Draft. This lesson is being reviewed and may change before publication.
Lesson 16 of 20 · Timing and matching
Vimshottari dasha: the planetary periods
How the 120-year cycle of mahadashas starts from the birth nakshatra, how antardashas subdivide it, and how to read a period from its lord. Lesson 16.
Written by Khushal ThakkarReviewed by Review pendingUpdated October 29, 2026
Vimshottari is the timing system that gives Jyotish its sense of chapters: each of the nine grahas rules a mahadasha of fixed length in a fixed order, the cycle starts from the lord of the birth nakshatra, and every mahadasha is subdivided into nine antardashas in the same order and proportions. Reading a period means reading its lord's placement in the chart.
The order and lengths
| Lord | Years | Lord | Years | Lord | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ketu | 7 | Mars | 7 | Saturn | 19 |
| Venus | 20 | Rahu | 18 | Mercury | 17 |
| Sun | 6 | Jupiter | 16 | ||
| Moon | 10 |
The order (Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury) is the order of the nakshatra lords from Ashwini, repeating three times round the zodiac.
Starting the cycle
- Find the Moon's nakshatra at birth and its lord. That lord's mahadasha is running at birth.
- Find how far through the nakshatra the Moon had travelled. The remaining fraction, times the lord's years, is the balance of that period left at birth.
- The next lord in the order begins when the balance ends, for its full length, and so on round the cycle.
The year used is 365.25 days on this site; some schools use 360, which drifts by about a year over a lifetime.
Antardashas
Each mahadasha is divided into nine antardashas, starting with the mahadasha lord's own, each lasting (mahadasha years × antardasha lord's years) ÷ 120. In a Venus mahadasha of 20 years the Venus antardasha lasts 20 × 20 ÷ 120 = 3⅓ years, the Sun's 20 × 6 ÷ 120 = 1 year, and so on.
Reading a period
Read the mahadasha lord first: its natural significations (lesson 4), the house it rules and the house it sits in, its dignity. The period is read as those things coming forward. The antardasha lord adds the current colour in the same way. The classical refinement is to read the antardasha lord's relationship to the mahadasha lord: friends ease, enemies strain.
Worked example
Born 14 August 1990, 12:00, Mumbai: Moon in Krittika, lord the Sun, two thirds through, so the Sun's six-year period had two years left. Sun until August 1992, Moon to 2002, Mars to 2009, Rahu to 2027, then Jupiter to 2043. In October 2026 the chart is in Rahu mahadasha (Rahu in the 4th in Makara: restlessness about home, foreign or unconventional paths) and Mars antardasha (Mars in the 7th in its own sign: force in partnership), the last sub-period before Jupiter's long, expansive mahadasha begins in August 2027.
Calculate yours
Try the calculator this lesson explains.