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The Vimshottari Dasha System, Explained

Vedic astrology's signature timing method: the Vimshottari dasha divides a life into nine planetary chapters — a 120-year clock, begun from the Moon's nakshatra at birth, that says which planet is ruling the moment. Each mahadasha is a season with its own themes; nested inside are the finer antardasha and pratyantardasha sub-periods.

The nine mahadashas

Each planet rules for a fixed number of years, always in the same order, together spanning the full 120-year cycle:

• Ketu Mahadasha7 years
• Venus Mahadasha (Shukra)20 years
• Sun Mahadasha (Surya)6 years
• Moon Mahadasha (Chandra)10 years
• Mars Mahadasha (Mangala)7 years
• Rahu Mahadasha18 years
• Jupiter Mahadasha (Guru)16 years
• Saturn Mahadasha (Shani)19 years
• Mercury Mahadasha (Budha)17 years

How the dasha is calculated

The sequence begins from the lord of your Janma nakshatra — the star your Moon occupies at birth — and the first period's length is set by how far the Moon had already travelled through that star. From there the nine planets rule in the fixed order above. The running mahadasha, and the antardasha within it, are what colour the themes of any given year.