Ketu Mahadasha, Rahu Antardasha (Ketu–Rahu)

The Rahu antardasha is the sixth of the nine sub-periods inside the Ketu mahadasha. 7 × 18 ÷ 120 makes the Ketu–Rahu sub-period 1 year 18 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 384 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Rahu’s turn in the Ketu mahadasha comes only after Ketu, Venus, the Sun, the Moon and Mars have run, which takes 2 years 11 months. When the Ketu–Rahu sub-period gives way to Ketu–Jupiter, 3 years 12 days of the Ketu mahadasha remains.

Rahu’s 18 years make every Rahu antardasha 18/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Ketu’s 7 years the Ketu–Rahu sub-period is the third-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Ketu–Rahu

A pratyantardasha of Ketu–Rahu is 7 × 18 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Rahu. Venus’s is the longest inside Ketu–Rahu at 63 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 19 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Ketu and Rahu Stand to Each Other

Neither node’s row in the friendship lists names the other, so the Ketu–Rahu pair has no entry in either direction, and this page does not supply one. They are the two ends of a single axis rather than two grahas with a view of each other.

Neither Ketu nor Rahu owns a sign in the standard scheme, so the Ketu–Rahu sub-period joins no lordships at all; each node is read through the lord of the sign it occupies at birth.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Rahu–Ketu

7 × 18 equals 18 × 7, so the Ketu antardasha of the Rahu mahadasha is exactly as long as Ketu–Rahu: 1 year 18 days. Nothing else about Rahu–Ketu matches. It is the fifth sub-period of Rahu’s 18 years rather than the sixth of Ketu’s 7; it opens after 10 years 6 months of the Rahu mahadasha, against 2 years 11 months here; and its pratyantars start from Ketu instead of Rahu.

What the Texts Assign to Ketu and Rahu

The karaka list the tables give Ketu, the mahadasha lord, is moksha, past-life skill, renunciation, occult knowledge and flags and banners; for Rahu, the lord of the Ketu–Rahu sub-period, it is foreign lands and foreigners, technology, aviation and politics. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses the two occupy in the birth chart and the lords of the signs they sit in, since neither owns a sign, and through where Rahu stands counted from Ketu there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Ketu–Rahu is a length and a position, and the 1 year 18 days above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Ashwini, Magha or Mula opens life inside the Ketu mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Ketu–Rahu sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Ardra, Swati or Shatabhisha, the Rahu mahadasha comes first, and the Ketu mahadasha is the fifth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Ketu Mahadasha

The full table for the Ketu mahadasha, with where each sub-period opens and closes, is on the Ketu mahadasha page. How the Ketu mahadasha is read as a whole is in our Ketu mahadasha article, and the system itself in Vimshottari dasha explained. This page in Hindi: केतु महादशा में राहु अंतर्दशा.