Know Your Dasha

In Astrology it is understood that at any point of time nature

is governed by a planet and the position of that planet in the
horoscope determines how the native will feel or behave.
This chapter details the calculation of the planet acting at any
point of time and the period for which the planet rules.

o predict the past present and

future, saints evolved the system of
"Dasha" or period. Any planet influences someone more than others at some
point of time, than the other planet takes over
and so on.

Many Dasha systems have been described

as many as 42. But the most common and popular Dasha system is "Vimshottari". As
the name suggests, the complete cycle of
Dasha is of 120 years. All the nine planets
take part in this system. The periods and the
constellation assigned to them is as follows:
Table -1
Planet Constellation
Sun
Krittika, U. Phalguni, Uttar Ashada
Moon Rohini, Hasta, Shravana
Mars
Mrigshira, Chitra, Dhanistha
Rahu
Ardra, Swati, Satbhisha
Jupiter Punarvasu, Vishakha, P. Bhadrapada
Saturn Pushya, Anuradha, U. Bhadrapada
Mercury Ashlesha, Jyestha, Revati
Ketu
Magha, Mool, Ashwini
Venus P. Phalugni, Purva Ashada, Bharani

Year
6
10
7
18
16
19
17
7
20

At the time of birth of the native, the constellation occupied by the Moon determines
which planet will rule at that time. The fraction
of the constellation balance at that time determines the "balance of Dasha", that is the
time period for which the planet will rule after
birth. After the end of the ruling period of that
planet, other planets rule one by one in the
cyclic order as listed in table 1.
Let us understand it by an example. In the
model horoscope in the previous issue, we
have date of birth 15-1-1970, time 4.30 A.M.
and place of birth Delhi. On this date and time
Moon's degree is Aries 90 361 , that is, it is in
Ashwini Nakshatra. Ashwini starts at 00 Aries and extends upto 130201 Of Aries. This
way Moon has crossed 90 361 of Aries and
has 130 201 - 90 361 = 30 441 still to go. From
table-I we find Ashwini is represented by Ketu
having a period of 7 years. Hence the native
was born when ketu was ruling and it had a
balance of
23

30 441 x 7 years
130 201

= 1.96 years
= 1 year 16 months
16 days

Adding this period to date of birth, we get

15 - 1

1970

16 - 11 -

1 - 1

Thus we compute the Dasha periods for nature as follows :

Balance of Dasha : 1 year 11 months 16 days,
of Ketu.
15 16 -

1 - 1970
11 1

- 1972
20

- 1992
6

Venus
Sun
1

- 1998
10

- 2008
7

Moon

24

- 2015
18

- 2033
16

- 2049
19

- 2068
17
- 2085

Rahu
Jupiter

1972

Note that the period of 1 year 11 months 16

days is called the balance of 7 years of Ketu
20 years of Venus etc. are called Dasha periods.

Mars

Saturn

ie. the native experienced influence of Ketu

for 1 year 16 months 16 days from birth till
1 Jan. 1972. Thereafter, according to table
1, was under the influence of Venus for 20
years upto 1-1-1992; followed by Sun for 6
years upto 1-1-1998, then by Moon for 10
years 1-1-2008 and so on.

D.O.B.
Balance of Ketu

Memory

No one will be satisfied if we tell him how he

will go through his next 10 or 20 years in nut
shell. He would want to know the effects of
events in detail. So the above Dashas are
further subdivided into sub periods or Antar
Dashas. During the planet's Dasha, Antar
Dasha starts from planet itself, followed by
the same sequence as given in table I. The
period is also subdivided into the same fractions as assigned in table No. 1. In brief Sun
rules for 6 years. Sun will have its own sub
period first for 6x6/120 = 36/120 years
36 x 12 months
120
= 3 months 18 days
=

After this will come Moon's sub period. Moon

represents 10 years out of total span of 120
years of Vimshottari dasa. So it will rule for
1/12th part of the total period of 6 years of
Sun .
Thus Moon will have sub period of
6 x 10/120 = = 6 months
In a similar manner we can compute sub periods of all the planets while major influence
of other planet is there.

