Rahu Mahadasha, Mars Antardasha (Rahu–Mangal)

The Mars antardasha is the ninth of the nine sub-periods inside the Rahu mahadasha, and the last of them — it closes the Rahu mahadasha, which gives way to the Jupiter mahadasha. 18 × 7 ÷ 120 makes the Rahu–Mars 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.

Mars’s turn in the Rahu mahadasha comes only after Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus, the Sun and the Moon have run, which takes 16 years 11 months 12 days. Nothing of the Rahu mahadasha is left once the Rahu–Mars sub-period ends.

Mars’s 7 years make every Mars antardasha 7/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Rahu’s 18 years the Rahu–Mars sub-period is the seventh-longest of the nine, level with Rahu–Ketu, because Ketu and Mars each run 7 years as mahadashas.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Rahu–Mars

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

How Rahu and Mars 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 Rahu–Mars 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 Rahu–Mars 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 Rahu–Mars sub-period, then, one lord's dignity is placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mars–Rahu

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

What the Texts Assign to Rahu and Mars

The karaka list the tables give Rahu, the mahadasha lord, is foreign lands and foreigners, technology, aviation and politics; for Mars, the lord of the Rahu–Mars sub-period, it is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces. 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 Mars stands counted from Rahu there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Rahu–Mars 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 Ardra, Swati or Shatabhisha opens life inside the Rahu mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Rahu–Mars sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Mrigashira, Chitra or Dhanishta, the Mars mahadasha comes first, and the Rahu mahadasha is the next one.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Rahu Mahadasha

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