love and compassion, he accepted that this boy is the fruit of his penance and named him as 'Angaarakan', since, the boy had a strong built. Sage Bharadwaja taught Angaarakan, all the vedas, scriptures and usage of divine weapons. Angaarakan grew up into a handsome and strong young man and mastered all that his father taught him. Bhardwaja now advised him to undertake penance and propitiate Lord Ganesha to receive desired boons and accordingly Angaaraka went to the forests and did severe penance for several years.

Lord Ganesha was pleased with Angaaraka's penance and appeared before him on a Tuesday and said he can receive any boon that he is seeking, to which Angaaraka asked the Lord to grant him a status equal to the Devas of the Heavens and he should always be devoted to him. Lord Ganesha was so pleased with this, that he granted him a position as a significant planet (Navagraha) along with the Deva status and said Lord's brother Subramanya would be the presiding deity of Angaaraka and having been blessed by him, he will be also known as Mangalan.

Thus, Angaarakan came to be known as Mangalan. Since, Ganesha appeared before him on a Tuesday, he also came to be known as Sevvai. Having been reared by the goddess of earth - Bhoomadevi, he also came to known as Kuja or Bhauma.

Kuja built a temple for Lord Ganesha at the spot where he was given darshan, and installed a deity of ganesha and called it 'Chintamani Vinayaka'.

Lord Ganesha also said that once Lord Shiva's wife Dakshayani when she immolated herself in the yagna, Lord Shiva was so angered and he created Veerabhadra out of his third eye and instructed Veerabhadra to destroy Dakshayani's father Daksha and his yagna. Accordingly, everyone who came to the yagna were being destroyed, when the preceptor of demons - Lord Shukracharya, offered a truce to Veerabhadra, if accepted, he would be given a spot in the Navagraha mandala, and that he should spare Shukrachaarya and Veerabhadra too agreed with greed in his eyes for this position and spared Shukracharya and went onto destroy all others in the yagna. Lord Surya saw this behavior and said, being a Navagraha nayaka, he cannot allow someone who can be influenced by anything and accept it and forget their duties, such persons are not suitable for the Navagraha position or status, since then, there was no one who could take this position of the Red planet. So, saying this, Lord Ganesha, installed the Red planetary position and the power to influence as a Navagraha to Kuja, since, Kuja could have asked anything for a boon, but, asked for something very simple.

Thus came into being Lord Kuja, also known as Lohithanga.