Mesha lagna · vimshottari
The Saturn Mahadasha for Aries Ascendant
19 years · Saturn rules the 10th and 11th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Aries ascendant Saturn rules the 10th (Capricorn) and the 11th (Aquarius), so for Aries the 19-year Saturn mahadasha carries both a kendra and an upachaya house and an upachaya house.
Counted from Aries, Saturn is exalted in the 7th (Libra) and debilitated in the 1st (Aries). Mars, Aries’s lagna lord, counts Saturn neutral; Saturn counts Mars an enemy. Saturn’s own nakshatras fall in Pushya (the 4th), Anuradha (the 8th) and Uttara Bhadrapada (the 12th) for Aries ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Saturn mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Aries
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Aries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saturn–Saturn | 3 years 3 days | the 10th and the 11th |
| 2 | Saturn–Mercury | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 3rd and the 6th |
| 3 | Saturn–Ketu | 1 year 1 month 9 days | no house |
| 4 | Saturn–Venus | 3 years 2 months | the 2nd and the 7th |
| 5 | Saturn–Sun | 11 months 12 days | the 5th |
| 6 | Saturn–Moon | 1 year 7 months | the 4th |
| 7 | Saturn–Mars | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 1st and the 8th |
| 8 | Saturn–Rahu | 2 years 10 months 6 days | no house |
| 9 | Saturn–Jupiter | 2 years 6 months 12 days | the 9th and the 12th |
For Aries ascendant, three of the Saturn mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Saturn–Mercury, Saturn–Mars and Saturn–Jupiter, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Saturn–Sun and Saturn–Jupiter. The sub-period of Mars, Aries’s lagna lord, is Saturn–Mars, the seventh of nine, 1 year 1 month 9 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Aries take 6 years 4 months (33%) of the Saturn mahadasha’s 19 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 3 years 5 months 24 days (18%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Saturn mahadasha for Aries, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For an Aries-rising chart this is the frame of the Saturn mahadasha, not a forecast: where Saturn and each sub-period lord actually sit, and their dignity there, decide what it comes to, and this page cannot know either.
Related
For Aries or any other ascendant, the Saturn mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Saturn mahadasha table; the Aries chart house by house on the Aries ascendant page. How the Saturn mahadasha is read in general is in our Saturn mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.