Libra (Tula Rashi) in Vedic astrology: the sign, its nakshatras, and what each graha does in it

Tula, the scales, is the seventh sign of the zodiac. It belongs to Venus, it is the one sign in which Saturn is exalted, and it is where the Sun reaches its lowest dignity. Those three facts, all stated in a few slokas of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS), explain most of what the classical texts go on to say about it: a sign read through trade, speech and foreign places, kind to Saturn and Venus and hard on the Sun.

This page sets out what BPHS, Saravali and the other source texts behind this app say about Libra, with chapter and sloka, and how the engine turns the sign into the lines you see in your own chart. It describes rules, not people. To find out whether Libra matters in your chart at all, start with the Moon Sign calculator.

Three different things are called "Libra"

In Vedic practice, "my rashi is Tula" means the Moon was in sidereal Libra at birth. The Moon crosses the sign in a little over two days: in this engine it made 134 passes through Libra between 2020 and 2029, lasting from 47.2 to 60.9 hours, 54.0 on average. The next one runs from 10:04 IST on 11 October 2026 to 19:13 IST on 13 October. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why the Moon, not the Sun, is the default.

The Sun is in sidereal Libra for about thirty days a year: from 19:46 IST on 17 October 2026 to 19:35 IST on 16 November 2026. The tropical zodiac used by Western Sun-sign columns puts the Sun in Libra from 23 September to 23 October 2026. The gap is the Lahiri ayanamsa, 24.2266 degrees on 5 October 2026 in this engine, as the Methodology page describes. So most people who call themselves a Libra from a magazine have the Sun in sidereal Virgo, and a Vedic Libra Sun is a debilitated Sun. The Sun Sign calculator gives the sidereal answer.

The third meaning is Tula Lagna: Libra rising on the eastern horizon at birth. At New Delhi on 5 October 2026 Libra rose from 07:17 to 09:36 IST, 140 minutes, against 85 minutes for Pisces the same day. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 37-38 lists Libra among the signs of long ascension. The window moves about two hours earlier each month: on 15 January 2026 it ran from 00:35 to 02:53. The Lagna needs a birth time and a place, and the Lagna calculator computes it.

How the texts describe Tula

BPHS Ch. 4 describes each rashi in a sloka or two. Its lines for Tula (Sloka 15-16 1/2), with the general classifications of Sloka 3 to 5 1/2 and the parallel chapter of Saravali, give the following.

Two further words in the BPHS sloka need care. It calls Tula "Dhatin", which the translator renders as destructive or mischievous without choosing. It also files the sign under one of the four varna classes; this app uses that inside the Varna koota of Kundli matching and makes no statement about people from it.

One familiar label is missing from that sloka. This translation of BPHS calls Gemini an airy rashi but gives Tula no element of its own. "Air" for Libra comes from the triplicity grouping: Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 15 Sloka 35 puts Gemini, Libra and Aquarius together in the West, Advanced Predictive Astrology lists the three as airy signs, and this engine codes them so.

The engine uses these attributes mechanically. The element feeds the dominant-element count across your nine grahas on the Kundali page. The modality fixes where the Navamsa count starts, which signs Libra aspects and which house is badhaka for a Libra Lagna. The lord, Venus, decides the dignity of most grahas placed here. The app also prints one curated temperament line for a Libra Moon: "intelligent and clean in dealings, a strong ally to family and relatives".

Inside the sign: three nakshatras, nine padas

Thirty degrees of Libra hold the last two padas of Chitra, all four of Swati and the first three of Vishakha. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes and maps to one Navamsa sign. BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 12 starts the Navamsas of a movable rashi from the rashi itself, so Libra's nine run from Libra to Gemini.

Two consequences follow. A graha or Lagna in the first 3 degrees 20 minutes of Libra is Vargottama, in the same sign in both charts; Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 13 names the first Navamsa of a movable sign as that portion and says a Lagna there makes the native an important person in his circle. And the Sun's deepest fall, at 10 degrees, lies inside Swati, while Saturn's deepest exaltation, at 20, is the line between Swati and Vishakha. The Nakshatra calculator returns the pada, the Navamsa (D9) calculator the Navamsa sign, and Navamsa, the second chart covers how to read it. BPHS Ch. 33 Sloka 2-8 adds one line specific to this Navamsa: an Atma Karaka in Tula Navamsa makes a trader, skilful in making robes; the Karakamsa calculator finds yours.

