Simha lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Leo Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 4th and 9th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Leo ascendant Mars rules the 4th (Scorpio) and the 9th (Aries), so for Leo the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both a kendra house and a trikona house. For Leo, then, Mars holds a kendra and a trikona other than the 1st together.
Counted from Leo, Mars is exalted in the 6th (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 12th (Cancer). The Sun, Leo’s lagna lord, and Mars count each other a friend. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 10th and 11th), Chitra (the 2nd and 3rd) and Dhanishta (the 6th and 7th) for Leo ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Leo
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Leo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 4th and the 9th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 5th and the 8th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 6th and the 7th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 2nd and the 11th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 3rd and the 10th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 1st |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 12th |
For Leo 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–Moon, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Mars and Mars–Jupiter. The sub-period of the Sun, Leo’s lagna lord, is Mars–Sun, the eighth of nine, 4 months 6 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Leo take 2 years 7 months 15 days (38%) 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 Leo, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Leo-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 Leo or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Leo chart house by house on the Leo ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.