Mars Mahadasha, Moon Antardasha (Mangal–Chandra)

The Moon antardasha is the ninth of the nine sub-periods inside the Mars mahadasha, and the last of them — it closes the Mars mahadasha, which gives way to the Rahu mahadasha. 7 × 10 ÷ 120 makes the Mars–Moon sub-period 7 months on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 213 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

The Moon’s turn in the Mars mahadasha comes only after Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus and the Sun have run, which takes 6 years 5 months. Nothing of the Mars mahadasha is left once the Mars–Moon sub-period ends.

The Moon’s 10 years make every Moon antardasha 10/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Mars’s 7 years the Mars–Moon sub-period is the sixth-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mars–Moon

A pratyantardasha of Mars–Moon is 7 × 10 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from the Moon. Venus’s is the longest inside Mars–Moon at 35 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 11 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mars and the Moon Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, Mars counts the Moon a friend while the Moon counts Mars neutral. The table is not symmetric, so the Mars–Moon relationship has to be quoted in both directions, as it is here, rather than as one word.

Counted between the signs they own, Cancer is the 4th from Mars’s Aries and Cancer is the 9th from Mars’s Scorpio. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Mars rules and the houses the Moon rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Mars–Moon sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

Mars is debilitated in Cancer, a sign the Moon owns. The Moon is debilitated in Scorpio, a sign Mars owns. In the Mars–Moon sub-period, then, dignities of the two lords are placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Moon–Mars

7 × 10 equals 10 × 7, so the Mars antardasha of the Moon mahadasha is exactly as long as Mars–Moon: 7 months. Nothing else about Moon–Mars matches. It is the second sub-period of the Moon’s 10 years rather than the ninth of Mars’s 7; it opens after 10 months of the Moon mahadasha, against 6 years 5 months here; and its pratyantars start from Mars instead of the Moon.

What the Texts Assign to Mars and the Moon

The karaka list the tables give Mars, the mahadasha lord, is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces; for the Moon, the lord of the Mars–Moon sub-period, it is mother, the mind (manas), water, milk, the public, comfort and the home. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where the Moon stands counted from Mars there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mars–Moon is a length and a position, and the 7 months above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Mrigashira, Chitra or Dhanishta opens life inside the Mars mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Mars–Moon sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Rohini, Hasta or Shravana, the Moon mahadasha comes first, and the Mars mahadasha is the next one.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Mars Mahadasha

The full table for the Mars mahadasha, with where each sub-period opens and closes, is on the Mars mahadasha page. How the Mars mahadasha is read as a whole is in our Mars mahadasha article, and the system itself in Vimshottari dasha explained. This page in Hindi: मंगल महादशा में चन्द्र अंतर्दशा.