Table 2 : Vimshottari Sub Periods

Sub Periods of Sun Dasha
Planet

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Year
Month
Day

0
3
18

0
6
0

0
4
6

0
10
24

0
9
18

0
11
12

0
10
6

0
4
6

1
0
0

Sub Periods of Moon Dasha

Planet

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Year
Month
Day

0
10
0

0
7
0

1
6
0

1
4
0

1
7
0

1
5
0

0
7
0

1
8
0

0
6
0

Sub Periods of Mars Dasha

Planet

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Year
Month
Day

0
4
27

1
0
18

0
11
6

1
1
9

0
11
27

0
4
27

1
2
0

0
4
6

0
7
0

Sub Periods of Rahu Dasha

Planet

Rahu

Jupiter

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Year
Month
Day

2
8
12

2
4
24

2
10
6

2
6
18

1
0
18

3
0
0

0
10
24

1
6
0

1
0
18

Sub Periods of Jupiter Dasha

Planet

Jupiter Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Year
Month
Day

2
1
18

2
3
6

0
11
6

2
8
0

0
9
18

1
4
0

0
11

2
4
24

2
6
12

Sub Periods of Saturn Dasha

Planet

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter

Year
Month
Day

3
0
3

2
8
9

1
1
9

3
2
0

0
11
12

1
7
0

1
1
9

2
10
6

2
6
12

Sub Periods of Mercury Dasha

Planet

Mer

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter Saturn

Year
Month
Day

2
4
27

0
11
27

2
10
0

0
10
6

1
5
0

0
11
27

2
6
18

2
3
6

2
8
9

25

Sub Periods of Ketu Dasha

Planet

Ketu

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter Saturn

Mer

Year

Month

11

11

Day

27

27

18

27

Sub Periods of Venus Dasha

Planet

Ven

Sun

Moon

Mars

Rahu

Jupiter

Saturn

Mer

Ketu

Year

Month

10

Day

To compute the table 2, the basic formula is :

Sub period of a planet = (period of major
planet x period of
sub planet/120
years.)
Since 1 year contains 12 months, the above
formula reduces to
Sub period

= (period of major
planet x period of
sub planet/10) in
months.

We multiply the two periods and put a decimal after one digit from the right. The whole
number so obtained gives in the months for
the Antar Dasha and the traditional part multiplied by 3 gives the number of days for of
the sub period.
Sun's sub period in Maha Dasha of Sun will
be 6 x 6 = 36
putting decimal It is 3.6 months.
By multiplying decimal part by 3 we get
3.6 x 3 = 3 months 18 days
Sub-Sub Periods : For further refining the
results, we can divide the sub periods into
sub-sub periods (Pratyantar Dasha) and sub26

sub-sub periods (Sookshma Dasha) or even

further adopting the same procedure as for
sub period. The formula for sub-sub period
will be :
Sub-sub period
(Pratyantar Dasha)

= (Period of major
planet x period of
sub planet x period
of sub-sub planet) /
(120x120) years
= (Period of major
planet x period of
sub planet x period
of sub-sub planet) /
1200 months
Sub-sub-sub period = (Period of major
(Sookshma Dasha)
planet x period of
sub planet x period
of sub-sub planet x
period of sub-subsub
planet)/
(120x120x120)
years.
= (Period of major
planet x period of
sub planet x period
of sub-sub planet x
period of sub-subsub
planet)/

(1200x120)
months.
= (Period of major
planet x period of
sub planet x period
of sub-sub planet x
period of sub-subsub planet)/ 40 days
The smallest sub-sub-sub period is of SunSun-Sun -Sun, which is
1296
= 6x6x6x6
=
3.24 days
400
400
If we go one step deep we get Prana Dasha of
= 3.24 x 6 days
120
= .162 days
= 4 hours. only

