Mercury Mahadasha, Venus Antardasha (Budh–Shukra)

The Venus antardasha is the third of the nine sub-periods inside the Mercury mahadasha. 17 × 20 ÷ 120 makes the Mercury–Venus sub-period 2 years 10 months on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 1035 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Venus’s turn in the Mercury mahadasha comes only after Mercury and Ketu have run, which takes 3 years 4 months 24 days. When the Mercury–Venus sub-period gives way to Mercury–Sun, 10 years 9 months 6 days of the Mercury mahadasha remains.

Venus’s 20 years make every Venus antardasha 20/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Mercury’s 17 years the Mercury–Venus sub-period is the longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mercury–Venus

A pratyantardasha of Mercury–Venus is 17 × 20 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Venus. Venus’s is the longest inside Mercury–Venus at 170 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 51 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mercury and Venus Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, Mercury and Venus each count the other a friend. The Mercury–Venusrelationship is mutual, so it reads the same from either lord.

Counted between the signs they own, Taurus is the 12th from Mercury’s Gemini, Libra is the 5th from Mercury’s Gemini, Taurus is the 9th from Mercury’s Virgo and Libra is the 2nd from Mercury’s Virgo. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Mercury rules and the houses Venus rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Mercury–Venus sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

Venus is debilitated in Virgo, a sign Mercury owns. In the Mercury–Venus sub-period, then, one lord's dignity is placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Venus–Mercury

17 × 20 equals 20 × 17, so the Mercury antardasha of the Venus mahadasha is exactly as long as Mercury–Venus: 2 years 10 months. Nothing else about Venus–Mercury matches. It is the eighth sub-period of Venus’s 20 years rather than the third of Mercury’s 17; it opens after 16 years of the Venus mahadasha, against 3 years 4 months 24 days here; and its pratyantars start from Mercury instead of Venus.

What the Texts Assign to Mercury and Venus

The karaka list the tables give Mercury, the mahadasha lord, is speech, writing, trade, accounts, mathematics, maternal uncles and students; for Venus, the lord of the Mercury–Venus sub-period, it is marriage, vehicles, art, music, luxury, hotels and cosmetics. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Venus stands counted from Mercury there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mercury–Venus is a length and a position, and the 2 years 10 months above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Ashlesha, Jyeshtha or Revati opens life inside the Mercury mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Mercury–Venus sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Bharani, Purva Phalguni or Purva Ashadha, the Venus mahadasha comes first, and the Mercury mahadasha is the eighth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Mercury Mahadasha

The full table for the Mercury mahadasha, with where each sub-period opens and closes, is on the Mercury mahadasha page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read as a whole is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system itself in Vimshottari dasha explained. This page in Hindi: बुध महादशा में शुक्र अंतर्दशा.