What Mangal Dosha (Kuja Dosha) is
Mangal Dosha describes Mars sitting in the first, second, fourth, seventh, eighth or twelfth house counted from the Lagna. It's also called Kuja Dosha — Kuja is another name for Mars. Classically, the placement is read as a marker of potential friction or conflict within a marriage, and is one of the items commonly checked before marriage, particularly in northern India.
Not all six houses carry equal weight. Mars in the seventh (the house of the spouse) or eighth (the spouse's longevity and shared resources) tends to be weighted more heavily, since those houses connect directly to the marriage itself. Mars in the first speaks to the individual's own temperament, the fourth to domestic peace, the twelfth to the marital bed and shared expenses — each a different shade of meaning. This page states exactly which house Mars occupies for that reason: a single “has it or doesn't” answer hides which of six quite different things is actually being described.
Why the cancellation conditions can't be skipped
Classical texts never treat Mangal Dosha as a mechanical yes-or-no check. Multiple cancellation (dosha bhanga) conditions are recorded — Mars in its own sign (Aries or Scorpio) or exalted (Capricorn), a sufficient benefic aspect, or the same placement appearing in both charts being matched, among others. Verifying all of them takes considerably more than checking whether Mars sits in the seventh house.
This page's own check is deliberately limited on this point. It only mechanically verifies whether Mars sits in one of the six houses — it does not evaluate any of the cancellation conditions above. That's an honest boundary, not a shortcut: judging cancellation involves weighing aspect strength and interpretive differences between traditions, which doesn't reduce to a simple rule. A “yes” here means “Mars occupies one of the six houses,” not “an uncancelled Mangal Dosha.”
How strictly it's weighed varies by tradition
How strictly Mangal Dosha is weighed varies by region, family, and individual astrologer. Some northern Indian traditions treat it as one of the most important items in a marriage match, while other regions weigh it less heavily than Ashtakoot's thirty-six-point compatibility score. A “Mangal-Mangal” pairing — the same placement appearing in both charts — is considered a non-issue in many traditions.
The other yogas this page shows alongside it
Mangal Dosha is only one of the combinations this site detects. The same chart is checked simultaneously for Kaal Sarp Dosha (all planets hemmed on one side of the Rahu–Ketu axis), Gaja Kesari Yoga (Jupiter in a kendra from the Moon, a favourable placement), Budhaditya Yoga (Sun and Mercury conjunct), and the five Panchamahapurusha yogas (a planet in a kendra, in its own sign or exalted). It's common for someone who came here worried specifically about Mangal Dosha to find their chart actually carries more favourable combinations than concerning ones.
- This check only mechanically verifies whether Mars sits in one of six houses from the Lagna
- Classical cancellation conditions are numerous and require professional judgment to evaluate
- How much weight it carries varies significantly by region and tradition