Tula lagna · vimshottari
The Ketu Mahadasha for Libra 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 Libra ascendant Ketu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 7-year Ketu mahadasha for Libra is read through the lord of the sign Ketu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Libra, which no table can supply without the chart.
Ketu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Scorpio, the 2nd from Libra, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Taurus, the 8th; planets.js records other signs as well. Ketu counts Venus, Libra’s lagna lord, a friend; Venus’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Ketu’s own nakshatras fall in Ashwini (the 7th), Magha (the 11th) and Mula (the 3rd) for Libra ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Ketu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Libra
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Libra |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ketu–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 2 | Ketu–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 1st and the 8th |
| 3 | Ketu–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 11th |
| 4 | Ketu–Moon | 7 months | the 10th |
| 5 | Ketu–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 2nd and the 7th |
| 6 | Ketu–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 7 | Ketu–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 3rd and the 6th |
| 8 | Ketu–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 4th and the 5th |
| 9 | Ketu–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 9th and the 12th |
For Libra ascendant, three of the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Ketu–Venus, Ketu–Jupiter and Ketu–Mercury, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Ketu–Saturn and Ketu–Mercury. The sub-period of Venus, Libra’s lagna lord, is Ketu–Venus, the second of nine, 1 year 2 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Libra take 3 years 1 month 3 days (44%) of the Ketu mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 1 month 6 days (30%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Ketu mahadasha for Libra, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Libra-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 Libra or any other ascendant, the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Ketu mahadasha table; the Libra chart house by house on the Libra ascendant page. How the Ketu mahadasha is read in general is in our Ketu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.