Venus Mahadasha, Saturn Antardasha (Shukra–Shani)

The Saturn antardasha is the seventh of the nine sub-periods inside the Venus mahadasha. 20 × 19 ÷ 120 makes the Venus–Saturn sub-period 3 years 2 months on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 1157 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Saturn’s turn in the Venus mahadasha comes only after Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Rahu and Jupiter have run, which takes 12 years 10 months. When the Venus–Saturn sub-period gives way to Venus–Mercury, 4 years of the Venus mahadasha remains.

Saturn’s 19 years make every Saturn antardasha 19/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Venus’s 20 years the Venus–Saturn sub-period is the second-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Venus–Saturn

A pratyantardasha of Venus–Saturn is 20 × 19 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Saturn. Venus’s is the longest inside Venus–Saturn at 190 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 57 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Venus and Saturn Stand to Each Other

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

Counted between the signs they own, Capricorn is the 9th from Venus’s Taurus, Aquarius is the 10th from Venus’s Taurus, Capricorn is the 4th from Venus’s Libra and Aquarius is the 5th from Venus’s Libra. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Venus rules and the houses Saturn rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Venus–Saturn sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

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

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Saturn–Venus

20 × 19 equals 19 × 20, so the Venus antardasha of the Saturn mahadasha is exactly as long as Venus–Saturn: 3 years 2 months. Nothing else about Saturn–Venus matches. It is the fourth sub-period of Saturn’s 19 years rather than the seventh of Venus’s 20; it opens after 6 years 9 months 21 days of the Saturn mahadasha, against 12 years 10 months here; and its pratyantars start from Venus instead of Saturn.

What the Texts Assign to Venus and Saturn

The karaka list the tables give Venus, the mahadasha lord, is marriage, vehicles, art, music, luxury, hotels and cosmetics; for Saturn, the lord of the Venus–Saturn sub-period, it is karma, labour, servants, iron, coal and delay itself. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Saturn stands counted from Venus there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Venus–Saturn is a length and a position, and the 3 years 2 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–Saturn sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada, the Saturn mahadasha comes first, and the Venus mahadasha is the fourth 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 शनि अंतर्दशा.