Mesha lagna · vimshottari
The Rahu Mahadasha for Aries Ascendant
18 years · Rahu rules no house
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Aries ascendant Rahu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 18-year Rahu mahadasha for Aries is read through the lord of the sign Rahu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Aries, which no table can supply without the chart.
Rahu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Taurus, the 2nd from Aries, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Scorpio, the 8th; planets.js records other signs as well. Rahu counts Mars, Aries’s lagna lord, an enemy; Mars’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Rahu’s own nakshatras fall in Ardra (the 3rd), Swati (the 7th) and Shatabhisha (the 11th) for Aries ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Rahu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Aries
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Aries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rahu–Rahu | 2 years 8 months 12 days | no house |
| 2 | Rahu–Jupiter | 2 years 4 months 24 days | the 9th and the 12th |
| 3 | Rahu–Saturn | 2 years 10 months 6 days | the 10th and the 11th |
| 4 | Rahu–Mercury | 2 years 6 months 18 days | the 3rd and the 6th |
| 5 | Rahu–Ketu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 6 | Rahu–Venus | 3 years | the 2nd and the 7th |
| 7 | Rahu–Sun | 10 months 24 days | the 5th |
| 8 | Rahu–Moon | 1 year 6 months | the 4th |
| 9 | Rahu–Mars | 1 year 18 days | the 1st and the 8th |
For Aries ascendant, three of the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Rahu–Jupiter, Rahu–Mercury and Rahu–Mars, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Rahu–Jupiter and Rahu–Sun. The sub-period of Mars, Aries’s lagna lord, is Rahu–Mars, the ninth of nine, 1 year 18 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Aries take 6 years (33%) of the Rahu mahadasha’s 18 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 3 years 3 months 18 days (18%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Rahu mahadasha for Aries, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For an Aries-rising chart this is the frame of the Rahu mahadasha, not a forecast: where Rahu and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Aries or any other ascendant, the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Rahu mahadasha table; the Aries chart house by house on the Aries ascendant page. How the Rahu mahadasha is read in general is in our Rahu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.