D3 Drekkana Chart Calculator
A free drekkana (D3) chart calculator — each sign cut into three parts of ten degrees, placed in that sign, the fifth from it, or the ninth from it.
The drekkana is the D3 — the divisional chart that cuts each 30-degree sign into three equal parts of exactly ten degrees. The rule is easy to state: a planet in the first ten degrees of a sign stays in that sign, one in the middle ten goes to the fifth sign from it, one in the last ten to the ninth. Kundli Studio reads which part a planet's longitude falls in and places it there.
The first, fifth and ninth signs from any sign are its trines, and trines share an element — so a planet's drekkana sign always carries the element of its rasi sign. Ten degrees is a wide slice by varga standards: of the 23 divisions the calculator computes, only the rasi (D1) and the hora (D2, fifteen degrees) read a wider arc. Enter a birth date, time and place and the whole D3 is drawn.
The three drekkanas of Scorpio
In a sample chart for 1 January 1990, 12:00 noon IST at Chennai — a fabricated birth, used only for illustration — Mars sits at 16 deg 07' Scorpio.
| Part | Arc within Scorpio | Drekkana sign |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 deg 00' – 10 deg 00' | Scorpio — the sign itself |
| 2 | 10 deg 00' – 20 deg 00' | Pisces — the 5th from Scorpio |
| 3 | 20 deg 00' – 30 deg 00' | Cancer — the 9th from Scorpio |
16 deg 07' falls in the second drekkana, so Mars is placed in Pisces. Scorpio, Pisces and Cancer are all watery — true of every sign, because the 1st, 5th and 9th from a sign are its trines.
How to read the result
In the default layout of the chart grid the D3 comes third, after the Rasi and the D9, with the selector set to D-3_drekkana. Read it beside the Rasi cell; the printed sign numbers let the element rule above be checked at a glance — 1, 5 and 9 are fiery, 2, 6 and 10 earthy, 3, 7 and 11 airy, 4, 8 and 12 watery. Either chart style can be picked above the grid; in the South Indian one each sign keeps a fixed box, while the North Indian one draws the lagna's sign at the top.
Then count houses from the As badge. Narasimha Rao reads the 3rd house of the D3 for younger siblings and the 11th for elder ones, and walks those houses zodiacally when the D3 lagna is odd but in reverse when it is even. The sample chart's D3 lagna is in Cancer, an even sign, so the 3rd lands in Taurus, holding Venus in brackets because it was retrograde at birth, and the 11th in Virgo, holding Rahu.
In BPHS 7.1-8 happiness through co-borns is judged from the drekkana, and verses 13-16 of that chapter carry its grading of a hora's opening, middle and closing portions over to the drekkana. The tooltip degree serves that reading: it is the D1 degree within the sign times three, less whole thirties, so Mars at 16 deg 07' Scorpio shows Pisces 18:22:57, past the middle of its part.
Key terms
- Drekkana lagna
- The As sign in the D3 cell, the Ascendant's own drekkana; the D3 houses are counted from it.
- Co-borns
- Brothers and sisters; BPHS 7.1-8 names happiness through co-borns as the matter judged from the drekkana.
- 3rd and 11th houses
- The houses of the D3 Narasimha Rao reads for younger and elder siblings, counted backward when the D3 lagna is an even sign.
- South Indian style
- The layout that keeps every sign in a fixed box — Pisces top left, then Aries, Taurus and Gemini along the top — with the As badge marking the lagna.
- In-drekkana degree
- The degree in a D3 tooltip: the D1 degree within the sign times three, less whole thirties, rising from 0 at a part's start to 30 at its end.
Weighted 4 of 20 in Shadvarga
In the six-chart Shadvarga scheme the drekkana carries 4 of the 20 Vimsopaka points — behind only the rasi on 6 and the navamsa on 5, and ahead of the hora and dwadasamsa on 2 each and the trimsamsa on 1.
Counted in all four schemes
Only six divisions appear in every Vimsopaka strength scheme the engine runs, and the D3 is one: 4 points in Shadvarga, 3 in Sapthavarga, 1.5 in Dasavarga and 1 in Shodasavarga.
Element never changes
The D3 can land only on the trines of the sign a planet occupies, so its element is invariant. The chaturthamsa (D4) is the counterpart for quality: its four destinations are the kendras, so a movable sign stays movable.
Common questions
What is a drekkana chart?
The drekkana — also spelled dreshkana or drekkena — is the D3, the three-part division of each sign. Classically it is the varga consulted for co-borns, the siblings, as BPHS gives it.
How is the drekkana calculated?
Divide a planet's degrees within its sign by ten and drop the remainder. The first part keeps the planet where it is, the second moves it forward four signs, the third forward eight — the fifth and ninth signs, counted inclusively.
Does a planet change element in the drekkana?
No. The three destinations are the trines of the occupied sign, and the four trine groups are exactly the four elements — so a planet in a watery sign lands in a watery drekkana sign, every time.
Do I need my exact birth time?
Less than for most vargas. A drekkana spans a full ten degrees, which the ascendant crosses in roughly forty minutes on average — though that rate varies with latitude and the rising sign. A D3 placement therefore shifts less readily than a D9 or D60 one.
What is the drekkana lagna?
It is the drekkana sign of the Ascendant, marked As on the D3 cell. For the 1990 chart, the Ascendant sits at 16 deg 28' Pisces, in the middle ten degrees, so the drekkana lagna is Cancer, the 5th from Pisces. BPHS names the Dreshkan Lagn beside the natal and navamsa lagnas in one of its raja yoga rules.
Which sages preside over the three drekkanas?
BPHS 6.7-8 places the three drekkanas of every sign — the sign itself, its 5th and its 9th — under Narada, Agastya and Durvasa, in that order. The D3 cell does not print these names; a body's part follows from its D1 degree within the sign: below 10, from 10 to below 20, or 20 and above.