Venus (Shukra) in Vedic astrology: what BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras say, and how to read it in your chart

Venus is the graha the classical texts give the pleasant things to. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) seats it beside Jupiter as a minister of the planetary cabinet, Saravali makes it the comforts of the zodiac personified, and BPHS ranks it the strongest of the natural benefics. The same book then calls it a malefic or inauspicious for seven of the twelve rising signs, and the only graha able to give a Raja Yoga for two others. Reading Venus well means keeping its nature and its lordship apart.

This page sets out what BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras say about Venus (Shukra, Shukr), with chapter and sloka, where they disagree, and how this app's engine turns each rule into something you can see in your own chart. It is a map of rules, not a forecast about anyone. To find your own Venus - sign, degree, house - start with the Birth Chart calculator; for its strength, the Shad Bala calculator.

Shukra at a glance

Saravali adds the names Asphujit, Sita and Bhrigu (Ch. 4 Sloka 10-11) and the Yajur Veda (Sloka 19-20). The modern introduction to Bhrigu Sutras adds Friday, the title Kalathra Karaka (chief significator of marriage), vehicles, the business partner, and music, poetry, painting and drama; it also notes that Venus is never more than 48 degrees from the Sun. That passage lists body areas too, the throat and kidneys among them; such associations are what a text says, not medical advice, and the gem and metal it names are not repeated here.

What Venus signifies, and why it is the strongest benefic

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 12-13 gives each graha a single office: the Sun is the soul, the Moon the mind, and Venus governs reproductive vigour (the translation says semen, potency). Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 1-2 names the same office comforts, and the introduction to Bhrigu Sutras names it desire. Saravali Ch. 7 lists what follows from it: ornaments, marriage, scents, garlands, friends, education and gold.

• Marriage and the partner. BPHS Ch. 32 Sloka 31-34 makes Venus the significator of the 7th house, and Sloka 22-24 reads the wife from the 7th house counted from Venus itself. Sloka 18-21 lists the husband under Venus as a constant significator.
• Enjoyments and conveyances. BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 1-6 lists marriage, enjoyments and conveyance as the matters judged from Venus.
• A parent, on which the sources differ. BPHS Ch. 32 Sloka 18-21 takes the father from the stronger of the Sun and Venus; the Bhrigu Sutras introduction makes Venus the significator of the mother for a daytime birth.

On its nature the texts agree. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 9 list Venus among the natural benefics, and BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 8-10 ranks the benefics in ascending order as full Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The same sloka turns the ranking round for one purpose: when a benefic owns a Kendra and loses its helpfulness, the loss rises in that same order. The strongest benefic is therefore the one whose lordship matters most, which is why the Lagna table below cannot be skipped.

Dignity: Pisces, Taurus, Libra and Virgo

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 exalts Venus in Pisces, deepest at 27 degrees, and puts its fall in the 7th sign from there, Virgo, at the same degree. It owns Taurus and Libra. Bhrigu Sutras gives the same signs and degrees, and so does this engine.

Libra: four answers about the Moolatrikona

All sources place the Moolatrikona in Libra and disagree about which part. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 says the first half of Libra is Moolatrikona and the second half own sign. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24 says the first 5 degrees. The Bhrigu Sutras introduction says the first 20 degrees. This app's engine follows BPHS, its primary authority, and codes 0 to 15 degrees of Libra (since October 2026; before that it used 27 to 30, from S. Kannan's Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology, which is not in this corpus). So a Venus at 3 degrees of Libra is Moolatrikona by all three texts and in the app, and a Venus at 28 degrees is own sign. Both labels count as strong everywhere in the engine; only the position score differs, 10 against 7.5.

Friends, enemies and the sign table

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives natural friendship from the Moolatrikona: the lords of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 12th signs from it, and the lord of the exaltation sign, are friends; the rest are enemies; a planet that comes out both ways is neutral. Counted from Libra that gives Mercury and Saturn as friends, the Sun and Moon as enemies, and Mars and Jupiter, who appear on both lists, as neutral. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 28-29 and Bhrigu Sutras state the same result, and the engine uses it. The relation is not mutual in every case: Saravali lists Venus among Jupiter's enemies while Venus holds Jupiter neutral.

