Karka lagna · vimshottari
The Rahu Mahadasha for Cancer 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 Cancer ascendant Rahu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 18-year Rahu mahadasha for Cancer is read through the lord of the sign Rahu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Cancer, which no table can supply without the chart.
Rahu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Taurus, the 11th from Cancer, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Scorpio, the 5th; planets.js records other signs as well. Rahu counts the Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, an enemy; the Moon’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Rahu’s own nakshatras fall in Ardra (the 12th), Swati (the 4th) and Shatabhisha (the 8th) for Cancer ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Rahu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Cancer
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Cancer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rahu–Rahu | 2 years 8 months 12 days | no house |
| 2 | Rahu–Jupiter | 2 years 4 months 24 days | the 6th and the 9th |
| 3 | Rahu–Saturn | 2 years 10 months 6 days | the 7th and the 8th |
| 4 | Rahu–Mercury | 2 years 6 months 18 days | the 3rd and the 12th |
| 5 | Rahu–Ketu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 6 | Rahu–Venus | 3 years | the 4th and the 11th |
| 7 | Rahu–Sun | 10 months 24 days | the 2nd |
| 8 | Rahu–Moon | 1 year 6 months | the 1st |
| 9 | Rahu–Mars | 1 year 18 days | the 5th and the 10th |
For Cancer ascendant, three of the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Rahu–Jupiter, Rahu–Saturn and Rahu–Mercury, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Rahu–Jupiter and Rahu–Mars. The sub-period of the Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, is Rahu–Moon, the eighth of nine, 1 year 6 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Cancer take 7 years 9 months 18 days (43%) of the Rahu mahadasha’s 18 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 3 years 5 months 12 days (19%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Rahu mahadasha for Cancer, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Cancer-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 Cancer or any other ascendant, the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Rahu mahadasha table; the Cancer chart house by house on the Cancer ascendant page. How the Rahu mahadasha is read in general is in our Rahu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.