Tula

Tula means the scales, and the seventh sign is shown in the Brihat Jataka as a person holding a pair of scales. Varahamihira matches it to the abdomen of the Kalapurusha, the body that the twelve signs make up. Its span takes in the second half of Chitra, all of Swati and the first three quarters of Vishakha.

Venus is lord of Tula, and the book lists Libra as the Venus mulatrikona, a strong placement. Saturn is exalted at the twentieth degree, and the Sun falls here at the tenth. As Iyer sets out the pattern, it is a male, movable sign of the west, a day sign that rises head first, and black in color. Its first navamsa, a ninth of the sign, is Libra, and the sign list gives the Greek-derived Juka.

Iyer's 1905 translation of the Moon-in-signs chapter lists, for Libra, an intelligent mind, a respect for holy men, a trader's work, a tall figure, a raised nose and the care of a family. It also says such a person never covets another's property. On the calculator, Tula runs from 180 to 210 degrees of sidereal longitude, so the Lahiri scheme puts the star Spica at the sign's very start.