Two notes on that table. First, the Friendly, Neutral and Enemy rows move with the chart. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56-58 adds a temporary relation read from where two planets sit, and the engine combines it with the natural one. Venus was in the Sun's sign or within two signs of it on every day of a 1950-2049 run, and those neighbouring positions are temporary-friend positions, so a Venus in Leo reads Enemy sign only when the Sun is in Leo too; otherwise it reads Neutral. Second, the rays measure distance from the debilitation point, which is why Libra, next to Virgo, scores low on rays and high on dignity. Saravali Ch. 36 Sloka 2-6 gives Venus 8 rays at exaltation in one school and 7 in the majority view; the engine uses 7.

On what dignity is worth, BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 59-60 gives a scale: full good effects in exaltation, three quarters in Moolatrikona, half in own sign, a quarter in a friend's sign, an eighth in a neutral's, none in debilitation or an enemy's sign. Saravali Ch. 45 describes the states: exalted Venus gives a love of sport, music and dance; in Moolatrikona, prominence in one's town, wealth and fortune; in its own sign, farming and riches; in a friend's sign, wealth and a love of friends; debilitated or in an enemy's sign, a subordinate position.

Aspect: the 7th only

BPHS Ch. 26 Sloka 2-5 gives every graha a full aspect on the 7th house from its own and reserves the special full aspects for Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. Venus has none. The same sloka grades partial aspects in quarters (the 3rd and 10th a quarter, the 5th and 9th a half, the 4th and 8th three quarters); the engine does not use them. Its aspectedHouses() returns one house for Venus, the 7th from where it sits, and in the Shad Bala calculation that aspect counts as a benefic one for the planet receiving it.

When and where Venus is strong

• Direction. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38 makes the Moon and Venus strong in the North, which Ch. 27 Sloka 7 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 35 fix as the 4th house. The engine gives full directional credit there and none in the 10th.
• Day and night. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 36 make Venus strong by day; the engine credits a daytime birth. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 12 separately gives Venus full Tribhaga strength in the middle third of the night, a component this engine does not compute.
• Sign parity and course. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 4.5 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 35 give the Moon and Venus extra strength in even signs; BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 15-17 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 37 strengthen Venus in the northern course. Neither is computed here for Venus.
• Natural strength. Both texts rank the seven as Saturn, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Sun in ascending order, so Venus is third from the top. The engine scores it 0.625 of 1.
• Motion. The engine credits motional strength when Venus is retrograde or in Gemini or Virgo. Virgo is also its debilitation sign, so a Virgo Venus gets this credit beside a position score of 0.

Combustion is the common weakness. The engine marks Venus combust within 10 degrees of the Sun, or 8 when retrograde, and a combust planet's position score drops to zero. In the 1950-2049 run Venus was combust on 15.0 per cent of days and retrograde on 7.3 per cent. The texts are gentler here: Saravali Ch. 36 Sloka 7-9 says a combust planet loses all its rays, Venus and Saturn excepted. The engine does not apply that exception, so here the app reads harder than Saravali. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 34-36 sets its own bar for a strong Venus in Virupas; the app uses a simpler 20-point total and calls 13 or more Strong and 7 or less Weak.

What Venus rules from your Lagna

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 2-7 sets the lordship rules: a benefic owning a Kendra (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) stops giving benefic results, the lord of a trine (5th, 9th) is auspicious, the lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th give difficulty, and Sloka 13 makes a planet that owns both a Kendra and a trine a Yoga Karaka. Sloka 19-44 then goes through the twelve rising signs. Find yours with the Lagna calculator.

Three rows need comment. For Taurus BPHS lists the Lagna lord itself with the malefics, although Sloka 2-7 calls the Lagna lord specially auspicious; the text leaves that unreconciled and so does this page. For Capricorn and Aquarius the engine shows Venus in the Yoga Karaka panel of your Kundali and raises the Mild Kendra-lordship flag too, because its dosha rule only asks whether a benefic owns a Kendra without owning the 1st. By Sloka 13 the trine lordship settles the matter in Venus's favour, so read that flag as a note about the rule, not a second verdict.

