The Dashas, Timing Life's Chapters

Chapter 8 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

A birth chart shows what a life holds: its strengths and difficulties, its gifts and its challenges. But it does not, by itself, show when each of these will come. A planet may promise wealth or illness, yet those promises do not all arrive at once. They unfold over the years.

The tool jyotish uses to answer "when?" is the daśā. The word means "condition" or "phase". A life is divided into a series of chapters, each ruled by one planet. While a planet's chapter is running, the promises that planet carries in the chart come to life.

The order of the chapters

Which planet's chapter comes first? Varahamihira's answer begins with the strongest of three: the rising sign, the Sun, and the Moon (8.1).

उदयरविशशाङ्कप्राणिकेन्द्रादिसंस्थाः प्रथमवयसि मध्येऽन्त्ये च दद्युः फलानि । न हि न फलविपाकः केन्द्रसंस्थाद्यभावे भवति हि फलपक्तिः पूर्वमापोक्लिमेऽपि ॥

udayaraviśaśāṅkaprāṇikendrādisaṃsthāḥ prathamavayasi madhye 'ntye ca dadyuḥ phalāni | na hi na phalavipākaḥ kendrasaṃsthādyabhāve bhavati hi phalapaktiḥ pūrvam āpoklime 'pi ||

From whichever is strongest of the rising sign, the Sun and the Moon, the planets standing in the angles, then in the houses after them, then in the falling houses, give their results in the first part of life, the middle and the last. Even when there are no planets in the angles, the fruit does not fail to ripen: it then ripens first from the falling houses.

So the chapters of life follow the structure of the chart. First comes the chapter of the strongest of the three, then the planets in the angles from it, which give their results early in life. Then come the planets in the houses that follow the angles, in the middle of life, and last the planets in the falling houses, late in life.

Within each group, the strongest planet comes first. If two are equally strong, the one that gives more years comes first, and if those are equal, the one that rose first from the Sun's glare (8.2).

How long each chapter lasts

The length of each planet's chapter is the number of years that planet contributes to the life, as worked out in the previous chapter (8.2). So the methods for the length of life do double work. They give the whole span, and they also divide it into chapters, one for each planet.

Chapters within chapters

Each chapter is itself divided into smaller sub-chapters, the antardaśās. The planet ruling the chapter shares it with the planets related to it by position. A planet in the same sign as the ruler takes a share of one-half. Planets in the trines from it take one-third. A planet in the seventh takes one-seventh. Planets in the fourth and eighth take one-quarter (8.3). The shares are then scaled so that together they fill the whole chapter (8.4).

The quality of each chapter

Not every chapter is equally good. Varahamihira gives each chapter a name according to the condition of its planet at birth, and the name says what the chapter will be like (8.5 to 8.7):

The images are vivid. A planet climbing towards its exaltation is like someone on the rise, and its chapter brings growth. A planet sliding down from its height brings decline. A chapter can be full, mixed, or empty, according to the state of the planet that rules it.

The chapter of the rising sign is judged by which of its three drekkanas was rising at birth, with the pattern depending on whether the sign is movable, fixed or dual (8.8).

What makes a chapter go well

The tenth verse adds that a chapter goes well when its ruler, or a friend of its ruler, or a gentle planet, stands in the rising sign; or when the ruler stands in the third, sixth, tenth or eleventh house, the houses of growth. The Moon also matters. When she stands in a friendly or growing position from the ruling planet, she brings good results, and otherwise difficulty (8.10).

The natural chapters of life

Alongside the chapters drawn from each individual chart, Varahamihira describes a fixed sequence that applies to every living being: the natural chapters (8.9).

एकं द्वौ नव विंशतिर्धृतिकृती पञ्चाशदेषां क्रमाच्चन्द्रारेन्दुजशुक्रजीवदिनकृद्दैवाकरीणां समाः । स्वैः स्वैः पुष्टफलानि सर्गजनितैः पक्तिर्दशायाः क्रमादन्ते लग्नदशा शुभेति यवना नेच्छन्ति केचित्तथा ॥

ekaṃ dvau nava viṃśatir dhṛtikṛtī pañcāśad eṣāṃ kramāc candrārendujaśukrajīvadinakṛddaivākarīṇāṃ samāḥ | svaiḥ svaiḥ puṣṭaphalāni sargajanitaiḥ paktir daśāyāḥ kramād ante lagnadaśā śubheti yavanā necchanti kecit tathā ||

One, two, nine, twenty, eighteen, twenty and fifty years, in order, belong to the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, the Sun and Saturn. Each ripens its results in turn, according to its own nature. At the end comes the chapter of the rising sign, which is good, say the Yavanas; but some do not accept this.

