Vimshottari dasha: the order, the years of each planet and how your start is decided

The Vimshottari dasha is the most widely used timing system in Indian astrology. It divides a life of 120 years into periods ruled by the nine planets. Which period you are in tells you which themes are in focus.

The order and the years

• 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.

These add up to 120 years. The order is always the same and repeats in a circle.

How your start is decided

The 27 nakshatras are given to the nine planets in the same order, three times round. Ashwini belongs to Ketu, Bharani to Venus, Krittika to the Sun and so on. The lord of your birth nakshatra is the planet of your first dasha. The part of that period that was already over at birth depends on how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra.

Main periods and sub periods

Each main period, called mahadasha, is divided into nine sub periods, called antardasha, in the same order, and each of those into smaller ones. The mahadasha sets the main theme. The antardasha gives the colour and timing of events inside it.

How to read the current period

• Look at where the dasha lord sits in your chart and which houses it rules.
• Check its sign strength and the planets that look at it.
• The results come in the areas that the planet governs and the houses it rules.

Your running dasha and the next one coming are the two most useful things to know. Plan around them.