Karka lagna · vimshottari
The Sun Mahadasha for Cancer Ascendant
6 years · Sun rules the 2nd
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Cancer ascendant the Sun rules only the 2nd (Leo), a house in none of the four classes, so for Cancer the 6-year Sun mahadasha carries a single lordship.
Counted from Cancer, the Sun is exalted in the 10th (Aries) and debilitated in the 4th (Libra). The Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, and the Sun count each other a friend. The Sun’s own nakshatras fall in Krittika (the 10th and 11th), Uttara Phalguni (the 2nd and 3rd) and Uttara Ashadha (the 6th and 7th) for Cancer ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Sun mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Cancer
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Cancer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun–Sun | 3 months 18 days | the 2nd |
| 2 | Sun–Moon | 6 months | the 1st |
| 3 | Sun–Mars | 4 months 6 days | the 5th and the 10th |
| 4 | Sun–Rahu | 10 months 24 days | no house |
| 5 | Sun–Jupiter | 9 months 18 days | the 6th and the 9th |
| 6 | Sun–Saturn | 11 months 12 days | the 7th and the 8th |
| 7 | Sun–Mercury | 10 months 6 days | the 3rd and the 12th |
| 8 | Sun–Ketu | 4 months 6 days | no house |
| 9 | Sun–Venus | 1 year | the 4th and the 11th |
For Cancer ascendant, three of the Sun mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Sun–Jupiter, Sun–Saturn and Sun–Mercury, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Sun–Mars and Sun–Jupiter. The sub-period of the Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, is Sun–Moon, the second of nine, 6 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Cancer take 2 years 7 months 6 days (43%) of the Sun mahadasha’s 6 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 1 month 24 days (19%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Sun 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 Sun mahadasha, not a forecast: where the Sun 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 Sun mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Sun mahadasha table; the Cancer chart house by house on the Cancer ascendant page. How the Sun mahadasha is read in general is in our Sun mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.