Venus Mahadasha, Mercury Antardasha (Shukra–Budh)

The Mercury antardasha is the eighth of the nine sub-periods inside the Venus mahadasha. 20 × 17 ÷ 120 makes the Venus–Mercury 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.

Mercury’s turn in the Venus mahadasha comes only after Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter and Saturn have run, which takes 16 years. When the Venus–Mercury sub-period gives way to Venus–Ketu, 1 year 2 months of the Venus mahadasha remains.

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

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Venus–Mercury

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

How Venus and Mercury Stand to Each Other

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

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

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

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mercury–Venus

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

What the Texts Assign to Venus and Mercury

The karaka list the tables give Venus, the mahadasha lord, is marriage, vehicles, art, music, luxury, hotels and cosmetics; for Mercury, the lord of the Venus–Mercury sub-period, it is speech, writing, trade, accounts, mathematics, maternal uncles and students. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Mercury stands counted from Venus there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Venus–Mercury 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 Bharani, Purva Phalguni or Purva Ashadha opens life inside the Venus mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Venus–Mercury sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Ashlesha, Jyeshtha or Revati, the Mercury mahadasha comes first, and the Venus mahadasha is the third in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Venus Mahadasha

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