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In short
Ashtottari Dasha is a 108-year dasha with eight lords (Ketu has none), counted over 28 nakshatras including Abhijit. BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 17-22 recommends it when Rahu, not in the Lagna, is in a kendra or trikona from the Lagna lord. This app computes its starting lord, balance and dated sequence, and checks whether a chart meets that condition.
What the term means
Ashtottari is named for its total of 108 years. It is one of the special-case dasha systems BPHS sets beside Vimshottari. It differs from Vimshottari in three ways: eight lords instead of nine, unequal runs of nakshatras per lord, and a ring of 28 stars that includes Abhijit.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 17-20 say the sages recommend Ashtottari when Rahu, not in the Lagna, is in a kendra or trikona from the Lagna lord. Counting from Ardra, the Sun takes four nakshatras, the Moon three, Mars four, Mercury three, Saturn four, Jupiter three, Rahu four and Venus three. The years are Sun 6, Moon 15, Mars 8, Mercury 17, Saturn 10, Jupiter 19, Rahu 12 and Venus 21; Ketu is, in the translation's words, "denied this privilege". Sl. 21-22 give one nakshatra a quarter of a malefic's dasha and a third of a benefic's, work the balance as for Vimshottari, and define Abhijit's span.
How this app computes it
- The Moon's longitude is placed on a 28-star ring, so a Moon in the last pada of Uttara Ashadha falls in Abhijit, as Sl. 21-22 set it.
- The engine checks its own table when it loads: 108 years, 28 stars, and the four-star lords exactly the Sun, Mars, Saturn and Rahu, the malefics of Sl. 21-22.
- The balance counts the stars of the lord's run already passed plus the part of the birth star crossed, times one star's share. The engine records the other reading it considered and why it did not take it. Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara (Ch. V, p. 121) works the same reading: for a birth in Ashlesha, the last of the Sun's four stars, 4½ of the Sun's 6 years count as over before the Moon's progress through Ashlesha is added.
- Each chart gets a verdict on the Sl. 17-20 condition; without an Ascendant there is no verdict.
A small illustration
For 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, the Moon is in Mula, the last of Mercury's three stars. The engine returns Mercury as the Ashtottari lord at birth, a 17-year period with 0.29 of a year left, and reports that this chart meets the Sl. 17-20 condition.
Pages that use this term
- Alternate dashas calculator - Ashtottari with nine other BPHS systems.
- Ardra nakshatra - the star the Ashtottari count starts from.
- Pushya nakshatra - one of the Sun's four Ashtottari stars.
- Shravana nakshatra - shortened at its start to make room for Abhijit.
- Vimshottari Dasha calculator - the main timeline it is read beside.
Related terms
Shastihayani Dasha, Kalachakra Dasha, Dasha balance and Kendra.
Alternate Dasha Systems
All nine of BPHS's nakshatra systems besides Vimshottari, plus Kala Chakra, 116 years down to 36, each with the condition it asks for.
What it needs
Date, time and place
That is more than this article asks for - it only ever takes a date, and sometimes a time, and never a name or a birth place. So this one runs on its own page, which asks for exactly what it needs and stores none of it.
Run it on its own page