Tula lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Libra Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 2nd and 7th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Libra ascendant Mars rules the 2nd (Scorpio) and the 7th (Aries), so for Libra the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both an unclassed house and a kendra house.
Counted from Libra, Mars is exalted in the 4th (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 10th (Cancer). Venus, Libra’s lagna lord, and Mars count each other neutral. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 8th and 9th), Chitra (the 12th and 1st) and Dhanishta (the 4th and 5th) for Libra ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Libra
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Libra |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 2nd and the 7th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 3rd and the 6th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 4th and the 5th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 9th and the 12th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 1st and the 8th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 11th |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 10th |
For Libra ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Jupiter, Mars–Mercury and Mars–Venus, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Saturn and Mars–Mercury. The sub-period of Venus, Libra’s lagna lord, is Mars–Venus, the seventh of nine, 1 year 2 months long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Libra take 3 years 1 month 3 days (44%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 1 month 6 days (30%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Libra, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Libra-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 Libra or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Libra chart house by house on the Libra ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.