Kanya lagna · vimshottari
The Mars Mahadasha for Virgo Ascendant
7 years · Mars rules the 3rd and 8th
The Parashari way to read a mahadasha for a given ascendant starts with the houses its lord holds. For Virgo ascendant Mars rules the 3rd (Scorpio) and the 8th (Aries), so for Virgo the 7-year Mars mahadasha carries both an upachaya house and a dusthana house.
Counted from Virgo, Mars is exalted in the 5th (Capricorn) and debilitated in the 11th (Cancer). Mercury, Virgo’s lagna lord, counts Mars neutral; Mars counts Mercury an enemy. Mars’s own nakshatras fall in Mrigashira (the 9th and 10th), Chitra (the 1st and 2nd) and Dhanishta (the 5th and 6th) for Virgo ascendant, which is where a birth that opens in the Mars mahadasha has its Moon.
The Nine Sub-Periods, by Lordship for Virgo
| # | Antardasha | Length (classical) | Its lord rules, for Virgo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mars–Mars | 4 months 27 days | the 3rd and the 8th |
| 2 | Mars–Rahu | 1 year 18 days | no house |
| 3 | Mars–Jupiter | 11 months 6 days | the 4th and the 7th |
| 4 | Mars–Saturn | 1 year 1 month 9 days | the 5th and the 6th |
| 5 | Mars–Mercury | 11 months 27 days | the 1st and the 10th |
| 6 | Mars–Ketu | 4 months 27 days | no house |
| 7 | Mars–Venus | 1 year 2 months | the 2nd and the 9th |
| 8 | Mars–Sun | 4 months 6 days | the 12th |
| 9 | Mars–Moon | 7 months | the 11th |
For Virgo ascendant, three of the Mars mahadasha’s sub-periods belong to lords of a dusthana (the 6th, 8th or 12th): Mars–Mars, Mars–Saturn and Mars–Sun, and two to lords of a trikona other than the 1st: Mars–Saturn and Mars–Venus. The sub-period of Mercury, Virgo’s lagna lord, is Mars–Mercury, the fifth of nine, 11 months 27 days long. Counted in time, sub-periods whose lords hold a dusthana for Virgo take 1 year 10 months 12 days (27%) of the Mars mahadasha’s 7 years, and those whose lords hold a trikona other than the 1st take 2 years 3 months 9 days (33%); a lord holding both is counted in both. In the Mars mahadasha for Virgo, the Rahu and Ketu sub-periods are read through their dispositors in the chart, since neither node rules a house.
For a Virgo-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 Virgo or any other ascendant, the Mars mahadasha’s sub-period arithmetic, with the nine pratyantars of each, is on the Mars mahadasha table; the Virgo chart house by house on the Virgo ascendant page. How the Mars mahadasha is read in general is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system in Vimshottari dasha explained.