Kanya lagna · vimshottari
The Mercury Mahadasha for Virgo Ascendant
17 years · Mercury rules the 1st and 10th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Virgo ascendant Mercury rules the 1st (Virgo) and the 10th (Gemini), so for Virgo the 17-year Mercury mahadasha carries both a kendra and a trikona house and a kendra and an upachaya house.
Counted from Virgo, Mercury is exalted in the 1st (Virgo) and debilitated in the 7th (Pisces). Mercury is also Virgo’s lagna lord, so for this ascendant the Mercury mahadasha is the lagna lord’s own period. Mercury’s own nakshatras fall in Ashlesha (the 11th), Jyeshtha (the 3rd) and Revati (the 7th) for Virgo ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mercury mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Virgo
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Virgo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury–Mercury | 2 years 4 months 27 days | the 1st and the 10th |
| 2 | Mercury–Ketu | 11 months 27 days | no house |
| 3 | Mercury–Venus | 2 years 10 months | the 2nd and the 9th |
| 4 | Mercury–Sun | 10 months 6 days | the 12th |
| 5 | Mercury–Moon | 1 year 5 months | the 11th |
| 6 | Mercury–Mars | 11 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 8th |
| 7 | Mercury–Rahu | 2 years 6 months 18 days | no house |
| 8 | Mercury–Jupiter | 2 years 3 months 6 days | the 4th and the 7th |
| 9 | Mercury–Saturn | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 5th and the 6th |
For Virgo ascendant, three of the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mercury–Sun, Mercury–Mars and Mercury–Saturn, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mercury–Venus and Mercury–Saturn. The sub-period of Mercury, Virgo’s lagna lord, is Mercury–Mercury, the first of nine, 2 years 4 months 27 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Virgo take 4 years 6 months 12 days (27%) of the Mercury mahadasha’s 17 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 5 years 6 months 9 days (33%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mercury 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 Mercury mahadasha, not a forecast: where Mercury 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 Mercury mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mercury mahadasha table; the Virgo chart house by house on the Virgo ascendant page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read in general is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.