Kumbha lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Aquarius Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 3rd and 10th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Aquarius ascendant Mars rules the 3rd (Aries) and the 10th (Scorpio), so for Aquarius the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both an upachaya house and a kendra and an upachaya house.
Counted from Aquarius, Mars is exalted in the 12th (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 6th (Cancer). Saturn, Aquarius’s lagna lord, counts Mars an enemy; Mars counts Saturn neutral. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 4th and 5th), Chitra (the 8th and 9th) and Dhanishta (the 12th and 1st) for Aquarius ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Aquarius
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Aquarius |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 10th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 2nd and the 11th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 1st and the 12th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 5th and the 8th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 4th and the 9th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 7th |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 6th |
For Aquarius ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Saturn, Mars–Mercury and Mars–Moon, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Mercury and Mars–Venus. The sub-period of Saturn, Aquarius’s lagna lord, is Mars–Saturn, the fourth of nine, 1 year 1 month 9 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Aquarius take 2 years 8 months 6 days (38%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 1 month 27 days (31%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Aquarius, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For an Aquarius-rising chart this is the frame of the Mars mahadasha, not a forecast: where Mars and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Aquarius or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Aquarius chart house by house on the Aquarius ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.