Simha lagna · vimshottari
The Ketu Mahadasha for Leo Ascendant
7 years · Ketu rules no house
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Leo ascendant Ketu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 7-year Ketu mahadasha for Leo is read through the lord of the sign Ketu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Leo, which no table can supply without the chart.
Ketu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Scorpio, the 4th from Leo, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Taurus, the 10th; planets.js records other signs as well. Ketu counts the Sun, Leo’s lagna lord, an enemy; the Sun’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Ketu’s own nakshatras fall in Ashwini (the 9th), Magha (the 1st) and Mula (the 5th) for Leo ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Ketu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Leo
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Leo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ketu–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 2 | Ketu–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 3rd and the 10th |
| 3 | Ketu–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 1st |
| 4 | Ketu–Moon | 7 months | the 12th |
| 5 | Ketu–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 4th and the 9th |
| 6 | Ketu–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 7 | Ketu–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 5th and the 8th |
| 8 | Ketu–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 6th and the 7th |
| 9 | Ketu–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 2nd and the 11th |
For Leo ascendant, three of the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Ketu–Moon, Ketu–Jupiter and Ketu–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Ketu–Mars and Ketu–Jupiter. The sub-period of the Sun, Leo’s lagna lord, is Ketu–Sun, the third of nine, 4 months 6 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Leo take 2 years 7 months 15 days (38%) of the Ketu mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 4 months 3 days (19%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Ketu mahadasha for Leo, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Leo-rising chart this is the frame of the Ketu mahadasha, not a forecast: where Ketu and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Leo or any other ascendant, the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Ketu mahadasha table; the Leo chart house by house on the Leo ascendant page. How the Ketu mahadasha is read in general is in our Ketu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.