Vimshottari Dashas

What a Dasha Is

The 120-year Vimshottari cycle, its fixed durations, and why your personal clock starts mid-cycle.

One clock, nine keepers

The Vimshottari dasha runs the same 9 Vimshottari lords you met in the Nakshatras track — Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury — through a fixed cycle that always sums to 120 years. Each lord gets one uninterrupted stretch, called a Mahadasha, before handing off to the next.

The durations are fixed, not equal

Each lord's Mahadasha has a fixed length, memorized once and used everywhere in the system:

Ketu 7 · Venus 20 · Sun 6 · Moon 10 · Mars 7 · Rahu 18 · Jupiter 16 · Saturn 19 · Mercury 17 — summing to 120.

These aren't equal shares: Venus gets the longest stretch (20 years), the Sun the shortest (6).

Remember it

Same order as the Nakshatras track's lord-groups: Ketu → Venus → Sun → Moon → Mars → Rahu → Jupiter → Saturn → Mercury. You already know the sequence — this track adds the years.

You're born partway through a Mahadasha

Your dasha clock doesn't start at zero — it starts already in progress. It's set by your janma nakshatra (the Moon's nakshatra at birth): the nakshatra's lord becomes your first Mahadasha, and how far the Moon had already travelled into that nakshatra fixes how much of that Mahadasha remains at birth.

Deep in a nakshatra, shallow in the dasha

If the Moon was near the very end of its nakshatra at birth, only a small remainder of that Mahadasha is left to run — your first dasha in life will be brief, and the second Mahadasha starts sooner. If the Moon was near the start of its nakshatra, nearly the full Mahadasha remains.

Promise vs. timing

Your natal chart shows promise — the tendencies you carry for life, fixed at birth. Your dasha (together with transits) shows timing — when those tendencies are likely to become active. Neither is fate sealed in stone: only windows and tendencies.

Remember it

The nakshatra names the first lord; the Moon's depth into it sets how much time is left. Same idea as reading a stopwatch that was already running when you started watching.

Terms introduced here

The 120-year cycle

The Vimshottari dasha runs the 9 Vimshottari lords through fixed periods that sum to 120 years.

Fixed per-lord durations

Each of the 9 lords governs a fixed number of years: Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17.

Why your dasha starts mid-cycle

Your dasha clock starts already in progress — set by how far the Moon had travelled into its birth nakshatra.

Promise vs. timing

The natal chart shows promise (tendencies); the dasha (with transits) shows timing — when those tendencies are likely to ripen.