Background

Gulika which is also known as 'mandi' is the offspring of Saturn or son of Manda. It is a very important pseudo planets according to the belief in South India especially in Kerala. Some consider Gulika and Mandi as different concepts.

Where do they fit in

Vedic astrology recognises a set of two non-luminous as shadowy planets. These are the most famous planets known as Rahu and Ketu which are located at the northern and southern nodes of the Moon. Two other planets which are referred to in Vedic astrological literature as Mandi and Gulika are the non-luminous planets which have never been considered to have physical shape or form although Puranas have described them.

Mandi

These are deemed to have the eclipsing function in our puranas and referred to as ' swallowing ' the luminaries. We will just provide a little description of Mandi since it is very popular in Kerala. It is considered very important in Kundali, Prashna Kundali and selection of time muhurtha. It is also helpful in additionally judging a horoscope.

Power

Mandi is the most evil planet among pseudo planets especially when it is associated with Saturn. The lord of the sign is occupied by Mandi which becomes malefic. Astrological works describe the effects of Mandi in each house as well as in conjunction with other planets.

Placement in Lagna

If Mandi is placed in Lagna, the native would be a thief, cruel and without humility. There may be possibilities of diseases and accidents of limbs. His eyes would be afflicted. He would not be of high intellect, would eat a lot and would never have happiness. He would be an atheist and will be attracted to the wrong type of women.

Effect of Hastiness

If you find Mandi in Lagna please do not be hasty to attribute all the evils mentioned above to the native. These are only general possibilities and there must be other indications as well which have to be checked before coming to a conclusion. For example, for the affliction of the eye we must find out how much the house representing the eyes and planets signifying the eyes are afflicted.

When Mandi is in conjunction with Sun, the native might suffer from ill health, insult his father, as well as teacher and he won't get help from others.

Death or Birth

Mandi is associated with the death of a native as well as his birth also. Most often, it is found that lagna would fall on the sign which may be a trine (5th or 9th) of Mandi’s place or the lord of

Thus, Mandi is useful in astrological predictions, judgement of birth chart, finding muhurthas for various functions and in horary astrology.

Mandi’s sign

Thus, Mandi is useful in astrological predictions, judgement of birth chart, finding muhurtham for various functions and in horary astrology.

How Gulika or Mandi is calculated

Divide the duration of the day into 8 parts. The seven parts are ruled by the lords of the days and there is no lord of the eighth part.The part which is lorded by the Saturn is Gulika or Mandi.Suppose you want to calculate mandi on sunday. Divide the day into eight parts. The first part belongs to sun,2nd to the Moon, 3rd to the Mars,4th to the Mercury, 5th to the Jupiter,6th to the Venus and seventh to the Saturn and hence 7th is mandi.

Now if you want to calculate the Mandi on Wednesday,1st part belongs to mercury the lord of the day,2nd to Jupiter,3rd to Venus and 4th to Saturn, so on wednesday the 4th part which belongs to Saturn is Mandi.The first part always belongs to the lord of the day.The above sequence is followed when calculated during the day time.Before doing this Dinman(duration of the day) is calculated and ascertained how many ghatis is the Dinmaan.

When calculating for the night, we have to ascertain Ratrimaan first and then calculate Mandi. In ratrimaan, the 1st part of ratrimaan is calculated from 5th part..Suppose if we calculate for Sunday then divide the ratrimaan in eight parts and the Lord of the 1st part will be Jupiter,2nd Venus and 3rd saturn.Mandi will be 3rd part in this case.