The other divisions of Libra

• Hora (D2): Libra is odd, so its first 15 degrees are the Sun's Hora and the second 15 the Moon's (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 5-6; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14).
• Drekkana (D3): the three decanates fall in Libra, Aquarius and Gemini, the sign itself, the 5th and the 9th from it (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 7-8).
• Trimshamsa (D30): for an odd sign, 0 to 5 degrees belong to Mars, 5 to 10 to Saturn, 10 to 18 to Jupiter, 18 to 25 to Mercury and 25 to 30 to Venus (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 27-28; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 15).

Dignity: who is strong in Libra, and who is not

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 gives Saturn its exaltation in Tula, deepest at 20 degrees, and puts each graha's fall in the seventh sign from its exaltation, at the same degree. The Sun is exalted in Aries at 10 degrees, so it is debilitated in Libra, deepest at 10. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 35-36 and Bhrigu Sutras (pp. 6 and 12) give the same signs and degrees.

The middle rows move because this engine judges a graha in another's sign by the fivefold relationship with the sign lord: the natural relationship combined with a temporary one read from the chart. By BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 a graha in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from another is its temporary friend. For a graha in Libra that means Venus in Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Cancer, Leo or Virgo. With Venus in one of those, the Moon, Mars and Mercury are in a friendly sign and Jupiter is neutral. With Venus anywhere else, including Libra itself, the Moon and Mars read as in an enemy sign, Mercury as neutral and Jupiter as in an enemy sign.

Venus: one Moolatrikona, four boundaries

All the sources agree that Libra is the Moolatrikona sign of Venus (Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 34) and disagree on how much of it. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 gives the first half, 0 to 15 degrees, with the second half plain own sign. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24 gives only the first 5 degrees. Bhrigu Sutras (p. 11) gives the first 20. This engine follows BPHS, its primary authority, and marks 0 to 15 degrees (since October 2026; it used to mark 27 to 30, a figure from a textbook outside this corpus). So a Venus at 3 degrees of Libra is Moolatrikona in all three books and in this app, and a Venus at 18 degrees is own sign here and in BPHS but Moolatrikona by the Bhrigu Sutras. The difference is small: this app scores Moolatrikona as full positional strength and own sign as three quarters. Venus in Vedic astrology covers the graha itself.

The Sun: fall, and what the texts attach to it

BPHS Ch. 50 Sloka 29-32 lists Tula among the Sun's inimical rashis and says the Dasha of a graha in an inimical rashi is full of adversities. Saravali Ch. 39 Sloka 15-17 is sharper: the Sun in the 10th degree of Libra destroys Raja Yogas even when other grahas are exalted or in their own signs. That rule names one degree, not the sign, and this app does not apply it. Bhrigu Sutras, on the Sun in the 1st house, says a Sun debilitated in Libra makes the native dignified yet without learning or power, and that these ill effects are not felt when Jupiter or Venus aspects it; its commentator admits it is "not clear" how the author arrived at dignified (pp. 16-17). The Sun in Vedic astrology has the wider picture, and the Shad Bala calculator weighs dignity beside the other strengths.

Each graha in Libra, as Saravali reads it

Saravali gives every graha a sloka pair for each sign. The Libra lines are paraphrased below. Its sexual, marital and disease verdicts and its harsher character words are left out.

Read across the rows and a pattern shows. Five of the seven mention foreign places or wandering, three mention speech or argument, and trade runs through the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter lines. BPHS points the same way twice: the trader of Ch. 33, and Ch. 46 Sloka 120-122, where a birth in the Tula portion of the Kaal Chakr makes a minister or adviser. The texts keep returning to the market and the council.

Saravali then modifies each line by aspect, treating Taurus and Libra together as the signs of Venus. A few of those lines, again paraphrased:

• Sun in Libra aspected by Jupiter: many foes and many friends, a king's minister (Ch. 22 Sl. 12-17).
• Moon in Libra aspected by Mercury: skilled in the arts, rich, famous in his country. By Jupiter: skilled in buying and selling gems. By Saturn: very affluent and sweet in speech. By the Sun: without wealth, wandering (Ch. 23 Sl. 45-50).
• Venus in its own sign aspected by Jupiter: homes, conveyances, riches, desired objects achieved. By Saturn: little happiness and little wealth (Ch. 28 Sl. 31-36).
• Saturn in a sign of Venus aspected by Jupiter: shares others' joys and sorrows, charitable, industrious. By the Sun: clear in speech and learned, but loses wealth (Ch. 29 Sl. 31-36).

