Tulā, the Balance or Scales, spans 180° to 210° of the sidereal zodiac and occupies the exact opposite of Meṣa in the zodiacal circle — where Meṣa acts, Tulā weighs; where Meṣa individuates, Tulā relates. It is a male (puruṣa) sign of the śūdra varṇa, cardinal (cara) quality, vāyu (air) tattva, rising from the head (śīrṣodaya). The image of the balance-scale reveals this rāśi’s essential nature: it is the principle of equilibrium, of weighing competing considerations, of the commerce and relationship between different things. Parāśara describes the Tulā native as skilled in trade and transactions, long-armed, and possessed of a discerning eye for value and proportion.
Śukra (Venus) rules Tulā, but here Venus operates differently than in the earthly sensuality of Vṛṣabha — in Tulā, Venus expresses its social, aesthetic, and relational dimensions. Beauty is here understood through proportion and balance rather than through sensory richness; relationship is a craft to be cultivated with intelligence and grace. The movable quality gives Tulā planets an initiating, socially active energy that contrasts with Venus’s usual preference for enjoyment and reception. Saturn reaches exaltation in Tulā (at 20°), pointing to the deep compatibility between Saturn’s structural order and Tulā’s principle of justice, fair proportion, and systematic equity.
The Sun reaches its debilitation in Tulā at 10°, and this reveals a fundamental tension: the solar principle of individual self-expression and sovereign will is deeply uncomfortable in a sign that requires compromise, mutual adjustment, and the yielding of individual advantage for the sake of relational harmony. A debilitated Sun here does not mean weakness in all respects — it means the solar expression is humbled into a more socially conscious mode, learning that authority earned through fairness endures longer than authority imposed through will.
The nakṣatras spanning Tulā are Citrā’s last two pādas (180°–186°40’), Svātī (186°40’–200°), and the first three pādas of Viśākhā (200°–210°). Svātī — presided over by Vāyu (the wind deity) and ruled by Rāhu — occupies the central zone with a quality of independent, swaying movement: the young shoot that bends in the wind without breaking. Viśākhā’s Jupiterian energy with its forked-branch symbolism brings themes of diverging paths and purposeful striving to Tulā’s closing degrees.
In Praśna Jyotiṣa, Tulā lagna is frequently encountered in questions about partnerships, marriage, legal disputes, contracts, and commercial agreements — all areas governed by Tulā’s natural significations. The condition of Śukra in such a chart reveals whether relational or commercial negotiations will find equilibrium. Muhūrta elections with Tulā involvement are traditionally favored for marriage (Śukra as kāraka), legal agreements, commercial partnerships, and any endeavor requiring the balancing of competing interests.