Dhanu lagna · vimshottari
The Rahu Mahadasha for Sagittarius 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 Sagittarius ascendant Rahu holds none: the nodes rule no sign in whole-sign lordship, so the 18-year Rahu mahadasha for Sagittarius is read through the lord of the sign Rahu occupies at birth, and through that sign’s house from Sagittarius, which no table can supply without the chart.
Rahu is exalted on the commoner reckoning in Taurus, the 6th from Sagittarius, and debilitated by the same reckoning in Scorpio, the 12th; planets.js records other signs as well. Rahu counts Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, neutral; Jupiter’s own row names no node, so the reverse has no entry. Rahu’s own nakshatras fall in Ardra (the 7th), Swati (the 11th) and Shatabhisha (the 3rd) for Sagittarius ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Rahu mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Sagittarius
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Sagittarius |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rahu–Rahu | 2 years 8 months 12 days | no house |
| 2 | Rahu–Jupiter | 2 years 4 months 24 days | the 1st and the 4th |
| 3 | Rahu–Saturn | 2 years 10 months 6 days | the 2nd and the 3rd |
| 4 | Rahu–Mercury | 2 years 6 months 18 days | the 7th and the 10th |
| 5 | Rahu–Ketu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 6 | Rahu–Venus | 3 years | the 6th and the 11th |
| 7 | Rahu–Sun | 10 months 24 days | the 9th |
| 8 | Rahu–Moon | 1 year 6 months | the 8th |
| 9 | Rahu–Mars | 1 year 18 days | the 5th and the 12th |
For Sagittarius ascendant, three of the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Rahu–Venus, Rahu–Moon and Rahu–Mars, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Rahu–Sun and Rahu–Mars. The sub-period of Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, is Rahu–Jupiter, the second of nine, 2 years 4 months 24 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Sagittarius take 5 years 6 months 18 days (31%) of the Rahu mahadasha’s 18 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 11 months 12 days (11%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Rahu mahadasha for Sagittarius, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Sagittarius-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 Sagittarius or any other ascendant, the Rahu mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Rahu mahadasha table; the Sagittarius chart house by house on the Sagittarius ascendant page. How the Rahu mahadasha is read in general is in our Rahu mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.