Free Chara Dasha Calculator (Jaimini)

Enter your birth date, time and place above and this free calculator works out your Chara dasha, the sign-based dasha of the Jaimini tradition. It names the sign whose period is running now and when it ends, explains which way the dashas run for your rising sign, shows the working for every sign’s years, and lists the periods from birth with their dates and your age. One school is followed throughout: the rules of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, ch. 46, verses 155 to 167, in R. Santhanam’s translation. Other schools differ, and the page says where.

How it works

The verses divide the zodiac into four padas of three signs each: Aries to Gemini, Cancer to Virgo, Libra to Sagittarius, and Capricorn to Pisces. The 1st and 3rd are odd padas; the 2nd and 4th are even.

1. The years of a sign. Count from the sign to the sign where its lord stands, forward through the zodiac for a sign in an odd pada and backward for a sign in an even pada, leaving out the sign itself. The count is the number of years. A lord standing in its own sign gives 12 years.
2. Exalted or debilitated lord. One year is added when the lord is exalted and one taken off when it is debilitated. This page reads the verse as applying to the lord itself, and uses the site’s dignity rule: the Moon is exalted in Taurus only up to 3 degrees and Mercury in Virgo only up to 15.
3. Scorpio and Aquarius. The verses give each two lords: Mars and Ketu for Scorpio, Saturn and Rahu for Aquarius. If both stand in the sign, the period is 12 years. If one stands in it and the other elsewhere, the count goes to the one elsewhere. If both are elsewhere, the count goes to the stronger: a sign holding a planet is stronger than one without, more planets beat fewer, then a dual sign beats a fixed one and a fixed sign a movable one, and if all is still equal the bigger count is taken. The verses add that if one of the two signs holds an exalted planet, the count goes to that sign; this page applies that test first. The result shows the other lord’s count too, so you can compare.
4. The order. The dashas start from the rising sign. If the 9th sign from it is in an odd pada they run forward through the zodiac; if in an even pada, backward (verse 167).
5. The dates. The first period starts at birth with its full length; there is no balance at birth. After the twelve signs, the order begins again from the rising sign, as the note after the worked example in the translation says. The note does not give the years of the second round; this page repeats the first-round years, which is our reading. Years are of 365.2425 days.

The translation’s worked example has Aquarius rising, with the 9th sign, Libra, in an odd pada, so the dashas run forward; Rahu is taken as the lord of Aquarius because it has a planet with it. Its table gives Aquarius 8 years, Pisces 1, Aries 1, Taurus 9, Gemini 8, Cancer 1, Leo 7, Virgo 7, Libra 4, Scorpio 6, Sagittarius 2 and Capricorn 5. For a chart laid out as in that example, this calculator gives the same years for eleven of the twelve signs.

Scorpio is the exception, and you should know about it. Both its lords stand outside it, Mars in Taurus and Ketu in Sagittarius, and neither has another planet with it, so the tests of verses 158 to 166, as this page applies them, go by the nature of the sign: Sagittarius, a dual sign, is stronger than Taurus, a fixed one, and the count to Ketu gives 1 year. The table’s 6 years is the count to Mars, and the translation does not say why Mars was taken. This page follows the verses, so in a chart like this one its Scorpio period, and every date after it, differs from a count to Mars. Whenever the count goes to the stronger of two lords, the result shows the count to the other lord as well, so you can compare.

Positions are sidereal (Lahiri) from the NASA JPL DE440 tables, with the mean node and whole signs.

Reading the result

In a sign dasha the period belongs to a sign rather than a planet, so it is read from that sign in your chart: the planets standing in it and the house it is from your rising sign. A period is a time to know your chart’s themes, not a forecast of events.

Where traditions differ

Chara dasha is taught in several schools. Points on which they differ include the sign the dashas start from and the way they run, how the stronger lord of Scorpio and Aquarius is chosen (even the translation’s own worked example counts Scorpio to Mars where the verses, as applied here, point to Ketu), the length of the second round (some use 12 less the first-round years), and how a period is divided into sub-periods. This page follows the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra verses as translated by Santhanam and does not mix in other schools. The Chara dasha panel of our free kundali uses a simpler count, so its dates can differ from these; if you follow a particular teacher, use their method.

What it does not do

It does not show sub-periods (antardashas), because the schools divide them differently. It needs the time of birth, because the whole sequence starts from the rising sign. It makes no prediction. For the planet dashas, see the Mahadasha calculator and the Yogini dasha calculator.

Frequently asked questions