Libra rising: Tula Lagna

Saravali Ch. 48 Sloka 26-29 describes the Libra-born at length, and the list does not agree with itself. It includes a long face and body, wealth that rises and falls, a fickle mind, learning, high intelligence, truthfulness, respect for elders, hospitality and charity; it also calls the same native both "bereft of virtues" and "virtuous". It is a list of possibilities, not a portrait. What a Lagna reliably fixes is which graha rules which house, and BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 33-34 reads that for Tula. The 1st house page covers the Lagna as a house.

The reasons are in the same chapter. Sloka 2-7 says lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th give evil effects, which covers Jupiter and the Sun. Mars rules the 2nd and the 7th, the two Marak Bhavas of Ch. 44 Sloka 2-5; this app reports the label and computes no longevity or death timing. The Moon rules a kendra and Mercury a kona, and Sloka 11-12 says such lords cause a Yog when they exchange signs, join in a kendra or kona, or fully aspect each other.

Saturn: a Yoga Karaka by rule, not by name

Saturn rules the 4th, a kendra, and the 5th, a kona. BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 13 says one graha owning both "will prove specially a Yog Karak", yet the Tula sloka itself calls Saturn only auspicious and names the Moon and Mercury for Raj Yog. The later books apply the rule: Bhrigu Sutras' commentary (pp. 84, 98) and Advanced Predictive Astrology (pp. 23-26) both call Saturn the Yoga Karaka for Libra. This app's table follows the sloka's wording, so the Yoga Karaka panel on a Libra-rising Kundali lists the Moon and Mercury and shows Saturn under auspicious. Saturn in Vedic astrology has more on the graha.

Which Mahapurusha Yogas can form

BPHS Ch. 75 gives five Mahapurusha Yogas; this engine flags one when Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn is exalted or in its own sign in a kendra from the Lagna. For Libra rising that allows Malavya (Venus in Libra in the 1st), Sasa (Saturn in Libra in the 1st or Capricorn in the 4th), Ruchaka (Mars in Capricorn in the 4th or Aries in the 7th) and Hamsa (Jupiter in Cancer in the 10th). Bhadra cannot form: Mercury's signs are the 9th and 12th houses, neither a kendra. Bhrigu Sutras' commentary (p. 98) says an exalted Saturn in a Libra ascendant "will naturally give very beneficial results". The Yogas calculator lists what your chart forms, and what a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh it. A Mars in Aries in the 7th is also a Mangal Dosha position; the Mangal Dosha calculator reports it.

The badhaka house

BPHS Ch. 50 Sloka 20-21 makes the 11th from a movable rashi its Badhak, and names Simh for Tula. This engine uses the rule in one place: a graha in the 11th house of a Libra-rising chart carries the note "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" in the strength table. The sloka speaks of Dashas; the app reads no event into it.

Libra among the signs: aspects and questions

BPHS Ch. 8 Sloka 1-3 gives the signs aspects of their own: a movable rashi aspects the three fixed rashis except the one next to it. Libra therefore aspects Taurus, Leo and Aquarius, not Scorpio, and the same three aspect it back. With a birth time, the Kundali page shows this rashi drishti beside the graha aspects. Opposite Libra stands Aries, where every dignity on this page is reversed: the Sun exalted, Saturn debilitated.

In horary astrology the modality carries the rules. Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 3 Sloka 5 says a question about gaining status or a post succeeds under a fixed ascendant and "does not happen" under a movable one; Ch. 4 Sloka 1-2 says travel definitely occurs under a movable ascendant, unless a graha it names sits there retrograde. This app's Prashna feature applies both rules, in its gains and travel questions, when Libra rises at the moment you ask.

A worked chart: five bodies rising in Libra

This is an illustrative birth, not a real person: 4 November 2013, 06:45 IST, New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E), with the Moon less than 7 degrees past the Sun. Every figure is this engine's output.

