Rekha

Definition

In Ashtakavarga, a rekha is the vertical line (1) you enter in a planet's chart to mark a house counted as favourable from a contributing planet. It is the opposite of the bindu (the dot), and the number of rekhas in a house is the figure that the Trikona and Ekadhipatya Shodhana steps refine and that the Pinda Sadhana then uses. The Sanskrit word rekha means a line or stroke.

In Tradition

Both classical and modern Jyotish texts treat the rekha as the favourable counterpart to the bindu within Ashtakavarga. Astrologers read it as the mark that points to strength or auspiciousness for the planet or house in question, where the bindu points the other way. Think of the two as a paired notation, line against dot, whose relative counts tell you how to judge a house.

In Practice

You meet the rekha whenever you read an Ashtakavarga chart. In BPHS (Santhanam), a house carrying a rekha is auspicious for the planet concerned and is held to give favourable results when that Ashtakavarga planet transits through it; the count of rekhas then feeds the Trikona and Ekadhipatya Shodhana refinements and the Pinda Sadhana. Larsen reads the rekha for the potential a chart holds, taking it as the actual strength of a graha (planet) or bhava (house), with the bindu showing where that strength is lacking. A related combination, Rekha Yoga, is one Raman invokes for a bhava so weakened by concentrated malefic influence that it becomes almost defunct, as he reads in the Duke of Windsor's house of fortune.

Historical Origin

The rekha is attested in the classical Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Ch.66), ascribed to Maharshi Parasara, in the translation by Gouri Shankar Kapoor. Modern authors carry it forward: Larsen sets it out in Jyotisha Fundamentals, and Raman takes up the related Rekha Yoga in Notable Horoscopes.

Further Reading

• Maharshi Parasara, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
• Larsen, Jyotisha Fundamentals
• B.V. Raman, Notable Horoscopes