Venus in the twelve signs: Saravali Ch. 28

The chapter does not simply follow the dignity ladder. Virgo, the debilitation sign, gets a mixed portrait with real skills in it, while Capricorn and Aquarius, signs of Venus's friend Saturn that the engine labels Friendly, get two of the hardest. Where the engine's label and Saravali's portrait differ, they are answering different questions: one grades strength, the other describes temperament. From Sloka 25 the chapter modifies each reading by aspect; for Venus in Taurus or Libra, Mercury's or Jupiter's aspect is read as fortunate and Mars's as costly.

Venus in the twelve houses

The app's own sentence for your Venus comes from buildPlanetHouseEffects(), which holds a favourable and a testing line for each house, written from the Bhrigu Sutras text. It shows the favourable line only when Venus is exalted, Moolatrikona, in its own or a friendly sign and is not in the 6th, 8th or 12th. That rule is stricter than the texts for the 8th, where Saravali is glowing, and for the 12th, where the Bhrigu Sutras contents page says Venus gives Yoga effects in the 6th and 12th. In those three houses the app always shows the testing line; read the table above beside it.

Each placement has its own page: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th.

Malavya Yoga and other combinations

BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 and Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 2 give the same rule: Venus in its own or exaltation sign, in a Kendra from the Lagna, forms Malavya, one of the five Panchamahapurusha Yogas. The engine tests exactly that (Taurus, Libra or Pisces in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th) and the Yogas calculator reports it. Both texts go on to describe the native's face, build and length of life; the app keeps only a temperament line. It is not rare. In 992,378 charts cast for New Delhi at 53-minute steps across 1950-2049, Venus was in one of those three signs 28.4 per cent of the time and Malavya formed in 9.47 per cent, roughly one chart in eleven. What a detected yoga does and does not tell you is covered in what a yoga in your chart means.

• Wealth combinations. BPHS Ch. 41 Sloka 2: a sign of Venus as the 5th house with Venus in it and Mars in the 11th. Sloka 7 is the mirror, Mars in its own sign in the 5th with Venus in the 11th. Sloka 14: Venus in the Lagna in its own sign, joined or aspected by Saturn and Mercury. The engine detects all three.
• Mudrika Yoga. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon in mutual Kendras or together in one house, a rule the engine takes from Advanced Predictive Astrology.
• Lunar yogas. Saravali Ch. 13 forms Sunapha with a planet in the 2nd from the Moon; when Venus forms it the text speaks of spouse, land, wealth and valour.

Timing: the Venus Mahadasha

BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 12-15 gives Venus 20 of the 120 Vimshottari years, the longest of the nine periods. The engine assigns the starting period from the Moon's nakshatra, so a Moon in Bharani, Purva Phalguni or Purva Ashadha begins life in Venus's period, with only the unexpired part of the 20 years left to run. In the cycle Venus follows Ketu and precedes the Sun. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator gives your dates, and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic.

BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 78-89 reads the period from Venus's condition, not from the planet alone. In exaltation, its own sign, a Kendra or a trine it speaks of clothes, ornaments, conveyances, land, recognition and celebrations with music; in Moolatrikona, of a house, children, a marriage in the family, high position and the recovery of lost property (Sloka 79-82). In the 6th, 8th or 12th it speaks of strained relations with kin, losses in business and separations (Sloka 83-84.5). In the 4th as lord of the 9th or 10th it speaks of authority, pious works and fame (Sloka 85-87). As lord of the 2nd or 7th it warns of bodily trouble (Sloka 88-89); the ritual the sloka then prescribes is not repeated here.

The engine applies a similar test. buildDashaLordEffects() calls a Venus period favourable when Venus is exalted, Moolatrikona, in its own or a friendly sign, or in the Lagna without weak dignity, and is outside the 6th, 8th and 12th. It then shows the theme "comfort, relationships, creativity and material gain - often the most pleasant of the periods"; otherwise it shows "strain in relationships, overspending or setbacks tied to partnerships". A three-step quality label sits beside it: good, neutral or challenging. It then adds a line for each house Venus rules from your Lagna. The full treatment is on the Venus Mahadasha page.

