The order the mahadashas run in

The same nine planets rule the mahadashas themselves, always in this order, each for a fixed number of years. One full turn of the cycle is 120 years, so a lifetime only ever sees part of it.

Each antardasha then takes the same share of its mahadasha as its own lord's term takes of that 120-year cycle, running in this same fixed order from the mahadasha's own lord.

1. Ketu — 7 years
2. Venus — 20 years
3. Sun — 6 years
4. Moon — 10 years
5. Mars — 7 years
6. Rahu — 18 years
7. Jupiter — 16 years
8. Saturn — 19 years
9. Mercury — 17 years

After Mercury the cycle begins again at Ketu. So Saturn always follows Jupiter, and Mercury always follows Saturn.

The order never changes. Where you enter it does — that depends on the Moon's position at your birth, which needs a birth time.

What this page gives you

• All nine sub-periods with dates, in sequence, starting from your mahadasha's own lord.
• Which one is running now, and the date it turns — with the lord that follows it.
• How accurate those dates are. A start you remember only to the month carries about a fortnight of uncertainty into every boundary, and the page says so rather than printing a day it cannot support.

Why other calculators ask for your birth time and this one does not

Deciding which mahadasha you are in requires the Moon's exact position at birth, which requires an exact birth time. Dividing that mahadasha into its nine antardashas requires neither — only the lord and the start. So if someone has already told you your mahadasha, the sub-periods are available to you today. Adding your birth details later replaces the estimate with exact dates.