D3 Drekkana Chart: Siblings, Courage and Effort Explained

The Drekkana (also spelt Drekkan or Drekkana) is the third divisional chart. The name is thought to come from the same root as the decans of Hellenistic astrology, which also split a sign into three ten-degree parts, though the Indian scheme assigns the signs differently. In Jyotish it is the chart of the younger siblings, of courage and of the work a person puts into things.

What the Drekkana is read for

The third house of the Rashi chart is the house of siblings, short effort, skills of the hands and courage, and the Drekkana is its dedicated chart. Teachers read it for the number and wellbeing of younger siblings, for the relationship with brothers and sisters, and for the initiative a person brings to a task. The eleventh house, which stands for elder siblings and friends, is also taken into account.

Mars is the natural significator (karaka) of brothers and courage in the tradition, so the Drekkana is read with attention to Mars and to the lord of the third house. A strong Mars and third lord in the D3 are taken as supportive for these themes. As with every varga, this is a tendency and not a forecast about any particular person.

How the Drekkana is calculated

The rule used by the divisional charts calculator is the Parashari one. Each sign is split into three parts of 10 degrees. The first part is the sign itself, the second is the 5th sign counted from it, and the third is the 9th sign counted from it. Because the 5th and 9th signs are the trines of the original sign, every Drekkana falls in a sign of the same element: a planet in a fire sign always lands in a fire sign, an earth sign in an earth sign, and so on.

Take a planet at 14°25′ of Taurus. Each part is 10°00′ long, so this position lies in part 2 (from 10°00′ to 20°00′). By the rule above, part 2 of Taurus is Virgo, so the planet sits in Virgo in D3.

The chart has twelve possible signs, and a Lagna in the D3 changes about every forty minutes on average, so the Drekkana asks for a birth time accurate to a quarter of an hour at the least.

The element rule and what it means

Since the three parts of a sign are all in the same element, the Drekkana never shifts a planet out of its element. What it changes is the sign within the element, and with it the planet’s ruler, its dignity and its house from the D3 Lagna. A planet in Aries in the Rashi chart might sit in Aries, Leo or Sagittarius in the Drekkana, depending on whether its degree is below 10, between 10 and 20 or above 20. Teachers see this as a way of finding out how the planet’s basic nature is expressed in the specific area of siblings and effort.

Where schools differ

The Parashari scheme above is the most widely used, but it is not the only one. Some teachers count the parts in other orders, and a cyclic method that a few use for other charts is sometimes applied to the D3 as well. Western decans, which are tied to the tropical zodiac and to the planetary order of the Chaldean scheme, are a different system again. If a program shows you different D3 signs from the ones here, it is almost certainly applying a different scheme.

The site uses one scheme throughout and states it, so that anything shown by the calculator can be checked by hand against the table above.

How much weight teachers give it

The Drekkana is in the Shadvarga, Saptavarga and Dashavarga, and in the commonly quoted Vimshopaka weights it carries 4 out of 20 in the Shadvarga, which is more than any chart except the D1 and the D9, and 1 out of 20 in the Shodashavarga. This makes it more important in the tradition’s own accounting than its modern reputation suggests. In practice many astrologers consult it only when the question concerns siblings or a phase of unusual effort, and they use the Navamsa and Dashamsa far more often.

If you have an unclear picture from the D3, return to the Rashi chart, look at the third house and its lord, and read the house guides for the planets in that house. A difficult placement in the Drekkana alone is never read as a fixed outcome, and relationships with siblings depend mostly on the people involved.

Reading your own Drekkana

Open the divisional charts calculator, choose D3 and enter your birth details. Note the sign of the D3 Lagna, which planets share it, and the position of Mars and the lord of the third house. Compare each with the same planet in the D1 and with the running dasha: the tradition says a varga shows its results most clearly when the planets involved are in operation.

The next chart in the sequence is the D4 Chaturthamsa, which looks at home and fortune.

Frequently asked questions