Sun Mahadasha, Moon Antardasha (Surya–Chandra)

The Moon antardasha is the second of the nine sub-periods inside the Sun mahadasha. 6 × 10 ÷ 120 makes the Sun–Moon sub-period 6 months on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 183 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

The Moon’s turn in the Sun mahadasha comes only after the Sun has run, which takes 3 months 18 days. When the Sun–Moon sub-period gives way to Sun–Mars, 5 years 2 months 12 days of the Sun mahadasha remains.

The Moon’s 10 years make every Moon antardasha 10/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside the Sun’s 6 years the Sun–Moon sub-period is the sixth-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Sun–Moon

A pratyantardasha of Sun–Moon is 6 × 10 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from the Moon. Venus’s is the longest inside Sun–Moon at 30 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 9 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How the Sun and the Moon Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, the Sun and the Moon each count the other a friend. The Sun–Moonrelationship is mutual, so it reads the same from either lord.

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

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Moon–Sun

6 × 10 equals 10 × 6, so the Sun antardasha of the Moon mahadasha is exactly as long as Sun–Moon: 6 months. Nothing else about Moon–Sun matches. It is the ninth sub-period of the Moon’s 10 years rather than the second of the Sun’s 6; it opens after 9 years 6 months of the Moon mahadasha, against 3 months 18 days here; and its pratyantars start from the Sun instead of the Moon.

What the Texts Assign to the Sun and the Moon

The karaka list the tables give the Sun, the mahadasha lord, is father, government, authority, the soul (atma) and administration; for the Moon, the lord of the Sun–Moon sub-period, it is mother, the mind (manas), water, milk, the public, comfort and the home. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where the Moon stands counted from the Sun there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Sun–Moon is a length and a position, and the 6 months above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Krittika, Uttara Phalguni or Uttara Ashadha opens life inside the Sun mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Sun–Moon sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Rohini, Hasta or Shravana, the Moon mahadasha comes first, and the Sun mahadasha is the ninth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Sun Mahadasha

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