Rahu Mahadasha, Venus Antardasha (Rahu–Shukra)

The Venus antardasha is the sixth of the nine sub-periods inside the Rahu mahadasha. 18 × 20 ÷ 120 makes the Rahu–Venus sub-period 3 years on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 1096 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Venus’s turn in the Rahu mahadasha comes only after Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Ketu have run, which takes 11 years 6 months 18 days. When the Rahu–Venus sub-period gives way to Rahu–Sun, 3 years 5 months 12 days of the Rahu mahadasha remains.

Venus’s 20 years make every Venus antardasha 20/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Rahu’s 18 years the Rahu–Venus sub-period is the longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Rahu–Venus

A pratyantardasha of Rahu–Venus is 18 × 20 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Venus. Venus’s is the longest inside Rahu–Venus at 180 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 54 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Rahu and Venus Stand to Each Other

Rahu’s row in the friendship lists counts Venus a friend. Venus’s row names no node, so the other direction of the Rahu–Venus 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–Venus 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 exalted in Taurus, a sign Venus owns (on the commoner reckoning; planets.js gives another sign as well). In the Rahu–Venus sub-period, then, one lord's dignity is placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Venus–Rahu

18 × 20 equals 20 × 18, so the Rahu antardasha of the Venus mahadasha is exactly as long as Rahu–Venus: 3 years. Nothing else about Venus–Rahu matches. It is the fifth sub-period of Venus’s 20 years rather than the sixth of Rahu’s 18; it opens after 7 years 2 months of the Venus mahadasha, against 11 years 6 months 18 days here; and its pratyantars start from Rahu instead of Venus.

What the Texts Assign to Rahu and Venus

The karaka list the tables give Rahu, the mahadasha lord, is foreign lands and foreigners, technology, aviation and politics; for Venus, the lord of the Rahu–Venus sub-period, it is marriage, vehicles, art, music, luxury, hotels and cosmetics. 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 Venus stands counted from Rahu there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Rahu–Venus is a length and a position, and the 3 years 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–Venus sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Bharani, Purva Phalguni or Purva Ashadha, the Venus mahadasha comes first, and the Rahu mahadasha is the fifth 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 शुक्र अंतर्दशा.