Mangal (Mars)

Mangal in the 3rd House
Mars in the 3rd house, by Phaladeepika and Lal Kitab

What Mangal gives in the 3rd house by Lal Kitab and by Phaladeepika, its upay, the houses it looks at from there, and what it means for each lagna.

Younger siblingsLal Kitab
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Mangal in the 3rd house; the top square is the 1st, the lagna

Mars in the 3rd house (pakka ghar, the house Lal Kitab gives a graha as its own, where it is steadiest) gives immense courage, victory over enemies, and support from siblings. It is a very strong position.

Lal Kitab: a good placementMangal is this bhava’s karaka

Lal Kitab reads Mangal in the 3rd house by the house, not by your lagna; Parashara’s view for your own lagna is further down, and Phaladeepika and Brihat Jataka may differ. How Lal Kitab and Parashara differ · Lal Kitab: pakka ghar, rin and upay

Lal Kitab upay

Keep a red handkerchief in your pocket.

This is Lal Kitab’s one upay for Mangal in the 3rd house, to keep its good results strong; it is a suggestion, and your whole kundli may call for another. All upay for Mangal

What Phaladeepika says

Mantreswara, Adhyaya 8, sloka 8

Phaladeepika 8.8 holds that Mangal (Mars) in the 3rd house (the house of siblings and courage) gives good qualities, wealth, bravery and happiness, and makes a person hard to overcome. The text adds that such a person has no brothers.

How much of this holds turns on the rest of the chart: the rashi Mangal sits in, the 3rd house’s lord and the grahas with it or looking at it. The old texts speak of a man; their readings apply to anyone.

What Brihat Jataka says

Varahamihira, slokas 20.6 and 20.2

BJ 20.6 gives Mangal in the 3rd the same result as the Sun there (20.2): a good intellect and great strength.

When Mangal in the 3rd house shows, and where it looks

Its results show most in Mangal’s own mahadasha (7 years) and in its antardashas inside the others. The 3rd house’s matters also come forward in the periods of the house’s lord, which depends on your lagna.

Its drishti (a graha’s glance: the houses it looks at feel its influence) from the 3rd, by the rules our kundli reading weighs houses with:

  • on your 6th house (illness): is not counted against it there, an upachaya (the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th houses, which grow better with time and effort)
  • on your 9th house (luck): weighs on it, unless Mangal rules that house
  • on your 10th house (career): is not counted against it there, an upachaya

The 3rd house, Sahaja bhava, rules younger siblings, courage, effort and short trips; it is an upachaya; its karaka (the graha that naturally signifies a house’s matters, whatever the lagna) is Mangal. The 3rd house, and every graha in it

Mangal in the 3rd house, for each lagna

the rashi it sits in, and the houses it rules
LagnaMangal sits inIts state thereLord of yourFor this lagna
Mesh (Aries)Mithun (Gemini)Enemy1st and 8thBenefic
Vrishabh (Taurus)Kark (Cancer)Debilitated7th and 12thMaraka
Mithun (Gemini)Singh (Leo)Friendly6th and 11thMalefic
Kark (Cancer)Kanya (Virgo)Enemy5th and 10thYogakaraka
Singh (Leo)Tula (Libra)Neutral4th and 9thYogakaraka
Kanya (Virgo)Vrishchik (Scorpio)Own rashi3rd and 8thMalefic
Tula (Libra)Dhanu (Sagittarius)Friendly2nd and 7thMalefic · Maraka
Vrishchik (Scorpio)Makar (Capricorn)Exalted1st and 6thNeutral
Dhanu (Sagittarius)Kumbh (Aquarius)Neutral5th and 12thBenefic
Makar (Capricorn)Meen (Pisces)Friendly4th and 11thMalefic · Maraka— lord of the 4th and 11th, not the 2nd or 7th; the verse names it a killer all the same (34.39–40)
Kumbh (Aquarius)Mesh (Aries)Own rashi3rd and 10thMalefic · Maraka— lord of the 3rd and 10th, not the 2nd or 7th; the verse names it a killer all the same (34.41–42)
Meen (Pisces)Vrishabh (Taurus)Neutral2nd and 9thBenefic · Yoga— gives yoga together with Guru (34.44)— also named a killer, though not one who kills on his own (34.44)

Mangal’s state in each rashi, and the houses it rules for each lagna, as our free kundli reads them (BPHS chapter 34); each house links to what Parashara says of its lord sitting in the 3rd. “Its state there” is how that rashi treats Mangal: exalted, own, friendly, neutral (sam), enemy or debilitated. “For this lagna” is Parashara’s verdict on the houses it rules. The two answer different questions.

The labels, from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, chapter 34:

  • Yogakaraka: the strongest graha a lagna can have: the one Parashara names as bringing yoga, or the one lord of both a kendra (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) and a trikona (1st, 5th, 9th) (34.13)
  • Benefic, Malefic, Neutral: works for the lagna; brings its harder matters; neither
  • Lagna lord: the lagna’s own graha, where the verse calls it neither good nor hard
  • Maraka: a killer Parashara names for the lagna, watched for health and longevity; printed alone, or after another label. It is not always the lord of the 2nd or 7th: where it differs, the line under it gives the verse
  • · Yoga: one of two grahas he says give yoga together for this lagna

One lagna, read through

Take Mesh lagna. Mangal sits in Mithun there (enemy) and rules your 1st and 8th houses, which makes it a benefic for Mesh lagna (BPHS 34). The two pull apart: the label says what it does for this lagna, the rashi how much strength it has to do it, so it gives less of that good than its label promises. The Lal Kitab reading above is the same for every lagna; this row is the part that changes with yours.

Brihat Jataka 20.11 grades how much of its good a graha gives by the rashi it sits in. For a malefic like Mangal the translator reverses the scale and the commentators differ, so read Mangal in the 3rd house by Parashara’s table above. BJ 20.10–11

Mangal in the 3rd house: where it works best, and where hardest

read off the table above
Strong in its rashiKanya, Vrishchik and Kumbh lagna, where it sits exalted or in its own rashi
Good for the lagnaMesh, Kark, Singh, Dhanu and Meen lagna, for which Parashara counts it benefic or a yogakaraka
Weak in its rashiVrishabh lagna, where it is debilitated
The hardest mixVrishabh lagna: a hard graha for the lagna, in an enemy’s or its debilitation rashi

Mangal passing through the 3rd from your Moon

the gochar of Mangal, not the birth chart

Not the birth placement above: here Mangal is moving through the 3rd counted from your Moon rashi. Phaladeepika counts the 3rd among Mangal’s good transit houses (all twelve, on the Mangal page). Our Monthly Prediction reads it as good: courage, an edge over rivals, energy.

Mangal in the other bhavas

Is Mangal in the 3rd house in your kundli?Astro Vyasa reads it with your lagna, its rashi and your dasha.

Common questions

3 questions
Is Mangal in the 3rd house good?

Lal Kitab counts it a good placement, one of the 6 houses where Mangal does well (with the 1st, 5th, 6th, 10th and 11th). By its rashi, it is strongest for Kanya, Vrishchik and Kumbh lagna; it is debilitated for Vrishabh lagna.

What is the Lal Kitab upay for Mangal in the 3rd house?

Lal Kitab’s upay for it: Keep a red handkerchief in your pocket.

Which houses does Mangal look at from the 3rd?

The 6th (illness), 9th (luck) and 10th (career).

A graha reads the same for everybody. Your chart does not.

Where each graha sits in your kundli, which bhavas it rules for your lagna and which dasha is running decide what it does for you. Make your free kundli to see all nine.

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