Dhanu lagna · vimshottari
The Mercury Mahadasha for Sagittarius Ascendant
17 years · Mercury rules the 7th and 10th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Sagittarius ascendant Mercury rules the 7th (Gemini) and the 10th (Virgo), so for Sagittarius the 17-year Mercury mahadasha carries both a kendra house and a kendra and an upachaya house.
Counted from Sagittarius, Mercury is exalted in the 10th (Virgo) and debilitated in the 4th (Pisces). Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, counts Mercury an enemy; Mercury counts Jupiter neutral. Mercury’s own nakshatras fall in Ashlesha (the 8th), Jyeshtha (the 12th) and Revati (the 4th) for Sagittarius ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mercury mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Sagittarius
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Sagittarius |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercury–Mercury | 2 years 4 months 27 days | the 7th and the 10th |
| 2 | Mercury–Ketu | 11 months 27 days | no house |
| 3 | Mercury–Venus | 2 years 10 months | the 6th and the 11th |
| 4 | Mercury–Sun | 10 months 6 days | the 9th |
| 5 | Mercury–Moon | 1 year 5 months | the 8th |
| 6 | Mercury–Mars | 11 months 27 days | the 5th and the 12th |
| 7 | Mercury–Rahu | 2 years 6 months 18 days | no house |
| 8 | Mercury–Jupiter | 2 years 3 months 6 days | the 1st and the 4th |
| 9 | Mercury–Saturn | 2 years 8 months 9 days | the 2nd and the 3rd |
For Sagittarius ascendant, three of the Mercury mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mercury–Venus, Mercury–Moon and Mercury–Mars, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mercury–Sun and Mercury–Mars. The sub-period of Jupiter, Sagittarius’s lagna lord, is Mercury–Jupiter, the eighth of nine, 2 years 3 months 6 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Sagittarius take 5 years 2 months 27 days (31%) of the Mercury mahadasha’s 17 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 10 months 3 days (11%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mercury 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 Mercury mahadasha, not a forecast: where Mercury 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 Mercury mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mercury mahadasha table; the Sagittarius chart house by house on the Sagittarius ascendant page. How the Mercury mahadasha is read in general is in our Mercury mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.