Libra rises at 18.97 degrees, in Swati, with five bodies in the 1st house: the Sun at 17.74 degrees, Mercury retrograde at 12.77, Rahu at 13.29, Saturn at 19.87 and the Moon at 24.56 in Vishakha. The Sun is Debilitated. Saturn is Exalted, a third of a degree from its deepest point, and the engine flags Sasa Yoga: "Saturn is exalted in Libra, in your 1st house (a kendra)". Venus is in Sagittarius, the 3rd sign from Libra and so a temporary friend, which makes the Moon and Mercury read as in a friendly sign. Venus itself reads as in an enemy sign, as does Jupiter in Gemini in the 9th.

The Yoga Karaka panel lists the Moon and Mercury, both in house 1, and the yoga list adds Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga (the 9th and 10th lords together in a kendra), a Raja Yoga of the 5th and 9th lords, and a Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga linking Saturn, Mercury and the Moon. This is BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 33-34 almost to the letter. Mangal Dosha and Kaal Sarp Dosha are absent.

The Moon, Mercury and Saturn, though, are all inside the Sun's combustion orb, and this app's strength table sets a combust graha's positional strength to zero, exalted or not. The Sun is 7.74 degrees past its deepest fall, so Saravali's tenth-degree rule is not met, but it is debilitated all the same. Mars sits in Leo in the 11th, the badhaka house, and nothing is Vargottama. The Moon in Vishakha starts the Vimshottari sequence in Jupiter's Mahadasha, until 14 May 2024, followed by Saturn's until May 2043; the engine grades Saturn's period good and the Sun's, Venus's and Jupiter's challenging. A sign full of grahas produces more rules, not a clearer verdict.

Timing: dashas and transits through Libra

Dashas

Vimshottari Dasha starts from the Moon's nakshatra, so a Libra Moon begins life in the Mahadasha of Mars (Chitra), Rahu (Swati) or Jupiter (Vishakha), part-way through. The order from there is fixed: Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator dates yours, and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic.

For a graha placed in Libra, BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 gives the test: its Dasha is favourable when the lord is exalted or in its own or a friendly sign, unfavourable when it is debilitated, in an enemy's sign or in the 6th, 8th or 12th house. This app grades Mahadashas with that test. A Saturn or Venus in Libra earns "good" unless it sits in the 6th, 8th or 12th from your Lagna, where the grade turns "challenging". A Sun in Libra is graded challenging in every house. See the Saturn Mahadasha and the Venus Mahadasha.

Libra also has a period of its own in the sign-based Chara Dasha of BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 158-167. In this engine Libra is an odd-Pad sign, the classification the chapter's own example gives it, so its length is counted forward from Libra to the sign Venus occupies, less one, with a year added when Venus is exalted and taken off when she is debilitated: one year with Venus in Scorpio, ten with Venus debilitated in Virgo (eleven less one), six with her exalted in Pisces (five plus one), twelve with Venus in Libra itself. For a Libra Lagna the sequence opens with Libra and runs in zodiacal order.

Transits

Transits are read from the natal Moon. The Gochar calculator counts each graha's sign from your Moon and applies this engine's rule set; for a Libra Moon on 5 October 2026 it reads Saturn in Pisces (6th) and Jupiter in Cancer (10th) as favourable, and Mercury and Venus in Libra itself, with the Sun in Virgo (12th), as testing.

Sade Sati and Ashtama Sani for a Libra Moon

Sade Sati, as this app defines it, is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon: Virgo, Libra and Scorpio for a Tula rashi. The last one ran from 10 September 2009 to 26 October 2017, with a break from late January to mid June 2017 while Saturn was briefly in Sagittarius. The next begins on 23 October 2038 and ends on 8 December 2046, with a break from late March to late July 2039. It is not active now. Its middle phase is Saturn in Libra, its exaltation sign, and the app describes the period as "traditionally read as a time to consolidate rather than expand, not as an omen." The Sade Sati calculator gives the phase for your Moon.

Ashtama Sani is Saturn in the 8th from the Moon, Taurus for a Libra Moon: briefly from 16 August to 27 September 2029, then from 16 April 2030 to 30 May 2032. Ardha Ashtama Sani, Saturn in the 4th, was its stay in Capricorn between January 2020 and January 2023. The Ashtama Sani calculator checks both, and the Timing feature places them beside your dashas.