The sequence follows the natural course of a human life. The Moon, the mother and the mind, rules the first tender year. Mercury, the prince and the learner, rules the years of schooling. Venus, the planet of desire, rules youth. Jupiter, the planet of wisdom, rules maturity. Saturn, the slow servant, rules the long years of age. Together they add up to 120 years, the full human span.

What each planet's chapter brings

The heart of the chapter describes what each planet brings during its chapter (8.12 to 8.18). Each planet brings both its gifts and its troubles. Which of them dominates depends on the quality of the chapter.

These lists are drawn from the world of the sixth century, with its kings, guilds and cattle. But the deeper pattern is timeless: each planet colours its chapter with its own nature. The Sun's chapter brings effort and recognition; the Moon's, nourishment and feeling; Mars's, struggle and conquest; Mercury's, learning and exchange; Jupiter's, wisdom and honour; Venus's, pleasure and beauty; Saturn's, burden and endurance.

Everything a planet means comes alive in its chapter

A simple principle ties the whole system together (8.20):

संज्ञाध्याये यस्य यद्द्रव्यमुक्तं कर्माजीवो यश्च यस्योपदिष्टः । भावस्थानालोकयोगोद्भवं च तत्तत्सर्वं तस्य योज्यं दशायाम् ॥

saṃjñādhyāye yasya yad dravyam uktaṃ karmājīvo yaś ca yasyopadiṣṭaḥ | bhāvasthānālokayogodbhavaṃ ca tat tat sarvaṃ tasya yojyaṃ daśāyām ||

Whatever substance was assigned to a planet in the chapter of definitions, whatever work and livelihood was taught for it, and whatever arises from its house, its position, its aspects and its combinations: all of this is to be applied in its chapter.

This is the key to reading a chart through time. Everything a planet stands for, its metal, its livelihood, the house it occupies, the planets it looks at, the combinations it forms, lies waiting in the chart. When its chapter arrives, all of it comes to life.

The next verse adds that during its chapter a planet also shows itself in the person: in their complexion and aura, shaped by the planet's element, and in the qualities that the senses can perceive (8.21).

The inner self takes on the colour of the time

One of the most remarkable verses in the book says how a chapter's results actually come about (8.22):

शुभफलददशायां तादृगेवान्तरात्मा बहु जनयति पुंसां सौख्यमर्थागमं च । कथितफलविपाकैस्तर्कयेद्वर्तमानां परिणमति फलाप्तिः स्वप्नचिन्तास्ववीर्यैः ॥

śubhaphaladadaśāyāṃ tādṛg evāntarātmā bahu janayati puṃsāṃ saukhyam arthāgamaṃ ca | kathitaphalavipākais tarkayed vartamānāṃ pariṇamati phalāptiḥ svapnacintāsv avīryaiḥ ||

In a chapter that brings good results, the inner self itself becomes of that same nature, and brings people much happiness and wealth. From the results described, one may recognise which chapter is running. When the planets are weak, their fruits come only in dreams and in thoughts.

The results of a chapter do not simply fall on a person from outside. The antarātmā, the inner self, takes on the colour of the chapter, and from that inner change the outer results flow. A good chapter is first a change within.

The verse also gives a practical test: one can recognise which chapter is running by noticing which results are actually unfolding in a person's life. And it ends with a beautiful observation. A weak planet's promises do not fully arrive in the outer world; they are tasted only in dreams and in the mind.

When the signs conflict

The last verse resolves a practical problem (8.23). If two combinations promise opposite results from the same planet, say, wealth and loss, the two cancel out, unless one is clearly stronger, in which case the stronger prevails. But if the opposite promises belong to two different planets, they do not cancel. Each gives its own result in its own chapter.

A note on the dashas used today

Most astrologers today use a different system of chapters, called Vimśottarī, "of one hundred and twenty". In it, life is divided among nine planets, including Rahu and Ketu, in a fixed order, and the first chapter is decided by the nakshatra the Moon occupies at birth. The 1905 English translator of the Brihat Jataka already noted that astrologers of his time mostly used this nakshatra-based system, because Varahamihira's method is harder to apply.

Varahamihira's own system is built differently: from the years each planet contributes, ordered by the strength and position of the planets. Both systems share the same underlying idea. A life unfolds in chapters, and each chapter takes the colour of the planet that rules it.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 8. English renderings are our own, made from the Sanskrit and checked against the public-domain translation by N. Chidambaram Aiyar (1885; second edition 1905) and against the word-by-word analysis in Michael D. Neely's edition.