Kanya lagna · vimshottari
The Ketu Mahadasha for Virgo 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 Virgo ascendant Ketu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 7-year Ketu mahadasha for Virgo is read through the lord of the sign Ketu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Virgo, which no table can supply without the chart.
Ketu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Scorpio, the 3rd from Virgo, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Taurus, the 9th; planets.js records other signs as well. Ketu counts Mercury, Virgo’s lagna lord, neutral; Mercury’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Ketu’s own nakshatras fall in Ashwini (the 8th), Magha (the 12th) and Mula (the 4th) for Virgo ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Ketu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Virgo
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Virgo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ketu–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 2 | Ketu–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 2nd and the 9th |
| 3 | Ketu–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 12th |
| 4 | Ketu–Moon | 7 months | the 11th |
| 5 | Ketu–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 8th |
| 6 | Ketu–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 7 | Ketu–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 4th and the 7th |
| 8 | Ketu–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 5th and the 6th |
| 9 | Ketu–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 1st and the 10th |
For Virgo ascendant, three of the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Ketu–Sun, Ketu–Mars and Ketu–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Ketu–Venus and Ketu–Saturn. The sub-period of Mercury, Virgo’s lagna lord, is Ketu–Mercury, the ninth of nine, 11 months 27 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Virgo take 1 year 10 months 12 days (27%) of the Ketu mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 3 months 9 days (33%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Ketu mahadasha for Virgo, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Virgo-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 Virgo or any other ascendant, the Ketu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Ketu mahadasha table; the Virgo chart house by house on the Virgo ascendant page. How the Ketu mahadasha is read in general is in our Ketu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.