Narayana Dasha / Padakrama

Definition

Narayana Dasha — also called Padakrama Dasha — is a rasi (sign-based) dasha of the Jaimini tradition: a timing system whose periods are governed by signs, not planets. As Rath and Larsen describe it, it sorts the three kinds of sign — movable, fixed and dual — and gives each a distinct dasha in the ascendant. Larsen ties the name Padakrama to a series of steps (pada, the quarter), and, following the tradition of Sri Acyuta Dasa, the name Narayana to those movable, fixed and dual signs as the three shakti said to reside in Narayana.

In Tradition

These modern Jyotish sources agree that the Narayana Dasha, as a sign (rasi) dasha, reads places, circumstances and the environment around you — set against graha or udu dashas like Vimsottari, which are figured from the Moon and read the workings of the mind and the people coming into your life. Rath and Larsen both draw this sign-dasha-versus-graha-dasha distinction, and Rath and Narasimha Rao both hold it to be the foremost phalita (event-predicting) dasha.

In Practice

For Rath, the Narayana Dasha is the key to reading the messages and influences coming from your surroundings, where an udu dasha like Vimsottari instead shows the working of the mind. Narasimha Rao computes it from the progression of the lagna (ascendant), so each dasha makes a different rasi act as the progressed lagna; he notes you can run it separately for the rasi chart and for each divisional chart, each seeded from a chosen house — which makes it a way to time the matters of a given varga (divisional chart). In his account the dasa begins from the stronger of the lagna and the 7th house (the "dasa seed"), progresses by the Trimurthi governing the seed sign, and takes its period-lengths from where each dasa rasi's lord sits. In Rath's timing the marankaraka is the planet whose placement turns a sign-dasha into a killing or annihilating period for the houses it rules.

Historical Origin

The sources here attest the Narayana / Padakrama Dasha as a Jaimini-tradition rasi dasha through modern works: Rath's Crux of Vedic Astrology, Larsen's Jyotisha Fundamentals, and Narasimha Rao's Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach. Larsen traces the naming back to the tradition of Sri Acyuta Dasa. No classical text or verbatim quotation is cited here; every entry is a modern paraphrase.

Further Reading

• Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology
• Larsen, Jyotisha Fundamentals
• Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach