Sun Mahadasha, Saturn Antardasha (Surya–Shani)

The Saturn antardasha is the sixth of the nine sub-periods inside the Sun mahadasha. 6 × 19 ÷ 120 makes the Sun–Saturn sub-period 11 months 12 days on the classical year of twelve thirty-day months, which is how the texts state it, or 347 days on the solar year of 365.2425 days that the dasha calculator uses.

Saturn’s turn in the Sun mahadasha comes only after the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Rahu and Jupiter have run, which takes 2 years 10 months 6 days. When the Sun–Saturn sub-period gives way to Sun–Mercury, 2 years 2 months 12 days of the Sun mahadasha remains.

Saturn’s 19 years make every Saturn antardasha 19/120 of the mahadasha containing it, so inside the Sun’s 6 years the Sun–Saturn sub-period is the second-longest of the nine.

The Nine Pratyantardashas of Sun–Saturn

A pratyantardasha of Sun–Saturn is 6 × 19 × its own lord’s years ÷ 14,400, and the nine run in cycle order starting from Saturn. Venus’s is the longest inside Sun–Saturn at 57 days and the Sun’s the shortest at 17 days, on the classical year and rounded to the day.

How the Sun and Saturn Stand to Each Other

On the natural friendship table, the Sun and Saturn each count the other an enemy. The Sun–Saturnrelationship is mutual, so it reads the same from either lord.

Counted between the signs they own, Capricorn is the 6th from the Sun’s Leo and Aquarius is the 7th from the Sun’s Leo. Whatever the ascendant, the houses the Sun rules and the houses Saturn rules sit at those same distances from each other in the chart, so the Sun–Saturn sub-period always joins lordships that far apart.

The Same Pair the Other Way Round: Saturn–Sun

6 × 19 equals 19 × 6, so the Sun antardasha of the Saturn mahadasha is exactly as long as Sun–Saturn: 11 months 12 days. Nothing else about Saturn–Sun matches. It is the fifth sub-period of Saturn’s 19 years rather than the sixth of the Sun’s 6; it opens after 9 years 11 months 21 days of the Saturn mahadasha, against 2 years 10 months 6 days here; and its pratyantars start from the Sun instead of Saturn.

What the Texts Assign to the Sun and Saturn

The karaka list the tables give the Sun, the mahadasha lord, is father, government, authority, the soul (atma) and administration; for Saturn, the lord of the Sun–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 the Sun there. None of that is a forecast, and this page makes none: without a chart, Sun–Saturn is a length and a position, and the 11 months 12 days above is the whole of what can be said about it in general.

A birth with the Moon in Krittika, Uttara Phalguni or Uttara Ashadha opens life inside the Sun mahadasha itself, part-way through, and whether the Sun–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 Sun mahadasha is the fifth in that sequence.

The Other Sub-Periods of the Sun Mahadasha

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