Common misreadings

• "I am a Libra" from a Western column. That is the tropical Sun. The sidereal Sun is in Libra from mid October to mid November, and your rashi is the Moon's sign, not the Sun's.
• "Libra is the sign of balance, so every planet is comfortable there." The texts make it the Sun's fall, and this engine's friendship table makes Venus a natural enemy of Jupiter; only Saturn and Venus are strong here by sign alone.
• "An exalted Saturn always delivers." The engine zeroes its positional strength when combust and grades its Mahadasha challenging in the 6th, 8th or 12th house.
• "A debilitated Sun ruins the chart." Saravali's Raja Yoga rule names the tenth degree only, and both Bhrigu Sutras and Saravali change the reading when Jupiter aspects that Sun.
• "Venus rules Libra, so Venus is the best planet for Libra rising." BPHS calls Venus neutral for Tula Lagna, since it also rules the 8th, and gives the auspicious role to Saturn and Mercury.
• "A movable air sign means a changeable person." Modality drives mechanical rules here: the Navamsa count, sign aspects, the badhaka house, horary travel. Saravali's "fickle minded" sits in the same list as "truthful".

How to check this in your own chart

1. 1.Run the Moon Sign calculator. Without a birth time it also reports the Moon at both ends of your birth date and whether the sign changed; what an unknown birth time costs explains the rest.
2. 2.Check the Sun with the Sun Sign calculator and the Lagna with the Lagna calculator. Keep the three answers apart.
3. 3.Cast the full chart with the Birth Chart calculator. Note every graha in Libra, its degree, its house and its combust flag.
4. 4.Find each of those grahas in the dignity table. For the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, look at where Venus sits before reading friendly or enemy.
5. 5.Use the nakshatra table for the pada and Navamsa sign of each, and to see whether anything is Vargottama.
6. 6.If Libra rises, read the lordship table, then the Yoga Karaka panel and the yoga list on your Kundali.
7. 7.Date the Dashas of the grahas in Libra and of Venus, and, for a Libra Moon, check Sade Sati, Ashtama Sani and Gochar.
8. 8.To verify a citation, the Sources page lists the texts this app draws on.

Frequently asked questions

What are the dates for Libra in Vedic astrology?

For the Sun, about 17 October to 16 November each year. But Tula rashi usually means the Moon sign, and the Moon is in Libra for about 54 hours every month, so no date range answers that. It needs your birth date and, on a day the Moon changes sign, your birth time.

Who rules Tula Rashi, and what kind of sign is it?

Venus rules it (BPHS Ch. 4 Sloka 15-16 1/2). It is the seventh sign: movable, odd and male, a human sign that rises head first, is strong by day and belongs to the West. This engine classes it as air, with Gemini and Aquarius.

Which nakshatras fall in Libra?

Chitra padas 3 and 4, all of Swati, and Vishakha padas 1 to 3. Their Vimshottari lords are Mars, Rahu and Jupiter, which decides the first Mahadasha of a Libra Moon.

Why is the Sun debilitated and Saturn exalted in Libra?

The source texts state it without giving a reason. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 lists the exaltation signs and says each graha falls in the seventh sign from its exaltation. The Sun is exalted in Aries, so it falls in Libra; Saturn is exalted in Libra, so it falls in Aries. Anything beyond that is commentary.

Which planets are good for Libra ascendant?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 33-34 calls Saturn and Mercury auspicious, says the Moon and Mercury cause Raj Yog, calls Jupiter, the Sun and Mars malefic, and Venus neutral. These are roles from house lordship; where each graha sits, and how strong it is, still has to be read from the chart.

Is Saturn the Yoga Karaka for Libra Lagna?

By the general rule of BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 13, yes: it rules the 4th and the 5th, a kendra and a kona, and two later books say so outright. The Tula sloka itself calls Saturn auspicious and keeps the Raj Yog wording for the Moon and Mercury, which this app's panel follows.

When is the next Sade Sati for Tula Rashi?

In this engine it begins when Saturn enters Virgo on 23 October 2038 and ends when Saturn leaves Scorpio on 8 December 2046. The previous one ran from September 2009 to October 2017. On 5 October 2026 Saturn is in Pisces, the 6th from a Libra Moon, and neither Sade Sati nor Ashtama Sani is active.

Is a Libra Moon compatible with a particular sign?

None of the source texts behind this app gives sign-to-sign verdicts, so this page gives none. Matching in the Indian tradition scores eight kootas from both Moons' signs and nakshatras; the Kundli Matching calculator and the Compatibility feature show each part of that score for two real birth dates.