Moon Mahadasha, Mars Antardasha (Chandra–Mangal)

The Mars antardasha is the second of the nine sub-periods inside the Moon mahadasha. 10 × 7 ÷ 120 makes the Moon–Mars 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.

Mars’s turn in the Moon mahadasha comes only after the Moon has run, which takes 10 months. When the Moon–Mars sub-period gives way to Moon–Rahu, 8 years 7 months of the Moon mahadasha remains.

Mars’s 7 years make every Mars antardasha 7/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside the Moon’s 10 years the Moon–Mars sub-period is the seventh-longest of the nine, level with Moon–Ketu, because Ketu and Mars each run 7 years as mahadashas.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Moon–Mars

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

How the Moon and Mars Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, the Moon counts Mars neutral while Mars counts the Moon a friend. The table is not symmetric, so the Moon–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 10th from the Moon’s Cancer and Scorpio is the 5th from the Moon’s Cancer. Whatever the ascendant, the houses the Moon rules and the houses Mars rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Moon–Mars sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

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

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mars–Moon

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

What the Texts Assign to the Moon and Mars

The karaka list the tables give the Moon, the mahadasha lord, is mother, the mind (manas), water, milk, the public, comfort and the home; for Mars, the lord of the Moon–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 the Moon there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Moon–Mars 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 Rohini, Hasta or Shravana opens life inside the Moon mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Moon–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 Moon mahadasha is the ninth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Moon Mahadasha

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