---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: dasha
title: Daśā
iast: Daśā
devanagari: दशा
description: 'Planetary-period systems partitioning a life into graha-ruled spans, most prominently the 120-year Viṃśottarī sequence seeded by the natal Moon’s nakṣatra; NOT a doom timetable, NOT a single system, NOT an endorsed predictive method.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Bṛhat Jātaka (daśā chapters)
reception_note: 'Daśā content is a major fear-marketing surface (Śani daśā dread, remedy sales). This file documents the period architecture; it does not endorse predictive or remedial claims.'
tags:
- dasha
- vimshottari
- hora
- periods
- jyotisha
not:
- term: 'a doom timetable'
  why: 'Commercial copy sells daśās, Śani’s especially, as scheduled misfortune with purchasable remedies. Classically a daśā is a period assignment within an interpretive system, its significations conditioned by the whole chart in the school’s own rules. The dread is marketing.'
  instead: 'Render daśā as planetary period and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a single system'
  why: 'Viṃśottarī (120 years: Ketu 7, Śukra 20, Ravi 6, Candra 10, Maṅgala 7, Rāhu 18, Guru 16, Śani 19, Budha 17) is dominant but not alone: Aṣṭottarī, Yoginī, and other daśā schemes coexist with different spans and seeding rules. The plural is native to the tradition.'
- term: 'an endorsed predictive method'
  why: 'The corpus documents the architecture, the sequence, spans, and nakṣatra seeding, without adjudicating whether period-based prediction holds.'
related:
- /concepts/graha.md
- /concepts/nakshatra.md
- /concepts/jataka.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Daśā -- दशा

**Not:** a doom timetable, a single system, an endorsed predictive method

## What It Actually Means

A daśā system partitions a lifetime into successive periods ruled by grahas. The dominant scheme, Viṃśottarī, totals 120 years across nine periods, Ketu 7, Śukra 20, Ravi 6, Candra 10, Maṅgala 7, Rāhu 18, Guru 16, Śani 19, Budha 17, entered at a point determined by the natal Moon’s nakṣatra, with each mahādaśā subdividing into antardaśās by the same proportions. The classical horā literature treats several daśā schemes side by side; the elaborate Viṃśottarī orthodoxy is consolidated in the Parāśara tradition. This file documents the machinery: what seeds it, how it subdivides, and that it is one interpretive architecture among several, endorsed here for none of its predictive claims.

## Audience Metaphor

A relay schedule for a lifetime: 120 years split into nine legs of fixed lengths, the first runner chosen by the Moon’s position at birth. The schedule itself is exact and ancient. Whether the runners deliver what the commentators promise is a claim this corpus does not adjudicate.

## Citations

1. Bṛhat Jātaka daśā chapters on period systems -- see [references/brihat-jataka.md](../references/brihat-jataka.md)
2. Bṛhat Saṃhitā on the graha apparatus the periods draw on -- see [references/brihat-samhita.md](../references/brihat-samhita.md)
