Daśā Systems

Three daśā systems in one dialog — Vimshottari down to the day and hour with Sūkṣma and Prāṇa, the 36-year Yogini cycle, and Jaimini's sign-based Chara daśā — plus a dashboard strip that always shows the period running now.

Daśās answer the question every client asks: when? They divide life into periods ruled by planets (or, in Chara daśā, by signs), each colouring its years with that ruler's themes. AstroWatch shows them in a full dialog and in a compact strip on the Vedic dashboard.

Opening the dialog

Choose Vedic → Vimshottari Daśā, or click the "Open in new window" icon on the dashboard's Daśā strip. The dialog always uses the open profile's birth chart; on a tropical chart the Moon is first converted to sidereal with your ayanamsa. The system list at the top right chooses between Vimshottari (where it always opens), Yogini and Chara (Jaimini).

The Daśā dialog in Vimshottari mode with the system list at the top right, the running Mahādaśā expanded through antardaśā and pratyantardaśā down to sūkṣma and prāṇa rows, each current period marked now, and the footer showing the balance at birth and the running periods.

Vimshottari opened down to Prāṇa, with the balance at birth in the footer.

Vimshottari daśā

Vimshottari is the 120-year cycle of the nine nakshatra lords, always in this order:

Lord	Ketu	Venus	Sun	Moon	Mars	Rahu	Jupiter	Saturn	Mercury
Years	7	20	6	10	7	18	16	19	17

It starts with the lord of the Moon's birth nakshatra — but only with the part of that lord's period still to run, according to how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra at birth. Every later Mahādaśā runs its full span.

Five levels

Each period divides into nine sub-periods in the same proportions, starting from its own lord — a sub-period lasts parent years × sub-lord years ÷ 120. AstroWatch goes five levels deep:

Mahādaśā — years (shown as MMM yyyy – MMM yyyy)
Antardaśā — months to years
Pratyantardaśā — weeks to months
Sūkṣma — days
Prāṇa — hours to days (shown with the time, in your local time zone)

The running period at every level opens automatically and is tagged • now; click any other row to expand it. Period names are coloured with their planet's Vedic colour.

Balance at birth — e.g. Balance at birth: Moon 4y 7m 12d: how much of the first Mahādaśā was still to run when you were born.
Running now — e.g. Running now: Saturn Mahādaśā · Mercury antar · Venus prati.

Yogini daśā

Yogini is a shorter, 36-year cycle of eight yoginis, each linked to a planet. It's popular in North India as a second opinion alongside Vimshottari.

Yogini	Planet	Years	Yogini	Planet	Years
Mangala	Moon	1	Bhadrika	Mercury	5
Pingala	Sun	2	Ulka	Saturn	6
Dhanya	Jupiter	3	Siddha	Venus	7
Bhramari	Mars	4	Sankata	Rahu	8

The starting yogini comes from the birth nakshatra (nakshatra number + 3, counted in eights — Ashwini starts Bhramari), with a balance at birth just like Vimshottari. Periods show as Bhramari (Mars) and go three levels deep: Mahādaśā, antardaśā and pratyantardaśā. The cycle repeats to cover 120 years.

The Daśā dialog with Yogini selected: title Yogini Daśā, subtitle From Moon in … · 36-year cycle of eight yoginis, and periods such as Bhramari (Mars) and Bhadrika (Mercury).

Yogini daśā — a 36-year cycle of eight yoginis.

Chara daśā (Jaimini)

Chara daśā is the main timing system of Jaimini astrology. Its periods belong to signs, not planets, and AstroWatch follows the method taught by K.N. Rao:

It starts at birth from the Lagna sign, so there's no balance to carry.
The sequence runs forward through the zodiac if the 9th sign from the Lagna is Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius, and backward otherwise.
Each sign's period is the count from the sign to its lord, minus one, in years (1 to 12). A lord in its own sign gives 12 years. Scorpio and Aquarius use the stronger of their two lords (Mars/Ketu, Saturn/Rahu).
In the second cycle each sign gets 12 minus its first-cycle years.
Each period has twelve equal antardaśās, starting from the next sign.

Periods show as Leo (Sun) — the sign and the lord used for the count — and go two levels deep.

The Daśā dialog with Chara (Jaimini) selected: subtitle From the Lagna sign Virgo · K.N. Rao method, sign periods such as Virgo (Mercury) and Libra (Venus), and the footer noting there is no balance to carry.

Chara daśā — sign periods counted from the Lagna.

The dashboard Daśā strip

In Vedic mode the strip under the chart — where the Show Aspects strip sits in Western mode — becomes the Vimśottarī Daśā strip on the Natal tab:

A badge names the Mahādaśā (Mahādaśā: Saturn) and its start and end sit above the bar.
The bar is split into the nine antardaśās with their planet glyphs; the running one is hatched, and a gold marker shows today. Hover a segment for its dates.
A line underneath: Now: Saturn – Mercury antardaśā · until 24 Jul 2027.

The Dashboard's Daśā strip on the Natal tab — a Mahādaśā: Moon badge, a segmented antardaśā bar with the running Saturn segment hatched and a marker underneath, and a Now: Moon – Saturn antardaśā line.

The Daśā strip — the running antardaśā at a glance.

On the Transit tab the same strip shows Horā, the planetary hours, following the time slider — see Day Timings, Muhurta & Horā. The icon at its top right opens the Daśā dialog (Natal) or the Day Timings / Horā dialog (Transit). If you'd rather watch the Moon's tithi and nakshatra here, choose Tithi & Nakṣatra Progress for this area in Customize Dashboard & Cards. The Expanded Chart shows a compact version of the same strip next to its timeline.

Varshaphal (Annual Chart) — Mudda dasha compresses Vimshottari into a single year.
Kundli PDF Booklet — prints the Mahādaśās and the antardaśās of the current and next periods.