Mercury Mahadasha, Mars Antardasha (Budh–Mangal)

The Mars antardasha is the sixth of the nine sub-periods inside the Mercury mahadasha. 17 × 7 ÷ 120 makes the Mercury–Mars sub-period 11 months 27 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 362 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Mars’s turn in the Mercury mahadasha comes only after Mercury, Ketu, Venus, the Sun and the Moon have run, which takes 8 years 6 months. When the Mercury–Mars sub-period gives way to Mercury–Rahu, 7 years 6 months 3 days of the Mercury mahadasha remains.

Mars’s 7 years make every Mars antardasha 7/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Mercury’s 17 years the Mercury–Mars sub-period is the seventh-longest of the nine, level with Mercury–Ketu, because Ketu and Mars each run 7 years as mahadashas.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Mercury–Mars

A pratyantardasha of Mercury–Mars is 17 × 7 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Mars. Venus’s is the longest inside Mercury–Mars at 60 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 18 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How Mercury and Mars Stand to Each Other

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

Counted between the signs they own, Aries is the 11th from Mercury’s Gemini, Scorpio is the 6th from Mercury’s Gemini, Aries is the 8th from Mercury’s Virgo and Scorpio is the 3rd from Mercury’s Virgo. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Mercury rules and the houses Mars rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Mercury–Mars sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mars–Mercury

17 × 7 equals 7 × 17, so the Mercury antardasha of the Mars mahadasha is exactly as long as Mercury–Mars: 11 months 27 days. Nothing else about Mars–Mercury matches. It is the fifth sub-period of Mars’s 7 years rather than the sixth of Mercury’s 17; it opens after 3 years 6 months of the Mars mahadasha, against 8 years 6 months here; and its pratyantars start from Mercury instead of Mars.

What the Texts Assign to Mercury and Mars

The karaka list the tables give Mercury, the mahadasha lord, is speech, writing, trade, accounts, mathematics, maternal uncles and students; for Mars, the lord of the Mercury–Mars sub-period, it is younger siblings, land and property, weapons, engineering and the armed forces. Parashari practice reads the sub-period through the houses each of the two owns and occupies in the birth chart, and through where Mars stands counted from Mercury there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Mercury–Mars is a length and a position, and the 11 months 27 days above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Ashlesha, Jyeshtha or Revati opens life inside the Mercury mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Mercury–Mars sub-period is still ahead depends on how far the Moon had gone into the nakshatra. For a birth in Mrigashira, Chitra or Dhanishta, the Mars mahadasha comes first, and the Mercury mahadasha is the fifth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Mercury Mahadasha

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