Saturn Mahadasha, Ketu Antardasha (Shani–Ketu)

The Ketu antardasha is the third of the nine sub-periods inside the Saturn mahadasha. 19 × 7 ÷ 120 makes the Saturn–Ketu sub-period 1 year 1 month 9 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 405 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Ketu’s turn in the Saturn mahadasha comes only after Saturn and Mercury have run, which takes 5 years 8 months 12 days. When the Saturn–Ketu sub-period gives way to Saturn–Venus, 12 years 2 months 9 days of the Saturn mahadasha remains.

Ketu’s 7 years make every Ketu antardasha 7/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Saturn’s 19 years the Saturn–Ketu sub-period is the seventh-longest of the nine, level with Saturn–Mars, because Mars and Ketu each run 7 years as mahadashas.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Saturn–Ketu

A pratyantardasha of Saturn–Ketu is 19 × 7 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Ketu. Venus’s is the longest inside Saturn–Ketu at 67 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 20 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Saturn and Ketu Stand to Each Other

Ketu’s row in the friendship lists counts Saturn a friend. Saturn’s row names no node, so the other direction of the Saturn–Ketu relationship has no entry, and this page does not supply one. The nodes have no row in the seven-graha table that kundli matching uses; the node’s own entry is the one printed on its planet page.

Ketu owns no sign in the standard scheme, so the Saturn–Ketu sub-period has no fixed distance between lordships. What stands in for it is the node’s dispositor — the lord of the sign Ketu occupies at birth — which differs from chart to chart.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Ketu–Saturn

19 × 7 equals 7 × 19, so the Saturn antardasha of the Ketu mahadasha is exactly as long as Saturn–Ketu: 1 year 1 month 9 days. Nothing else about Ketu–Saturn matches. It is the eighth sub-period of Ketu’s 7 years rather than the third of Saturn’s 19; it opens after 4 years 10 months 24 days of the Ketu mahadasha, against 5 years 8 months 12 days here; and its pratyantars start from Saturn instead of Ketu.

What the Texts Assign to Saturn and Ketu

The karaka list the tables give Saturn, the mahadasha lord, is karma, labour, servants, iron, coal and delay itself; for Ketu, the lord of the Saturn–Ketu sub-period, it is moksha, past-life skill, renunciation, occult knowledge and flags and banners. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart (for Ketu, which owns none, the house it occupies and the lord of its sign), and through where Ketu stands counted from Saturn there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Saturn–Ketu is a length and a position, and the 1 year 1 month 9 days above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada opens life inside the Saturn mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Saturn–Ketu sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Ashwini, Magha or Mula, the Ketu mahadasha comes first, and the Saturn mahadasha is the eighth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Saturn Mahadasha

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