In this guide
Quick answer
Understand the Vimshottari dasha system: how your birth nakshatra sets your first Mahadasha, the 120-year sequence, what each planet's period brings, and how to read your dasha timeline.
Vimshottari Dasha
Western astrology times events mostly with transits. Vedic astrology adds a second clock, the dasha system, which divides life into long planetary periods. The most widely used is Vimshottari dasha, a 120-year cycle.
The sequence
| Planet | Mahadasha length |
|---|---|
| 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 |
The order never changes. Only your starting point differs.
How your starting point is found
- Find the nakshatra the Moon was in at birth. Each of the 27 nakshatras is 13°20′ wide and ruled by one of the nine planets above.
- That planet's Mahadasha is running when you are born.
- Work out how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra. If it was 40% of the way through, 60% of that dasha remains.
Example: the Moon at 5° Leo is in Magha, ruled by Ketu, and 37.5% through it. About 62.5% of Ketu's 7 years, roughly 4 years 4 months, remains at birth. Venus's 20-year period follows.
What each period tends to bring
- Sun: authority, recognition, relationship with father and government
- Moon: emotions, home, mother, public life
- Mars: energy, courage, property, competition
- Mercury: learning, communication, business, travel
- Jupiter: growth, wisdom, children, good fortune
- Venus: love, marriage, comfort, arts, vehicles
- Saturn: discipline, hard work, delays that build lasting results
- Rahu: ambition, foreign links, sudden change
- Ketu: detachment, spirituality, endings that clear the way
The results always depend on how the planet is placed in your chart: its house, sign and strength.
See your dasha dates
Your free Kundli includes a Vimshottari timeline with exact start and end dates for every Mahadasha, and highlights the one you're in now. New to charts? Read how to read your Kundli and the guide to the 27 nakshatras.