Vimshottari timeline
LiveYour Vimshottari dasha timeline.
A 120-year cycle split among nine planets. Which period you are in is fixed by where the Moon sat in its nakshatra at your birth.
Enter your birth details
Dasha is sidereal by definition, so the Lahiri ayanamsa is applied automatically.
Worked example
Which dasha was running for a birth on 15 August 1990?
Take 15 August 1990, 10:30 in the morning, in Mumbai. The Moon's nakshatra at birth fixes the first period, and every period after it follows from that.
| What | Computed |
|---|---|
| Nakshatra | Rohini · #4 of 27 |
| First mahadasha | ☽ Chandra (Moon) |
| Left of it at birth | 3.30 yrs 67.0% already spent |
| Running today | Guru (Jupiter) → Ketu → Budh (Mercury) Mahadasha → Antardasha → Pratyantardasha |
A fixed sample moment, not anyone’s real chart. The numbers come out of the same engine your own birth details would go through, so they are the same every time you look. See the whole reading for this moment →
The 120-year cycle
Vimshottari divides a life into nine planetary periods that always run in this order and always last these lengths. They add to exactly 120 years — the notional full span — which is where the system gets its name.
| Order | Mahadasha lord | Length | Share of the cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ketu | 7 years | 5.8% |
| 2 | Shukra (Venus) | 20 years | 16.7% |
| 3 | Surya (Sun) | 6 years | 5.0% |
| 4 | Chandra (Moon) | 10 years | 8.3% |
| 5 | Mangal (Mars) | 7 years | 5.8% |
| 6 | Rahu | 18 years | 15.0% |
| 7 | Guru (Jupiter) | 16 years | 13.3% |
| 8 | Shani (Saturn) | 19 years | 15.8% |
| 9 | Budh (Mercury) | 17 years | 14.2% |
Where your timeline starts
Find the Moon's nakshatra
The zodiac splits into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′. Whichever one the Moon occupied at your birth fixes which of the nine lords opens your sequence. The 27 nakshatras cycle through the nine lords three times over.
Measure how far it had gone
You are not born at the start of a period. The Moon had already crossed part of its nakshatra. That same fraction of your first mahadasha is already spent, and the rest is your balance at birth.
Divide, and divide again
Each mahadasha splits among the same nine lords in the same proportions, giving antardashas; each of those splits again into pratyantardashas. We compute all three levels.
Why an accurate birth time matters here
The Moon covers about 13° a day. So an hour's error moves how far it has gone through its nakshatra, and that shifts period boundaries by months. A timeline built on a guessed time looks precise and is not.
What a dasha is not
A period lord is not a verdict. Saturn's nineteen years are not nineteen bad ones. Jupiter's sixteen are not a guarantee of anything. The tradition reads a period against the chart it runs in. That is why two people in the same Saturn mahadasha are not told the same thing. We give you the boundaries, computed to the day. What they mean is a reading, and we do not sell readings.
If you want to read further
Books, because that is the only thing we are willing to earn from here. We do not link gemstones, yantras or pujas. Those are sold against the fear a page like this one can create, and not doing that is a promise made on the about page.
- Light on Life: An Introduction to the Astrology of IndiaHart de Fouw and Robert SvobodaThe usual first recommendation for a serious reader in English. Careful about what the tradition claims and what it does not.
- Hindu Predictive AstrologyB. V. RamanThe standard reference for gochar and the classical rules. We checked our own transit tables against its Gocharaphala chapter.
- Brihat Parashara Hora Shastratranslated by R. SanthanamThe foundational text almost everything Vedic descends from. Dense, and worth having if you want to check a rule at source.
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