Dashas and transits

Today you’ll learnDistinguish birth placements, transits and dasha periods, and identify a dasha report's system and level.

Illustration only: the Moon at 18° Aries is a supplied birth-placement example. A transit describes a planet’s position at another time, compared with the birth chart. A dasha is a period in a named traditional timing system; antardashas are subperiods. The bars are schematic; they do not represent dated or scaled periods.

Birth placement and transit

A birth chart records each graha's position at the stated birth moment. Graha is the traditional category for the bodies and points a chart tracks, including the Sun, Moon, five planets and lunar nodes introduced on Day 2. These natal placements belong to that one moment. If the stated time is wrong, they describe a different moment.

A transit, called gochara in the tradition, is a later or current position of a graha, compared with the birth chart. A line such as 'current Saturn position' is transit information. Unlike a natal placement, it needs a date for the later moment. Check that date before comparing it with the birth chart.

A dasha is a named period

A dasha is a named period within a traditional timing system, and a dasha can be split into subperiods called antardashas. The 1905 Brihat Jataka translation defines Dasa and Antardasa as planetary divisions and subdivisions. We use only that vocabulary here.

Different dasha systems use different rules. When you see a dasha entry, first look for the name of its system. Then check whether it shows a main period or a subperiod within it. These two details tell you what kind of schedule you are reading. This lesson identifies those details without calculating the periods.

Compare like with like

Two reports can disagree because they use different birth details, settings or dasha systems. Do not assume every dasha system uses the same starting rule. First check what each report names, then compare its main periods with main periods, and its subperiods with subperiods.

Before you compare two reports, note for each one the birth date, time and place it used, its stated settings, and its dasha system and level. If any of these differ, the reports are not directly comparable. None of these labels says by itself that any event will happen.

Worked example

Fictional example: two report headers

Report A and Report B are invented. They describe the same fictional person, but one lists the birth time as 06:10 and the other as 06:40.

Inputs: the two birth times are 30 minutes apart.
System: both name the same dasha system and show main periods and subperiods.
Conclusion: because the inputs differ, the period boundaries may differ too. Settle the input before comparing labels.

Your turn

Try it yourself

Sort these three clearly fictional report snippets: ‘Moon at birth: 18° Aries’; ‘current Saturn position’; ‘named dasha period and subperiod.’

Show the answer

In order, they are a birth placement, transit information and a dasha schedule. Their dates and labels serve different purposes. None of the snippets implies that a life event must occur.

One quick check

A report line reads ‘current Saturn position.’ What kind of information is this?

See the explanation

A current position compared with the birth chart is a transit, or gochara. A birth placement belongs to the birth moment, and a subperiod is a named slice of a dasha, not a position.

Take these three ideas with you

A birth placement is a position at the stated birth moment.
A transit (gochara) is a later position compared with the birth chart.
For a dasha label, name the system and the level before comparing reports.