Dhanu lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Sagittarius Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 5th and 12th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Sagittarius ascendant Mars rules the 5th (Aries) and the 12th (Scorpio), so for Sagittarius the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both a trikona house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Sagittarius, Mars is exalted in the 2nd (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 8th (Cancer). Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, and Mars count each other a friend. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 6th and 7th), Chitra (the 10th and 11th) and Dhanishta (the 2nd and 3rd) for Sagittarius ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Sagittarius
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Sagittarius |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 5th and the 12th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 1st and the 4th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 2nd and the 3rd |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 7th and the 10th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 6th and the 11th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 9th |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 8th |
For Sagittarius ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Mars, Mars–Venus and Mars–Moon, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Mars and Mars–Sun. The sub-period of Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, is Mars–Jupiter, the third of nine, 11 months 6 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Sagittarius take 2 years 1 month 27 days (31%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 9 months 3 days (11%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Sagittarius, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Sagittarius-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 Sagittarius or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Sagittarius chart house by house on the Sagittarius ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.