Also called: Mangal Kshetra · The floor of the palm · The central basin

Where on the hand: The central hollow of the palm, bounded by Lower Mars and Venus radially, by Upper Mars and Luna ulnarly, by the head line above and the wrist region below. The fate line crosses it vertically. Centre roughly x 0.50, y 0.50 — the great basin ringed by all the other mounts.

What it looks like: Not a raised pad but a plain: read by its level (bulging, flat or deeply cupped relative to the surrounding mounts), by its consistency (hard or soft) and by the number of lines crossing it.

The Plain of Mars measures TEMPER — the sudden flare-up of anger, the inflammability of the temperament — as distinct from Upper Mars's resistance and Lower Mars's aggression. As a region it is the floor of the palm, the landing ground for all planetary lines, and the baseline on which every other reading is imposed.

Western reading: Cheiro and the Professional Palmistry tradition treat the Plain as the register of temper and of the saving-versus-spending disposition.