Saturn Mahadasha, Mars Antardasha (Shani–Mangal)

The Mars antardasha is the seventh of the nine sub-periods inside the Saturn mahadasha. 19 × 7 ÷ 120 makes the Saturn–Mars 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.

Mars’s turn in the Saturn mahadasha comes only after Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus, the Sun and the Moon have run, which takes 12 years 6 months 3 days. When the Saturn–Mars sub-period gives way to Saturn–Rahu, 5 years 4 months 18 days of the Saturn mahadasha remains.

Mars’s 7 years make every Mars antardasha 7/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside Saturn’s 19 years the Saturn–Mars sub-period is the seventh-longest of the nine, level with Saturn–Ketu, because Ketu and Mars each run 7 years as mahadashas.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Saturn–Mars

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

How Saturn and Mars Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, Saturn counts Mars an enemy while Mars counts Saturn neutral. The table is not symmetric, so the Saturn–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 4th from Saturn’s Capricorn, Scorpio is the 11th from Saturn’s Capricorn, Aries is the 3rd from Saturn’s Aquarius and Scorpio is the 10th from Saturn’s Aquarius. Whatever the ascendant, the houses Saturn rules and the houses Mars rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Saturn–Mars sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

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

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Mars–Saturn

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

What the Texts Assign to Saturn and Mars

The karaka list the tables give Saturn, the mahadasha lord, is karma, labour, servants, iron, coal and delay itself; for Mars, the lord of the Saturn–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 Saturn there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Saturn–Mars 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 Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada opens life inside the Saturn mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Saturn–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 Saturn mahadasha is the fourth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Saturn Mahadasha

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