The mantra of Budha, Mercury

the name mantra and the Navagraha Stotram verse for Budha, Mercury

What the tradition reads

The Vedic tradition gives Budha, Mercury, the name mantra Om Budhaya Namah. Wikipedia's own table of the nine grahas assigns this mantra to Wednesday, the same day the Western system assigns to Mercury, and lists emerald as the stone associated with this graha in that same table, a factual pairing this entry records without prescribing that stone as a remedy. The fuller verse from the Navagraha Stotram attributed to Vyasa reads Priyangu kalika shyamam rupenapratimam budham, saumyam saumya gunopetam tam budham pranamamyaham, rendered in plain language as a bow to Budha, dark as the bud of the priyangu, matchless in form, gentle, and endowed with gentle qualities, a description the tradition reads as fitting a graha it treats as young, quick witted and mild rather than fierce, the planet of speech, trade, wit and travel. The tradition recites this mantra chiefly for whoever stands in a Mercury dasha or antardasha, or whose lagna lord is Mercury; this corpus has found no reachable source describing a specific finger, trial period or bead count for the practice, and leaves that detail out rather than state a ritual instruction no source here confirms.

The story

The word priyangu, used to describe Budha's dark colouring in his verse from the Navagraha Stotram, is translated at sanskritdocuments.org itself as millet, the comparison giving Mercury a colouring distinct from the Sun's gold or Mars's red: dark, plant like, and unthreatening, matching the temperament, saumya, gentle, that the verse repeats twice for emphasis; this corpus does not go further and claim the word's own literary history, since neither source consulted discusses priyangu's wider use in Sanskrit poetry. In the wider Hindu mythology Budha is named the son of Chandra, the Moon, by Tara in most tellings, though some instead name Rohini as his mother, and his birth from Tara is tied to a conflict the tradition calls the Tarakamaya war, a genuinely contested piece of parentage this corpus notes rather than smooths into simple lineage; Wikipedia's own page on Budha adds that he married Ila and fathered King Pururavas with her, and that one of the earliest mentions of Budha by name appears in the Vedic text Pancavimsa Brahmana, alongside other ancient texts such as the Shatapatha Brahmana, though the page notes he appears there outside any astrological context. The Navagraha Stotram, attributed to Vyasa, is recited today both individually, especially by those whose Mercury is weak or afflicted in their own chart, and communally in Navagraha shanti ceremonies at temples that hold shrines to all nine grahas together, a practice Wikipedia's summary of the Navagraha tradition describes as still widespread.

Written from

Corpus key mantra:Mercury.