Sun-Sun-Sun-Sun-Sun

Note : While computing Dasha dates

we add days to days, months to months
and years to years. If days are more
than 30, we take a carry over of 1 to
months and similarly if months are more
than 12 we take a carry over of 1 to year.
Here we do not take into account the
actual number. of days in a month.
It seems that we are taking a year as
360 days only - 12 months x 30 days
per month. However, this is a wrong
understanding. Actually, we are dividing
the year into months by multiplying by
12 and further converting into days by
multiplying of 30. We add up in the
same manner. So it is not correct to add
by taking actual days of months into
consideration. This simplicity of
calculation takes the year as 365.25
days. The actual dates computed by
rigorous calculations by taking actual
days of the months and by this simple
method differ only by a few days;
accurate practically for all astrological
purposes.

Though mathematically it seems to be viable

to go even further down the step, however
these, calculation is highly susceptible to errors because of inherent errors in time of birth
and we do not suggest at all to go beyond 5
levels. Even 5th level is normally inaccurate
enough to make it absurd. 1 minute of time
causes 30" = 1/2 of error in Moon. This shifts
the Dasha of Sun by
6 years x 365 days x 24 hours
130 201 x 60
= 33 hours

1
2

Whereas the entire Pran Dasha of Sun is only

x 4 hours, the difference of 33 hours further
gets amplified to 110 hours, that is 5 days if
the Moon is in the constellation of Venus at
the time of birth.

For a thought : There are many

inherent problems with Dasha
calculation. Dasha changes very fast
with the absolute value of Moon's
position. It does not depend upon any
other value and doubt in the value of
Ayanamsa makes it almost useless.
Secondly, there are so many Dasha
systems and it is not known which
Dasha should be applied when.
Thirdly, the periods assigned to
different planets seem to be quite
adhoc and no reasoning is available
anywhere. This makes the Dasha
system very doubtful and the transit
of planets seems to give a much
better method of timing an event. Yet,
it is difficult to deny the system of
Dasha. Often it seems to be giving
results with undoubted accuracy.
27

The Art of Prediction

By now we have learnt how to cast horoscope. Even the best
casting is useless if we can not use it for prediction. In this
lesson we describe how to start predicting a horoscope.

here are three basic

parameters in a
horoscope : 1. planet
2. house and 3. Rashi (sign).
Twelve Rashis are spread
over twelve houses; on an average one Rashi occupies
one house. However, Rashi
is exactly 300, whereas a
house may vary in size and
the starting of house may fall
at any Rashi at any point. It is
equivalent to placing one circle over the other, both having same dimensions, but
any one point on circumference of one circle can be
made to align with any point
on circumference of the other
circle. The rest of the circle
gets automatically placed.
Similarly in a horoscope we
determine the Lagna (first
house position) and place
the Rashi circle over the rest
of the twelve houses.

After fixing the signs over

houses we place the planets
in the various houses. Since
28

there are only nine planets

and some planets combine
together in a house, some
houses are left empty. The
planets possess some intrinsic properties and when
mixed with the colour of sign
and house they occupy, they
change their colour, leading
to different behaviour, at different time of births. Study of
this change in behaviour of
the planets is basic astrology.
There are three basic reasons why planets behave differently, like
1. the house in which it is
placed.
2

sign in which it is placed

3. other planets associated

with aspecting it.
Once the planet's behaviour
is ascertained because of its
placement, the results are
changed with time, depending upon Dasha operating at
that time. Dasha tells us

which planet is effective to

give results at what time.
To understand what the horoscope has in store for a native, let us study how the planets have co-relation with life.
We give below the basic nature of planets and houses
and also what they signify.

Signification of Planets
Sun : Sun is the king, soul,
father, will power, life, glory,
health, sovereignty and
clothes. Its colour is pink or
red. It has anger but momentary. Its element is gold and
gem ruby. East is represented by Sun.
Moon : It is a cold, calm and
quiet planet and represents
mind, mother, motherland,
money, eyes, lungs, liquids
and nurses. Its colour is white,
direction north-east, element
is silver and gem pearl.
Mars : Mars is a soldier and
represents land, boldness,