Trikona

Definition

Trikona is the Sanskrit word for "trine," and in a Vedic (sidereal) chart it names the trine houses — the first, fifth and ninth, counted from the lagna (the rising sign). Several sources call these the auspicious, good places of the chart, and read them alongside the kendras (the angular houses) when weighing how someone's life stands. Because the ninth is itself a trikona, Rao notes that it has to be left out of the succedent (Apaklima) group of houses.

In Tradition

The modern Jyotish sources gathered here agree on more than the bare definition. They read the trikonas (1, 5, 9) as auspicious houses of merit and fortune, and they hold that the lords of the trines give benefic results whatever a planet's own nature happens to be. Charak and Sutton both say a trine ruler still yields favourable results even when that planet also rules a negative house — a shared interpretive principle, not just a definitional fact.

In Practice

When you read a chart, a jyotishi (a Vedic astrologer) treats the first, fifth and ninth as the favourable houses and, together with the kendras, weighs them for health, wealth, status, dignity, rise in life, and virtue. The trine lords count as auspicious significators that bring good results. Sutton adds two things: the rulers of the fifth and ninth bring good luck even when they also rule a negative house, and planets sitting in the fifth and ninth flourish there. Of the two, the ninth lord is held to be the stronger and the fifth lord the lesser. The ninth's standing as a trikona also shapes how houses are grouped, since Rao keeps it out of the succedent (Apaklima) set for that reason.

Historical Origin

The term is glossed in the Sanskrit and English glossaries of Frawley's The Astrology of the Seers and appears in the indexes of Raman's Notable Horoscopes and Kannan's Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology. The modern handbooks treat it more fully: Charak's Elements of Vedic Astrology, Sutton's The Essentials of Vedic Astrology, and Rao's edition of the Bhrigu Samhita. All the sources gathered here are modern works of Vedic (sidereal) astrology.

Further Reading

• Frawley, The Astrology of the Seers
• Rao, Bhrigu Samhita
• Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology
• Sutton, The Essentials of Vedic Astrology
• Kannan, Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology
• Raman, Notable Horoscopes