What is Vimshottari dasha?
Vimshottari dasha is the timing system at the centre of Vedic astrology. A birth chart shows what a life contains; the dasha sequence proposes when each part of it comes forward. Life is divided into nine planetary periods totalling 120 years, each ruled by one planet and running always in the same order.
The nine mahadashas
- Ketu — 7 years
- Venus — 20 years
- Sun — 6 years
- Moon — 10 years
- Mars — 7 years
- Rahu — 18 years
- Jupiter — 16 years
- Saturn — 19 years
- Mercury — 17 years
They total 120 years, which is why no one lives through the whole cycle. Where you enter it is what makes your sequence yours.
How the starting dasha is decided
By the nakshatra your Moon occupied at birth. Each of the 27 nakshatras has a ruling planet, and that planet's period is the one already running when you were born. How far the Moon had travelled into that nakshatra decides how much of the first period was left — which is why two people born on the same day, hours apart, can enter the cycle at different points.
Mahadasha, antardasha and beyond
The mahadasha is the major period, 6 to 20 years long. Each subdivides into nine antardashas in the same planetary order, proportional to their years, and those subdivide again into pratyantardashas. The major period sets the theme; the sub-period is where timing gets specific.
Reading a period well means reading the planet in your own chart — its house, its sign, its strength — not the planet in the abstract. A Saturn period is not one thing; it is what Saturn happens to be doing in your chart.
How this calculator works
The Moon's sidereal longitude is computed with the Swiss Ephemeris and the Lahiri ayanamsha, the nakshatra and the portion already elapsed are derived from it, and the sequence is projected forward from your exact birth moment. Dates are shown in your own timezone.