The Vimshottari dasha is the timing system that makes Vedic astrology unusually good at answering "when?". It divides life into periods ruled by each of the nine grahas. During a planet's period, the matters it signifies and the houses it rules in your chart come to the fore.
The nine periods
Vimshottari ("of 120") assumes a full life of 120 years, divided as follows, always in this order:
| Dasha | Years |
|---|---|
| Ketu | 7 |
| Venus | 20 |
| Sun | 6 |
| Moon | 10 |
| Mars | 7 |
| Rahu | 18 |
| Jupiter | 16 |
| Saturn | 19 |
| Mercury | 17 |
After Mercury the cycle returns to Ketu. No one lives through all nine; most people experience five or six mahadashas.
Where your sequence starts
Your first dasha is the period of the lord of your birth nakshatra, the nakshatra of the Moon at birth. How much of that first period remains depends on how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra: if the Moon was halfway through Rohini (ruled by the Moon), half of the 10-year Moon dasha remained at birth. This balance is why an accurate birth time matters for dasha dates.
Periods within periods
Each mahadasha (major period) is divided into nine antardashas (sub-periods), in the same order, starting with the mahadasha lord itself. Each antardasha is divided again into pratyantardashas, and further down to sookshma and prana. The length of a sub-period is proportional:
sub-period (years) = mahadasha years × sub-period planet's years ÷ 120
For example, Jupiter's antardasha in Saturn's mahadasha lasts 19 × 16 ÷ 120 = 2.53 years, about 2 years 6 months.
How a dasha gives results
A planet's period gives results according to:
- the houses it rules and occupies in your chart;
- its strength (dignity, Navamsa, aspects);
- the nakshatra lord it sits in;
- its relationship to the mahadasha lord, when reading sub-periods;
- the transits running at the time.
So a "Saturn dasha" can be the making of one person and a hard lesson for another. What matters is what Saturn means in your chart.
Beyond Vimshottari
Parashara describes many dasha systems (Yogini, Ashtottari, Chara and others), but Vimshottari is the one used almost universally, and the backbone of most predictions.
See your current mahadasha and antardasha, with dates, in your free birth chart; the full reading shows the timeline down to prana dasha.