Two Clocks: Vimśottarī and Chara Daśā, and What It Means When They Agree

Why two clocks?

A daśā is a stretch of life ruled by one factor of the chart. Vedic astrology has many daśā systems — BPHS 47 names a long list of them — but two matter most on this site:

Vimśottarī daśā, the "120-year" clock, whose hands are the nine planets;

Chara daśā, Jaimini's sign clock, whose hands are the twelve signs.

They were not designed to be added together, and the site never pretends they were. But when two independent clocks point at the same part of your life at the same moment, it is worth noticing. This article explains how each clock is set and how the site compares them.

Clock one: Vimśottarī

The nine planets rule fixed spans that add up to 120 years, always in the same order:

The starting point is your birth star (janma nakṣatra), the lunar mansion that held the Moon when you were born. Each of the 27 stars belongs to one of the nine planets, and the clock starts with that planet's period, already partly used up.

How much is left at birth?

BPHS 47.14 (with Phaladīpikā 19.3) measures the used-up part by time: how long the Moon had already spent in its star at birth (bhayāta) compared with the whole time it spends there (bhabhoga). Most software measures it by distance instead — the share of the star's 13°20′ the Moon had crossed. Because the Moon's speed varies, the two can differ by days or weeks. The site follows the text and uses time.

How long is a "year"?

Phaladīpikā 19.4 defines the daśā year as a solar return: a year ends when the Sun comes back to the exact sidereal longitude it held at your birth, and months and days are counted as degrees of the Sun's travel. The site uses that year for both clocks. Other software uses 360-day years (the savana year) or 365.25 days; with 360-day years the dates drift by almost nine months after fifty years — the most common reason two websites disagree about your current period.

The sample chart

In the site's sample chart (25 December 1990, 03:20, Paris) the Moon is in Uttara Bhādrapadā, a star of Saturn. At birth the Moon had spent 9.90 of the 23.89 hours it would spend in that star, so 41.4% of Saturn's 19 years were already used, leaving 11.13 years. The distance method gives 41.1% and 11.20 years — about 25 days more. The sequence that follows:

Saturn until February 2002

Mercury, February 2002 to February 2019

Ketu, February 2019 to February 2026

Venus, from 8 February 2026 to February 2046

Each main period (mahādaśā) is divided into nine sub-periods (antardaśā) in the same order, starting with the main lord itself, and each sub-period again into nine shorter ones (pratyantardaśā).

Clock two: chara daśā

Chara daśā is described in BPHS 47 (vv. 151–162) and in the Jaimini Sūtras (JS 1.1.24–27, 2.3). Its periods belong to signs, starting from your rising sign.

Direction. Look at the 9th sign from the lagna. If it falls in the group Aries–Taurus–Gemini or Libra–Scorpio–Sagittarius (the "odd-footed" signs), the periods run forward through the zodiac; otherwise they run backward.

Length. For each sign, count from the sign to its ruling planet — forward for the same odd-footed groups, backward for the others — and subtract one. That gives the years, up to 12; a lord sitting in its own sign gives the full 12. Scorpio and Aquarius each have two lords (Mars and Ketu; Saturn and Rahu): if one lord sits in the sign, the other is used; otherwise the lord with more planets around it wins, then an exalted lord, and so on (JS 2.3.6–9; BPHS 47.156–161).

Sub-periods. Each sign period is cut into twelve equal sub-periods (BPHS 52.5), whose order depends on whether the sign is movable, fixed or dual (BPHS 52.6–9). The year is the same solar return.

After the first round. The texts are not clear about what follows the first cycle; the site uses the common convention of a second cycle lasting 12 minus the first-cycle years, and labels it a convention.

The sample chart

The lagna is Libra; the 9th sign from it is Gemini, an odd-footed sign, so this clock runs forward.

Notice that every period changes around 24–25 December: those are this person's solar returns.

When the two clocks agree

The site lets each clock name the houses it is switching on at a given moment:

the Vimśottarī lord activates the houses it rules (BPHS 49), the house it sits in (BPHS 48.2) and the house linked to its Jaimini kāraka role;

the chara sign activates its own house counted from the lagna (BPHS 51.1–3), and the matters of the kārakas sitting in it or aspecting it by sign.

Each link gets a weight — 1 for the direct ones, 0.5 for sign aspects and the sign's "outcome" (bhoga) house, 0.25 for a planet's natural significations. A house is where the two clocks agree when each clock gives it at least 0.5; the agreement is "strong" when both reach 1. These numbers are the site's convention: no classical text adds the two systems together. What BPHS 51.16 does say is that a sign period must be judged together with the birth chart, so every agreement is shown with the natal promise of that house. Agreement tells you what is in focus, not whether it goes well.

In the sample chart in October 2026, Vimśottarī runs Venus–Venus while chara daśā runs Pisces. Venus rules the 1st house and is the soul planet (ātmakāraka), and it aspects Pisces by sign. Venus also sits in the 3rd, and the Sun — the siblings' kāraka — aspects Pisces too. So the clocks meet, partially, on the 1st house (self, body, vitality) and the 3rd house (courage, siblings, initiatives).

In your own chart

Your report shows both clocks from birth to a hundred years, the periods running today on each, and the houses where they agree right now — all on solar-return years. Open the calculator.

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Chara kārakas: your soul planet and its ministers

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