Ashtottari Dasha

Definition

Ashtottari Dasha is a conditional system of planetary periods (a dasha is a stretch of time ruled by one planet) whose full cycle runs 108 years. It draws on only eight ruling planets — the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Rahu and Venus — and gives Ketu no period at all. Like the Vimshottari, it splits each planet's main period into sub-periods, but its total length and individual spans differ. Some sources also call it a conditional nakshatra dasha, or Udu-dasha.

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish sources gathered here, astrologers treat Ashtottari Dasha as a conditional 108-year cycle that runs only eight grahas (planets) and leaves Ketu without a period. The BPHS, in Kapoor's translation, gives the spans as the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, Rahu and Venus = 6, 15, 8, 17, 10, 19, 12 and 21 years, in that order; Ponde corroborates Mercury 17, Jupiter 19, Venus 21, Saturn 10 and Rahu 12.

In Practice

You apply this system only when a chart meets its conditions of eligibility — but the sources phrase those conditions differently, so read each on its own terms. The BPHS (Kapoor) calls for it mainly when Rahu sits neither in the Lagna (rising sign) nor in any Kendra or Trikona counted from the lord of the Ascendant, and for a daytime birth in Krishna Paksha (the waning Moon) or a night birth in Shukla Paksha (the waxing Moon). Cole instead places Rahu in a kendra or trine to the lagna-lord (but not in the lagna itself), with birth in Shukla Paksha at night or Krishna Paksha by day, and finds it gives fine-tuned readings on import-export, foreign residence and travel. Ponde frames it for people born during the waning Moon (Krishnapaksh). The sources also part ways on the frame: the BPHS counts the nakshatras (lunar mansions) from Ardra and reckons Abhijit, while Cole describes a twenty-eight-nakshatra scheme governed by Ketu.

Historical Origin

The system comes from the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Ch.46, Sl.17-23), attributed to Maharshi Parasara, here through Kapoor's translation. Among modern writers, Shil Ponde presents it in Hindu Astrology: Planets in Stars (Ch.20), and Cole treats it in Science of Light, Vol I (Ch.12), among the conditional nakshatra dashas.

Further Reading

• Maharshi Parasara, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
• Ponde, Hindu Astrology: Planets in Stars
• Cole, Science of Light, Vol I