Rahu in the 3rd House
Rahu in the 3rd house, by Phaladeepika and Lal Kitab
What Rahu 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.
Rahu in the 3rd house gives courage for unconventional ventures, success in media, and foreign travel.
Lal Kitab reads Rahu in the 3rd house by the house, not by your lagna; Parashara’s view for your own lagna is further down, and Phaladeepika may differ. How Lal Kitab and Parashara differ · Lal Kitab: pakka ghar, rin and upay
Lal Kitab upay
Keep sandalwood in the house. Feed birds daily.
This is Lal Kitab’s one upay for Rahu 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 Rahu
What Phaladeepika says
Mantreswara, Adhyaya 8, sloka 25Phaladeepika 8.25 holds that Rahu in the 3rd house (the house of siblings and courage) makes a person proud and strong-willed, with a long life and wealth. The text also notes hostility with brothers.
How much of this holds turns on the rest of the chart: the rashi Rahu 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.
Brihat Jataka gives no reading for Rahu or Ketu in a house: Varahamihira reads the seven grahas, the Sun to Saturn.
When Rahu in the 3rd house shows, and where it looks
Its results show most in Rahu’s own mahadasha (18 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 7th house (marriage): weighs on it
- on your 9th house (luck): weighs on it
- on your 11th house (income): is not counted against it there, an upachaya (the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th houses, which grow better with time and effort)
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
Rahu in the 3rd house, for each lagna
the rashi it sits in, and that rashi’s lord| Lagna | Rahu sits in | That rashi’s lord | Which is, for this lagna |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mesh (Aries) | Mithun (Gemini) | Budh | Malefic |
| Vrishabh (Taurus) | Kark (Cancer) | Chandra | Malefic · Maraka— lord of the 3rd only, not the 2nd or 7th; the verse names it a killer all the same (34.23–24) |
| Mithun (Gemini) | Singh (Leo) | Surya | Malefic |
| Kark (Cancer) | Kanya (Virgo) | Budh | Malefic |
| Singh (Leo) | Tula (Libra) | Shukra | Malefic |
| Kanya (Virgo) | Vrishchik (Scorpio) | Mangal | Malefic |
| Tula (Libra) | Dhanu (Sagittarius) | Guru | Malefic · Maraka— lord of the 3rd and 6th, not the 2nd or 7th; the verse names it a killer all the same (34.33–34) |
| Vrishchik (Scorpio) | Makar (Capricorn) | Shani | Malefic |
| Dhanu (Sagittarius) | Kumbh (Aquarius) | Shani | Maraka |
| Makar (Capricorn) | Meen (Pisces) | Guru | Malefic |
| Kumbh (Aquarius) | Mesh (Aries) | Mangal | Malefic · 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) | Shukra | Malefic |
Rahu is counted the lord of no house, so it gives the results of the rashi it sits in and of that rashi’s lord. Where that lord is good for your lagna, Rahu here leans good. Parashara says the same: Rahu gives mostly the results of the bhava it sits in and of the bhava lord it joins (BPHS 34.16), and in a kendra (one of the four angles of the chart, the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, where a graha acts with most force), joined or seen by the lord of a kendra or a trikona (the 1st, 5th and 9th houses, the houses of fortune), it becomes a yogakaraka, a graha that lifts the chart (34.17). The tradition’s “Shanivat Rahu” adds that Rahu acts like Shani; Phaladeepika says so too (8.34). With all seven other grahas between Rahu and Ketu, a kundli is read for Kaal Sarp dosha.
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
Rahu in the 3rd house: where it leans good, and where hard
by the rashi’s lord, from the table aboveRahu passing through the 3rd from your Moon
the gochar of Rahu, not the birth chartNot the birth placement above: here Rahu is moving through the 3rd counted from your Moon rashi. Phaladeepika counts the 3rd among Rahu’s good transit houses (all twelve, on the Rahu page). Our Monthly Prediction reads it as good: great courage, gains from unusual places, victory.
Common questions
3 questionsIs Rahu in the 3rd house good?
Lal Kitab counts it a good placement, one of the 3 houses where Rahu does well (with the 6th and 10th). How it works out depends on the rashi it sits in and on your lagna.
What is the Lal Kitab upay for Rahu in the 3rd house?
Lal Kitab’s upay for it: Keep sandalwood in the house; feed birds daily.
Which houses does Rahu look at from the 3rd?
The 7th (marriage), 9th (luck) and 11th (income).
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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