Antardasha / Bhukti

Every Mahadasha is divided into nine Antardashas. The first planet named identifies the Mahadasha lord and the second the Antardasha lord, so Saturn / Venus means Saturn Mahadasha with Venus Antardasha.

Bhukti is commonly used as another name for Antardasha, particularly in South Indian usage. It is not an additional level between Mahadasha and Antardasha — if software displays “Jupiter Mahadasha — Venus Bhukti”, it means Jupiter Mahadasha with Venus Antardasha.

The duration is proportional to the Antardasha planet's Vimshottari allocation. Conceptually, the Antardasha duration equals the Mahadasha duration multiplied by the Antardasha lord's years and divided by 120.

Venus holds 20 years of the 120-year cycle, so within a 19-year Saturn Mahadasha, Saturn / Venus works out at 19 × 20 ÷ 120, or approximately 3.17 years under the proportional model.

Exact calendar dates should be produced with a consistent Jyotisha convention, because calendar handling and implementation conventions can affect the dates displayed by different software.

Within each period the sub-period normally starts with the same planet as the parent period and then continues through the fixed cyclic order — Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury — wrapping around after Mercury.

So a Jupiter Mahadasha begins Jupiter/Jupiter, then Jupiter/Saturn, Jupiter/Mercury, Jupiter/Ketu, Jupiter/Venus, Jupiter/Sun, Jupiter/Moon, Jupiter/Mars and Jupiter/Rahu.

Suppose a person is running Jupiter Mahadasha with Saturn Antardasha. It would be inadequate to conclude that Jupiter is good and Saturn is bad.

Traditional analysis asks the same questions of each planet — which houses it rules, where it is placed, its dignity, its Nakshatra, which planets aspect or join it, and how it appears in the relevant Vargas — and then considers the relationship between the two lords and whether independent chart factors support the same reading.