Vrishchika lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Scorpio Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 1st and 6th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Scorpio ascendant Mars rules the 1st (Scorpio) and the 6th (Aries), so for Scorpio the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both a kendra and a trikona house and a dusthana and an upachaya house.
Counted from Scorpio, Mars is exalted in the 3rd (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 9th (Cancer). Mars is also Scorpio’s lagna lord, so for this ascendant the Mars mahadasha is the lagna lord’s own period. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 7th and 8th), Chitra (the 11th and 12th) and Dhanishta (the 3rd and 4th) for Scorpio ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Scorpio
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Scorpio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 1st and the 6th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 2nd and the 5th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 3rd and the 4th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 8th and the 11th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 7th and the 12th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 10th |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 9th |
For Scorpio ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Mars, Mars–Mercury and Mars–Venus, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Jupiter and Mars–Moon. The sub-period of Mars, Scorpio’s lagna lord, is Mars–Mars, the first of nine, 4 months 27 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Scorpio take 2 years 6 months 24 days (37%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 1 year 6 months 6 days (22%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Scorpio, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Scorpio-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 Scorpio or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Scorpio chart house by house on the Scorpio ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.