BPHS Ch. 60 Sloka 1-2.5 reads the opening Venus-Venus sub-period well when Venus is strong and in a Kendra, a trine or the 11th. How the layers nest is explained in Antardasha and Pratyantar. In the other systems BPHS Ch. 46 describes, as coded in the Alternate Dashas calculator, Venus has 18 years in Shodshottari, 16 in Panchottari, 10 in Shatabdik, 12 in Chaturashiti-sama and 9 in Dwisaptati-sama. It has no period in Dwadashottari, the system Sloka 27-28 reserves for a Lagna in a Navamsa of Venus.

Transits: about 25 days a sign, except around a retrograde

The Gochar calculator counts Venus's current sign from your natal Moon sign and applies the benefic rule the engine uses for Jupiter, Mercury and Venus: the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th are favourable, the 3rd and 6th indifferent, and the 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th testing. The 6th carries an extra "intensified" flag for Venus. The engine labels each transit as about 30 days. The real figure is shorter and less even: across 1,264 complete stays in a sign in the 1950-2049 run the median was 25 days, 40 stays ran longer than 60 days, and the longest was 126 days (Taurus, from 28 March 2028).

The long stays come from retrogrades, and one is in progress as this page is written. By this engine Venus entered sidereal Libra on 2 September 2026, turned retrograde on 3 October near 14 degrees of Libra, re-enters Virgo on 6 November, turns direct on 14 November at about 28 degrees of Virgo, close to its deepest debilitation point, returns to Libra on 22 November and reaches Scorpio on 1 January 2027. The dates are in Indian Standard Time from an hourly sweep; another ayanamsa or ephemeris can move them.

BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 34-36 says gains of wealth, land, happiness and marriage come when Venus transits signs holding more Rekhas in its own Ashtakavarga. Ch. 66 Sloka 56-58 lists the places: 52 points in all, with every contributor giving a point in the 11th and none in the 7th. The engine's table now places every one of those points where BPHS does: its Mars row used to give the point in the 5th, and was corrected to the 4th that the sloka names. The Ashtakavarga calculator shows your figures sign by sign.

One worked chart

Take a birth on 22 September 1986 at 18:20 IST in New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E). The engine gives a Pisces Lagna at 7.47 degrees and Venus at 18.06 degrees of Libra in the 8th house, direct and 42.51 degrees from the Sun, so not combust. The Moon is at 26.06 degrees of Aries in Bharani, so life begins in Venus's Mahadasha, with about eleven months of it left (to 18 August 1987).

• Dignity. Own sign by the engine. At 18.06 degrees it is own sign by BPHS and Saravali as well, and Moolatrikona by the Bhrigu Sutras introduction.
• Lordship. Venus rules the 3rd and 8th from Pisces; BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 43-44 lists it with the malefics, and the Yoga Karaka panel repeats that.
• Strength. 12.96 of 20, labelled Medium, just under the Strong line of 13: position 7.5, aspect 3 (from the Moon and Jupiter, both on the engine's benefic list), direction 1.33 of 4, and half the day-night credit for an evening birth.
• Yogas naming Venus. Vesi (Venus in the 2nd sign from the Sun), Chandradhi or Adhi (Venus unafflicted in the 7th from the Moon) and Sarala (the 8th lord in the 8th).
• House sentence. "Venus in your 8th house in Libra - classically more testing, tending toward reduced vitality under real affliction."
• Dasha label. Challenging, because of the 8th house, in spite of the own sign.
• Navamsa. Venus falls in Pisces, its exaltation sign, in the D9.

No single line here should be read alone. The engine's house and Dasha verdicts are testing because of the 8th house, yet the same Venus is in its own sign, forms three yogas, is nearly Strong, and sits where Saravali Ch. 30 Sloka 69 speaks of long life and wealth and Bhrigu Sutras 45-48 give a full span when Venus is in a benefic's sign. An honest reading reports all of it.

