Mars Mahadasha, Saturn Antardasha (Mangal–Shani)

The Saturn antardasha is the fourth of the nine sub-periods inside the Mars mahadasha. 7 × 19 ÷ 120 makes the Mars–Saturn sub-period 1 year 1 month 9 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 405 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Saturn’s turn in the Mars mahadasha comes only after Mars, Rahu and Jupiter have run, which takes 2 years 4 months 21 days. When the Mars–Saturn sub-period gives way to Mars–Mercury, 3 years 6 months of the Mars mahadasha remains.

Saturn’s 19 years make every Saturn antardasha 19/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Mars’s 7 years the Mars–Saturn sub-period is the second-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mars–Saturn

A pratyantardasha of Mars–Saturn is 7 × 19 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Saturn. Venus’s is the longest inside Mars–Saturn at 67 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 20 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mars and Saturn Stand to Each Other

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

Counted between the signs they own, Capricorn is the 10th from Mars’s Aries, Aquarius is the 11th from Mars’s Aries, Capricorn is the 3rd from Mars’s Scorpio and Aquarius is the 4th from Mars’s Scorpio. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Mars rules and the houses Saturn rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Mars–Saturn sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

Mars is exalted in Capricorn, a sign Saturn owns. Saturn is debilitated in Aries, a sign Mars owns. In the Mars–Saturn sub-period, then, dignities of the two lords are placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Saturn–Mars

7 × 19 equals 19 × 7, so the Mars antardasha of the Saturn mahadasha is exactly as long as Mars–Saturn: 1 year 1 month 9 days. Nothing else about Saturn–Mars matches. It is the seventh sub-period of Saturn’s 19 years rather than the fourth of Mars’s 7; it opens after 12 years 6 months 3 days of the Saturn mahadasha, against 2 years 4 months 21 days here; and its pratyantars start from Mars instead of Saturn.

What the Texts Assign to Mars and Saturn

The karaka list the tables give Mars, the mahadasha lord, is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces; for Saturn, the lord of the Mars–Saturn sub-period, it is karma, labour, servants, iron, coal and delay itself. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Saturn stands counted from Mars there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mars–Saturn is a length and a position, and the 1 year 1 month 9 days 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–Saturn sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada, the Saturn mahadasha comes first, and the Mars mahadasha is the seventh in that sequence.

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 शनि अंतर्दशा.