Moon Mahadasha, Mercury Antardasha (Chandra–Budh)

The Mercury antardasha is the sixth of the nine sub-periods inside the Moon mahadasha. 10 × 17 ÷ 120 makes the Moon–Mercury sub-period 1 year 5 months on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 517 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Mercury’s turn in the Moon mahadasha comes only after the Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter and Saturn have run, which takes 5 years 10 months. When the Moon–Mercury sub-period gives way to Moon–Ketu, 2 years 9 months of the Moon mahadasha remains.

Mercury’s 17 years make every Mercury antardasha 17/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside the Moon’s 10 years the Moon–Mercury sub-period is the fourth-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Moon–Mercury

A pratyantardasha of Moon–Mercury is 10 × 17 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Mercury. Venus’s is the longest inside Moon–Mercury at 85 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 26 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How the Moon and Mercury Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, the Moon counts Mercury a friend while Mercury counts the Moon an enemy. The table is not symmetric, so the Moon–Mercury relationship has to be quoted in both directions, as it is here, rather than as one word.

Counted between the signs they own, Gemini is the 12th from the Moon’s Cancer and Virgo is the 3rd from the Moon’s Cancer. Whatever the ascendant, the houses the Moon rules and the houses Mercury rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Moon–Mercury sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mercury–Moon

10 × 17 equals 17 × 10, so the Moon antardasha of the Mercury mahadasha is exactly as long as Moon–Mercury: 1 year 5 months. Nothing else about Mercury–Moon matches. It is the fifth sub-period of Mercury’s 17 years rather than the sixth of the Moon’s 10; it opens after 7 years 1 month of the Mercury mahadasha, against 5 years 10 months here; and its pratyantars start from the Moon instead of Mercury.

What the Texts Assign to the Moon and Mercury

The karaka list the tables give the Moon, the mahadasha lord, is mother, the mind (manas), water, milk, the public, comfort and the home; for Mercury, the lord of the Moon–Mercury sub-period, it is speech, writing, trade, accounts, mathematics, maternal uncles and students. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Mercury stands counted from the Moon there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Moon–Mercury is a length and a position, and the 1 year 5 months above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Rohini, Hasta or Shravana opens life inside the Moon mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Moon–Mercury sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Ashlesha, Jyeshtha or Revati, the Mercury mahadasha comes first, and the Moon mahadasha is the fifth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Moon Mahadasha

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