Rahu Mahadasha, Saturn Antardasha (Rahu–Shani)

The Saturn antardasha is the third of the nine sub-periods inside the Rahu mahadasha. 18 × 19 ÷ 120 makes the Rahu–Saturn sub-period 2 years 10 months 6 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 1041 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Saturn’s turn in the Rahu mahadasha comes only after Rahu and Jupiter have run, which takes 5 years 1 month 6 days. When the Rahu–Saturn sub-period gives way to Rahu–Mercury, 10 years 18 days of the Rahu mahadasha remains.

Saturn’s 19 years make every Saturn antardasha 19/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Rahu’s 18 years the Rahu–Saturn sub-period is the second-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Rahu–Saturn

A pratyantardasha of Rahu–Saturn is 18 × 19 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Saturn. Venus’s is the longest inside Rahu–Saturn at 171 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 51 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Rahu and Saturn Stand to Each Other

Rahu’s row in the friendship lists counts Saturn a friend. Saturn’s row names no node, so the other direction of the Rahu–Saturn 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–Saturn 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.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Saturn–Rahu

18 × 19 equals 19 × 18, so the Rahu antardasha of the Saturn mahadasha is exactly as long as Rahu–Saturn: 2 years 10 months 6 days. Nothing else about Saturn–Rahu matches. It is the eighth sub-period of Saturn’s 19 years rather than the third of Rahu’s 18; it opens after 13 years 7 months 12 days of the Saturn mahadasha, against 5 years 1 month 6 days here; and its pratyantars start from Rahu instead of Saturn.

What the Texts Assign to Rahu and Saturn

The karaka list the tables give Rahu, the mahadasha lord, is foreign lands and foreigners, technology, aviation and politics; for Saturn, the lord of the Rahu–Saturn sub-period, it is karma, labour, servants, iron, coal and delay itself. 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 Saturn stands counted from Rahu there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Rahu–Saturn is a length and a position, and the 2 years 10 months 6 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–Saturn sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada, the Saturn mahadasha comes first, and the Rahu mahadasha is the eighth in that sequence.

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 शनि अंतर्दशा.