Enter your birth details above and this free calculator shows which Mahadasha, Antardasha and Pratyantardasha you are in now, each with its dates, and the full list of Mahadashas for your life. Your Mahadasha is the current major period in the Vimshottari dasha system, the most widely used method for timing in Vedic astrology. The calculator works out your Moon’s nakshatra and builds the whole sequence from it.
How this calculator works
Positions are computed in your own browser by our ephemeris, using the Lahiri ayanamsa and the mean lunar node for Rahu and Ketu. The planetary positions are read from tables calculated from NASA JPL DE440, and agree with it to within a few seconds of arc for births from 1899 to 2075; outside those years a compact series is used and the result says so. The Moon is what fixes the dasha dates, and it agrees to within a few seconds of arc, so the start of each Mahadasha is right to within a day. The time zone in force at your birth place on your birth date, including daylight saving, is applied automatically. The working is done in your browser. Once your email is confirmed, the birth details you enter and the headline of the result are kept with it, so that our emails can fit your chart (see the privacy policy).
Vimshottari dasha runs from your Moon’s nakshatra. Each nakshatra has a ruling planet, and the sequence of nine lords always runs in the same order with the same span of years: Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17, adding to 120 years. Your nakshatra’s lord starts your sequence with only the portion left unexpired, based on how far the Moon had already travelled through that nakshatra at birth. Each Mahadasha then divides into nine Antardashas in the same order and proportion, and each Antardasha into nine Pratyantardashas, the same pattern repeating one level deeper.
The calculator shows your current Mahadasha, Antardasha and Pratyantardasha with dates, and the complete Mahadasha list for your lifetime. Years are counted at 365.2425 days each. Without a birth time, it uses midday, so the balance and every date can shift by several years, and even the first dasha can change, once your exact time is known.
Reading your result
The result reads top to bottom: which Mahadasha is running, which Antardasha inside it, and which Pratyantardasha inside that, each with dates. The full list underneath shows your entire sequence from birth, what has already run and what is still ahead. A Mahadasha is a period whose character the chart describes, not a schedule of events; what is done inside it remains your own effort, the dasha sets the weather, not the outcome.
Where traditions differ
The one real disagreement is the length of a year used. This calculator uses 365.2425 days, the Gregorian calendar year. Other software uses 365.25 days, which moves a date by less than a day even at age 100, or a fixed 360-day year, which moves it by about five days for every year of age, so by roughly five months at age thirty. None of the three is wrong; they are different conventions, worth checking before assuming two calculators disagree on your chart rather than on the calendar.
What it cannot tell you
This calculator gives you the timeline and the sequence. It does not judge how strong or weak each dasha lord is in your chart, which depends on its sign, house and aspects, and it makes no claim about what will happen during any period. Reading a dasha well means reading the lord’s placement alongside it, which needs the full chart. See the free kundali tool for the planetary positions each dasha lord occupies.
Without a birth time, the balance at birth is only an estimate, so treat the exact dates as approximate until you can confirm your birth time.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is a Mahadasha?
A Mahadasha is the current major period in the Vimshottari dasha system, one of nine planetary periods that follow each other in a fixed order and fixed span of years, starting from the lord of your Moon's nakshatra at birth. It is the most widely used timing method in Vedic astrology.
↳ What is the difference between Mahadasha, Antardasha and Pratyantardasha?
A Mahadasha is the major period, six to twenty years depending on the lord. It divides into nine Antardashas, sub-periods of the same nine lords in the same order and proportion, and each Antardasha divides again into nine Pratyantardashas, the same pattern one level deeper. This calculator shows all three levels running now, with dates.
↳ How accurate are the dates on this calculator?
They depend on your birth time. With an accurate time, the balance at birth, and every date built from it, is precise to the method. Without one, the calculator uses midday, and the balance can be off by several years (or start from a different lord), which shifts every date in your sequence.
↳ Why do two dasha calculators give me slightly different dates?
Almost always because of the year length used. This calculator uses 365.2425 days; some software uses 365.25 or a fixed 360-day year. Each is a different convention, not an error. The 365.25-day year differs by under a day over a lifetime, while a 360-day year drifts by about five days for every year of age, so the gap grows the further a period sits from your birth.
↳ Does a difficult Mahadasha mean a difficult period in my life?
Not by itself. A dasha describes the character of a period through the planet running it, and what that planet does depends on its sign, house and aspects in your own chart. A Saturn Mahadasha in a chart where Saturn is well placed reads very differently from one where it is not, which is why the dasha panel is best read alongside your full chart.
↳ Do I need my exact birth time for this calculator?
You get a usable result without it, since the calculator uses midday and tells you so. But because the balance at birth depends on precisely how far the Moon had moved through its nakshatra, an exact time matters more here than for most other calculators on this site, particularly for dates further into your life.
↳ How do I check my current Mahadasha and Antardasha?
Enter your birth date, time and place above. The calculator shows the Mahadasha, Antardasha and Pratyantardasha running now, each with its start and end dates, and the full list of Mahadashas for your life. It is 100% free. The first time you use a tool on this site we ask for your email and confirm it with a code.
↳ How is the Mahadasha calculated?
The calculator finds the Moon's nakshatra at birth. Its lord starts your sequence with only the part left unexpired: if the Moon had crossed 40 percent of the nakshatra, 60 percent of that lord's years remain. The other lords follow in a fixed order and span: Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17 years.
↳ Is this the same as a Mahadasha in numerology?
No. This calculator gives the Vimshottari dasha of Vedic astrology, built from the Moon's nakshatra at birth. Some numerologists use a separate count from the date of birth that they also call a dasha. It is a different method, and this tool does not compute it.
For the planetary placements that give each dasha lord its meaning, along with yogas and doshas, use the free kundali tool. To talk through what your current period means, see consultation.