Opening Mạghā Astro AI

Try now
An elderly astrologer lights one of twelve brass oil lamps set in a circle while a young student kneels across the circle with a taper.

Chara Daśā

Chara Daśā is a Jaimini sign-based timing system beginning with the Lagna. Each sign's lord determines its period length, so charts with the same rising sign can have different timelines. Mạghā displays four levels through Sūkṣma.

Nila Raman’s first Chara Daśā cycle in Mạghā, from Libra at birth to Virgo, with Aquarius running on 12 September 2026.

Mạghā’s experimental Chara Daśā for Nila Raman, a chart with a Libra Lagna: Libra 12 years, Scorpio 8, Sagittarius 10, Capricorn 1, Aquarius 8 (current, October 2025 to October 2033), Pisces 7, Aries 3, Taurus 5, Gemini 4, Cancer 6, Leo 1 and Virgo 1, a first cycle of 66 years from 14 October 1994. The second cycle repeats the same lengths.

Mahādaśā sequenceCurrent: Aquarius
14 Oct 199413 Oct 2060

Birth marker · 14 Oct 1994

  1. 01Libra14 Oct 1994 →
    14 Oct 2006
  2. 02Scorpio14 Oct 2006 →
    14 Oct 2014
  3. 03Sagittarius14 Oct 2014 →
    13 Oct 2024
  4. 04Capricorn13 Oct 2024 →
    13 Oct 2025
  5. 05Aquarius13 Oct 2025 →
    14 Oct 2033
  6. 06Pisces14 Oct 2033 →
    13 Oct 2040
  7. 07Aries13 Oct 2040 →
    14 Oct 2043
  8. 08Taurus14 Oct 2043 →
    13 Oct 2048
  9. 09Gemini13 Oct 2048 →
    13 Oct 2052
  10. 10Cancer13 Oct 2052 →
    14 Oct 2058
  11. 11Leo14 Oct 2058 →
    14 Oct 2059
  12. 12Virgo14 Oct 2059 →
    13 Oct 2060

Widths follow the saved duration in days. Dates are shown in UTC. Gold marks the current period.

A sign’s period is the count from that sign to its lord

Parāśara starts the sequence at the Lagna sign, runs it through all twelve signs and measures each sign’s period by counting from that sign to the sign holding its lord. In K. N. Rao’s method the starting sign is left out of the count, so a lord one sign away gives one year and a lord in its own sign gives the full twelve.

Nila Raman’s chart, with a Libra Lagna, shows the count. Venus sits in Libra, so Libra runs twelve years. Mercury sits in Libra, four signs on from Gemini, so Gemini runs four years. The diagram shows her first cycle as Mạghā calculates it: twelve sign periods over 66 years, with Aquarius running from October 2025 to October 2033.

An astrologer on a stone balcony points toward the sunrise on the eastern horizon while a colleague holds an open manuscript.

The sign running a period is read like a Lagna

Chara readings treat the running sign as a temporary Lagna, considering sign aspects and chara kārakas. Methods differ: Parāśara adjusts years for exalted or debilitated lords. Rao counts forward for Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, backward for the others; sequence direction comes from the ninth sign from Lagna. His second cycle repeats the first, with twelve equal sub-periods from the next sign through the daśā sign. Other teachers interpret Jaimini differently.

A woman astrologer counts along a loop of twelve wooden beads beside an open palm-leaf manuscript at a lamplit desk.

Any chart you save in Mạghā can show its Chara Daśā

A saved chart’s Daśā card opens on Vimśottarī; Chara is under Experimental in its ⋯ menu. The web card lists the running periods above the full tree.

Experimental in Mạghā. Check the method limitations before using these dates.

This is a simplified Chara Daśā. It starts from the Lagna sign and runs forward for an odd Lagna and backward for an even one, so Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces Lagnas run opposite to K. N. Rao’s direction. Every sign counts forward to its lord, including the six that Parāśara and K. N. Rao count backward, and no year is added or removed for an exalted or debilitated lord. Scorpio and Aquarius take the co-lord whose sign holds more planets, even when it sits in the sign itself. Sub-periods start with the daśā sign and are proportional, not K. N. Rao’s twelve equal parts. For now the period list names Aries to Sagittarius after planets (Aries appears as Sun, Libra as Saturn), so read those labels as signs.

Questions about Chara Daśā

How do I calculate Chara Daśā by hand?

Start with the Lagna sign and the direction your method gives it. For each sign, count the signs from it to the sign holding its lord, leaving out the starting sign; a lord in its own sign gives twelve years. Then apply your method’s rules for backward-counted signs, exalted or debilitated lords and the two lords of Scorpio and Aquarius, and lay the periods end to end from birth.

Is Chara Daśā better than Vimśottarī?

Neither replaces the other. Vimśottarī follows nine planets from the Moon’s nakṣatra, while Chara Daśā follows the twelve signs from the Lagna, so each looks at the chart from a different starting point. A common approach is to read both and give more weight to years when the two point to the same houses.

Can Chara Daśā time marriage?

Jaimini astrologers do use it for marriage questions. They look at how the sign running the period relates to the seventh house, the Upapada Lagna and the Dārakāraka (the planet Jaimini links with a spouse), and they usually confirm the years with Vimśottarī and transits. A period shows when a part of life comes into focus; it cannot guarantee an event or its date.

Why are some people’s Chara Daśā periods shorter than others?

Each length depends on how far a sign’s lord sits from it. A lord one sign away gives only one year, while a lord in the sign itself gives twelve, so charts whose lords sit one or two signs ahead of their own signs, in the direction of the count, move through short periods.

Choose Chara Daśā on your chart in Mạghā

The real Experimental Daśā picker with Chara shown unselected; Vimśottarī remains selected.
Nila Raman’s chart shows the real Daśā picker. The walkthrough stops on Chara without selecting it; it does not show Chara periods.

Chara is listed under Experimental in the Daśā picker on every chart you save. This preview opens that picker on Nila Raman’s chart and stops on Chara without selecting it.

Find Chara Daśā in Mạghā