Article text is currently English only. The calculation below and the rest of the interface follow your chosen language.
In short
The dasha balance is the part of the first mahadasha still to run at the moment of birth. BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 16 computes it from how far the Moon has travelled through its birth nakshatra: the further in, the less is left. This app applies that rule to Vimshottari and to each alternate system, and shows the remaining and elapsed years.
What the term means
Nobody is born at the start of a mahadasha. The first lord is the lord of the Moon's birth nakshatra, and by the time of birth the Moon has already crossed part of that nakshatra. The same share of the lord's period is treated as spent before birth; what remains is the dasha balance, also called the balance of dasha at birth. Every later period is dated from the end of that balance, so the balance sets the dates of the whole dasha timeline.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 16 states the rule for Vimshottari: multiply the lord's dasha years by the part of the Moon's stay in the birth nakshatra that has expired, divide by the whole stay, and deduct the result from the dasha years to get "the balance of Dasha at the time of birth". The same chapter applies the idea elsewhere: Sl. 21-22 for Ashtottari, Sl. 93 for Kala Chakra, and Sl. 195-199 for Yogini, where the balance is worked out "from the Bhayat and Bhabhog", the elapsed and total stay.
How this app computes it
- The text measures the Moon's stay in time; the engine reads the same fraction from longitude, as the share of the 13°20' nakshatra the Moon has crossed.
- Vimshottari balance = the lord's years x (1 - that fraction). The first stored mahadasha runs from birth for exactly this long.
- The Kundali shows the lord, its full years, the years remaining at birth and the years already elapsed, read straight off that first period.
- Each alternate system carries its own balance, to two decimals of a year, by its own rule.
A small illustration
For 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, the engine places the Moon at 252.6569 degrees, near the end of Mula, a Ketu nakshatra. Of Ketu's 7 years, 0.3551 remain at birth, so the Ketu period ends on 28 May 1985 and about 6.64 years count as spent. Because a small shift of the Moon moves this balance, every later date moves with it, which is why the birth time matters.
Pages that use this term
- When the birth time is unknown - what an uncertain time does to the balance.
- Nakshatra sub-lord and birth time - sensitivity to the Moon's exact position.
- Vimshottari Dasha calculator - shows the partial first period.
- Alternate dashas calculator - a balance for each of ten other systems.
- Mula nakshatra - a Ketu nakshatra, the start of a Ketu balance.
Related terms
Vimshottari Dasha, Janma Nakshatra, Birth-time rectification and Ashtottari Dasha.
Vimshottari Dasha
The 120-year cycle of nine lords, dated from the nakshatra your Moon held at birth.
This date is sent only to compute the answer. Nothing is stored, no account is created, and no email is asked for.