Karka lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Cancer Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 5th and 10th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Cancer ascendant Mars rules the 5th (Scorpio) and the 10th (Aries), so for Cancer the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both a trikona house and a kendra and an upachaya house. For Cancer, then, Mars holds a kendra and a trikona other than the 1st together.
Counted from Cancer, Mars is exalted in the 7th (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 1st (Cancer). The Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, counts Mars neutral; Mars counts the Moon a friend. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 11th and 12th), Chitra (the 3rd and 4th) and Dhanishta (the 7th and 8th) for Cancer ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Cancer
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Cancer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 5th and the 10th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 6th and the 9th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 7th and the 8th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 12th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 4th and the 11th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 2nd |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 1st |
For Cancer ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Jupiter, Mars–Saturn and Mars–Mercury, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Mars and Mars–Jupiter. The sub-period of the Moon, Cancer’s lagna lord, is Mars–Moon, the ninth of nine, 7 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Cancer take 3 years 12 days (43%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 4 months 3 days (19%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Cancer, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Cancer-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 Cancer or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Cancer chart house by house on the Cancer ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.