Vimshottari Dashas

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Vimshottari Dashas." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/vimshottari-dashas.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Vimshottari Dashas. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/vimshottari-dashas

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-vimshottari-dashas,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Vimshottari Dashas},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/categories/vimshottari-dashas},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Vimshottari dasha is the main planetary period system of Vedic astrology, dividing a 120-year cycle among the nine grahas in a fixed order and set of lengths: Ketu seven years, Venus twenty, the Sun six, and so on. The starting point is taken from the Moon's nakshatra at birth. Each major period is subdivided into antardashas of the same nine planets, giving a timing framework read alongside the natal chart.

Facts

Overview

What Defines This Grouping

One planetary-period system among several in Jyotisa: a notional 120-year cycle divided among the nine grahas in fixed order and length, entered at the point given by the Moon's naksatra at birth. 1

Size of the Traditional Set

9 mahadasa periods spanning a 120-year cycle 2

Origins

Whose Classification This Is

Vimsottari is the dasa system the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra treats as principal; the same literature describes many others, among them Astottari, Kalacakra and Yogini. 2

Learn More

The Main Planetary-Period System

The Vimshottari dasha is the principal planetary-period system of Vedic astrology, dividing a notional 120-year cycle among the nine grahas in a fixed order and set of lengths: Ketu seven years, Venus twenty, the Sun six, the Moon ten, and so on. The system times when the promise of a chart is delivered: each planet rules a period, or dasha, during which its results tend to unfold.

The starting point is taken from the Moon's nakshatra at birth, which fixes both the ruling planet of the first period and how much of it remains, so that no two charts run the cycle from the same point.

Timing a life

Where the birth chart shows what is promised, the dasha shows when, and the major periods are subdivided into sub-periods (antardashas) ruled by each planet in turn, allowing events to be timed quite finely. It is the dasha, more than transits, that carries the burden of prediction in classical Vedic astrology.

The atlas describes the system, its order and periods, and how it is calculated from the birth Moon. It rests on the nakshatras and the grahas, each treated in its own category, within the Vedic Astrology section.

Cross-Tradition Connections