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Vimshottari dasha

How is the first dasha and its balance found?

The Moon’s nakshatra picks the first Vimshottari period, and how far the Moon has crossed it sets the balance. See the arithmetic for one chart.

01 · The balance at birth

The part of its nakshatra the Moon has left decides how much of the first period is left.

Each nakshatra has a ruling planet and each planet a period length. At birth the Moon has already crossed part of its nakshatra; the same fraction of the first period is counted as already used.

From the Moon’s place in its nakshatra to the dasha balanceTwo bars of equal length. The upper is the nakshatra Pushya; the Moon at birth, 10°02′ Cancer, has crossed 50.3 percent of it. The lower is Saturn’s 19-year period, split in the same proportion: 9.56 years are counted as elapsed before birth and 9.44 years remain as the balance.THE MOON’S NAKSHATRA AND THE FIRST DASHA, SCALED TOGETHERPushya, 3°19′ Cancer to 16°39′ Cancercrossedstill to crossSaturn’s 19-year period9.56 years before birthbalance 9.44 yearsMoon 10°02′ Cancer
The Moon’s position and the dasha balance from the site’s birth chart engine, for the fictional Delhi chart.

02 · The fixed order

After the balance, the nine periods follow in one order for 120 years.

The order and lengths are the same for everyone: Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17 years. Only the starting point and its balance come from the birth.

The nine Vimshottari periods from the birth lordOne row of the nine major periods in their fixed order, starting with Saturn and drawn from where that period would have begun. Birth falls part way through the first. Saturn to 2036; Mercury to 2053; Ketu to 2060; Venus to 2080; Sun to 2086; Moon to 2096; Mars to 2103; Rahu to 2121; Jupiter to 2137.THE NINE MAJOR PERIODS, 120 YEARSVimshottari major periodsSatuMercVenuSunMoonRahuJupiBirth2040207021002130
Dasha dates from the site’s birth chart engine.

Nakshatra lords and period lengths

The Vimshottari dasha assigns each of the 27 nakshatras a ruling planet, in a cycle of nine that repeats three times round the zodiac: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Each of the nine also has a period length in years: 7, 20, 6, 10, 7, 18, 16, 19 and 17, which add up to 120.

At birth, the Moon’s nakshatra picks the first period. A Moon in Ashwini, Magha or Mula starts in Ketu’s period, one in Pushya, Anuradha or Uttara Bhadrapada in Saturn’s, and so on.

The balance

The Moon is rarely at the start of its nakshatra. The rule treats the part of the nakshatra already crossed as the part of the first period already used, so only the remainder is lived after birth. That remainder is the balance.

In the fictional chart for 17:05 IST on 1 November 2026 in Delhi, the Moon is at 10°02′ Cancer, in Pushya, which runs from 3°20′ to 16°40′ Cancer. The Moon has crossed 50.3 percent of it. Pushya’s lord is Saturn, whose period is 19 years, so:

  • elapsed before birth: 50.3 percent of 19 years, 9.56 years;
  • balance at birth: the other 49.7 percent, 9.44 years.

Saturn’s period therefore ends on 10 April 2036, and Mercury’s 17 years follow. The site counts a dasha year as 365.25 days.

Sensitive to the Moon

Because the balance is a fraction of up to 20 years spread over 13°20′, each arcminute of the Moon is worth about nine days for a Venus start, and the Moon moves about half an arcminute a minute. A few minutes’ error in the birth time moves every dasha date by days or weeks, as can five minutes change a birth chart? notes. Near a nakshatra boundary it can change the starting lord altogether.

Each major period is divided again into nine sub-periods in the same order, beginning with its own lord, and those into further levels. The Vimshottari guide shows how the Kundli page lists them, and dasha and transit shows a dasha beside the moving sky.

Further reading

See the dasha for any chart on the Kundli page, or explore another topic in Learn.