. A sage

General information

He was born to वायुभगवान् of his wife सुकन्यका . [mh-9-38-58 ] Mahābhārata • Śalya parva .

वामन पुराण , 38th Chapter states that मङ्कण was one of the spiritual sons of कश्यपप्रजापति .

Juice of potherb flows from finger

The sage was living in सप्तसारस्वततीर्थ and one day by accident his thumb was cut off from his hand by the sharp edge of कुश grass. But instead of blood, the juice of potherb began to flow from the thumb and the sage, overjoyed at this strange phenomenon, started dancing. Along with मङ्कण the earth and the sky also started dancing and the dancing showed no signs of stopping. शिव then appeared before मङ्कण and asked him the cause of his non-stop dancing. शिव was in disguise and मङ्कण did not recognise the new-comer and the sage told him about the strange phenomenon. As they were talking शिव touched the thumb of the sage with his little finger and lo! the flow from the finger changed from pot-herb juice to sugar-candy juice. वामन पुराण states that it was ashes which flowed from the finger. The hermit was ashamed. He understood that the guest was शिव and he fell at his feet. शिव blessed the hermit and granted him boons.

मङ्कण falls in love with सरस्वती देवी

One day सरस्वतीदेवी came to the place of his residence in the guise of a very attractive woman. मङ्कण had seminal emission on seeing her and the semen fell on the surface of the water. The sage stored the water with semen in a pot and soon seven sons were born from it. They all became sages named वायुवेग , वायुबल , वायुहा , वायुमण्डल , वायुज्वाल , वायुरेतस् and वायुचक्र . [mh-3-83-1 ] Mahābhārata • Vana parva • [mh-9-38-1 ] Mahābhārata • Śalya parva

Besides the seven sons मङ्कण got a daughter named कदलीगर्भा . मेनका was her mother. (See under Kadalīgarbhā)

मङ्कण diverts the river सरस्वती

It was sage मङ्कण who invoked the river सरस्वती and made it flow through कुरुक्षेत्र . Chapter 38, Vāmana Purāṇa