Mars Mahadasha, Rahu Antardasha (Mangal–Rahu)

The Rahu antardasha is the second of the nine sub-periods inside the Mars mahadasha. 7 × 18 ÷ 120 makes the Mars–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 Mars mahadasha comes only after Mars has run, which takes 4 months 27 days. When the Mars–Rahu sub-period gives way to Mars–Jupiter, 5 years 6 months 15 days of the Mars mahadasha remains.

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

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mars–Rahu

A pratyantardasha of Mars–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 Mars–Rahu at 63 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 19 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mars and Rahu Stand to Each Other

Rahu’s row in the friendship lists counts Mars an enemy. Mars’s row names no node, so the other direction of the Mars–Rahu relationship has no entry, and this page does not supply one. The nodes have no row in the seven-graha table that kundli matching uses; the node’s own entry is the one printed on its planet page.

Rahu owns no sign in the standard scheme, so the Mars–Rahu sub-period has no fixed distance between lordships. What stands in for it is the node’s dispositor — the lord of the sign Rahu occupies at birth — which differs from chart to chart.

Rahu is debilitated in Scorpio, a sign Mars owns (on the commoner reckoning; planets.js gives another sign as well). In the Mars–Rahu sub-period, then, one lord's dignity is placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Rahu–Mars

7 × 18 equals 18 × 7, so the Mars antardasha of the Rahu mahadasha is exactly as long as Mars–Rahu: 1 year 18 days. Nothing else about Rahu–Mars matches. It is the ninth sub-period of Rahu’s 18 years rather than the second of Mars’s 7; it opens after 16 years 11 months 12 days of the Rahu mahadasha, against 4 months 27 days here; and its pratyantars start from Mars instead of Rahu.

What the Texts Assign to Mars and Rahu

The karaka list the tables give Mars, the mahadasha lord, is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces; for Rahu, the lord of the Mars–Rahu sub-period, it is foreign lands and foreigners, technology, aviation and politics. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart (for Rahu, which owns none, the house it occupies and the lord of its sign), and through where Rahu stands counted from Mars there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mars–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 Mrigashira, Chitra or Dhanishta opens life inside the Mars mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Mars–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 Mars mahadasha is the ninth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Mars Mahadasha

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