Checking Venus in your own chart

Everything house-based needs a birth time and a birthplace; without them there is no Lagna (see what a missing birth time costs). Venus's sign usually survives a missing time, since it changes sign only about once in 25 days.

1. 1.Cast the chart with the Birth Chart calculator and note Venus's sign, degree and house, and its retrograde and combust flags.
2. 2.Find its dignity in the sign table above. If it is in Libra, check the degree against the four Moolatrikona definitions.
3. 3.Find what it rules from your Lagna in the lordship table, and whether the Yoga Karaka panel lists it.
4. 4.Note the one house it aspects: the 7th from its own.
5. 5.Read its line in the Shad Bala calculator: position, direction (best in the 4th) and the day credit.
6. 6.Check its sign in the Navamsa (D9), the divisional chart read for marriage (see Navamsa, the second chart).
7. 7.Look at timing last: the Venus periods on your timing view and its current transit from your Moon.

Common misreadings

• "Venus is a benefic, so it helps every chart." By nature, yes. By lordship BPHS Ch. 34 calls it malefic or inauspicious for seven Lagnas and auspicious for four.
• "A debilitated Venus means a failed marriage." BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 59-60 says good effects are nil in debilitation, a statement about strength. Saravali Ch. 28 gives Virgo Venus skill, sweet speech and several incomes beside its shortfall of pleasure.
• "Venus rules marriage, so matching compares the two Venuses." This app's Kundli Matching score is the Ashtakoot, computed from the two Moons only; Venus is read in each chart separately.
• "Venus Mahadasha is always the best 20 years." BPHS Ch. 47 conditions it on dignity and house, and the engine labels it challenging for a Venus in the 6th, 8th or 12th.

Related pages

The other grahas each have a page: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. On a Friday the first planetary hour after sunrise is Venus's; the Hora calculator lists the day's hours. In this app's numerology the number 6 belongs to Venus, and the Numerology Dasha calculator gives it 6 years of a 45-year cycle. Two-chart matching is on the Compatibility page; the engine's limits are on the Methodology page, and every book cited here is on the Sources page.

Is Venus a benefic or a malefic in Vedic astrology?

By nature a benefic: BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 lists it, and Ch. 34 Sloka 8-10 ranks it the strongest of the four. By lordship it varies with the Lagna: BPHS Ch. 34 calls it auspicious for Gemini, Virgo, Capricorn and Aquarius, neutral for Libra, and malefic or inauspicious for the other seven.

Where is Venus exalted and where is it debilitated?

Exalted in Pisces, deepest at 27 degrees, and debilitated in Virgo at the same degree (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50). Taurus and Libra are its own signs, and part of Libra is its Moolatrikona; the sources disagree on which part.

Which houses does Venus aspect?

Only the 7th from the house it occupies. BPHS Ch. 26 Sloka 2-5 gives special full aspects to Saturn, Jupiter and Mars alone.

How long is the Venus Mahadasha?

Twenty years, the longest Vimshottari period (BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 15). It opens with a Venus sub-period of 3 years 4 months. People born with the Moon in Bharani, Purva Phalguni or Purva Ashadha start life partway through it.

For which Lagnas is Venus a Yoga Karaka?

Capricorn, where it rules the 5th and 10th, and Aquarius, where it rules the 4th and 9th. BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 39-42 says only Venus gives a superior Yoga for the first and Raja Yoga for the second.

What is Malavya Yoga?

Venus in Taurus, Libra or Pisces, placed in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th house from the Lagna (BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2; Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 2). It formed in 9.47 per cent of the charts sampled with this engine.

Who are Venus's friends and enemies?

Mercury and Saturn are friends, the Sun and Moon enemies, Mars and Jupiter neutral. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives this from the Moolatrikona sign, and Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras state the same list.

Does the app prescribe a gemstone or ritual for a weak Venus?

No. The classical chapters name remedies and this page leaves them out. The app reports dignity, strength, lordship and timing as calculated.