Mars Mahadasha, Sun Antardasha (Mangal–Surya)

The Sun antardasha is the eighth of the nine sub-periods inside the Mars mahadasha. 7 × 6 ÷ 120 makes the Mars–Sun sub-period 4 months 6 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 128 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

The Sun’s turn in the Mars mahadasha comes only after Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu and Venus have run, which takes 6 years 24 days. When the Mars–Sun sub-period gives way to Mars–Moon, 7 months of the Mars mahadasha remains.

The Sun’s 6 years make every Sun antardasha 6/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Mars’s 7 years the Mars–Sun sub-period is the shortest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mars–Sun

A pratyantardasha of Mars–Sun is 7 × 6 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from the Sun. Venus’s is the longest inside Mars–Sun at 21 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 6 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mars and the Sun Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, Mars and the Sun each count the other a friend. The Mars–Sunrelationship is mutual, so it reads the same from either lord.

Counted between the signs they own, Leo is the 5th from Mars’s Aries and Leo is the 10th from Mars’s Scorpio. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Mars rules and the houses the Sun rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Mars–Sun sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

The Sun is exalted in Aries, a sign Mars owns. In the Mars–Sun sub-period, then, one lord's dignity is placed on the other’s ground.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Sun–Mars

7 × 6 equals 6 × 7, so the Mars antardasha of the Sun mahadasha is exactly as long as Mars–Sun: 4 months 6 days. Nothing else about Sun–Mars matches. It is the third sub-period of the Sun’s 6 years rather than the eighth of Mars’s 7; it opens after 9 months 18 days of the Sun mahadasha, against 6 years 24 days here; and its pratyantars start from Mars instead of the Sun.

What the Texts Assign to Mars and the Sun

The karaka list the tables give Mars, the mahadasha lord, is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces; for the Sun, the lord of the Mars–Sun sub-period, it is father, government, authority, the soul (atma) and administration. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where the Sun stands counted from Mars there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mars–Sun is a length and a position, and the 4 months 6 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–Sun sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Krittika, Uttara Phalguni or Uttara Ashadha, the Sun mahadasha comes first, and the Mars mahadasha is the third 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 सूर्य अंतर्दशा.