There are 27 birth stars and only nine dasha lords. The lords are given to the stars in one fixed order, and when the ninth is reached the order starts again. Nine goes into twenty-seven three times, so every lord rules three stars, and they are always nine stars apart: Ketu rules the 1st, 10th and 19th stars, Aswini, Magha and Moola. The lord of your birth star is the lord of your first dasha.
☕ Nine lords, three rounds
Think of nine people taking turns to look after twenty-seven days. After the ninth day the first person comes back, and again after the eighteenth. Each person ends up with three days, and those days are always nine apart. The Vimshottari lords take the stars the same way.
Parashara counts the stars from Krithikai and gives them, nine at a time, to the Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu and Venus, with their years (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 46, vv. 12–15, pp. 507–508). Jataka Parijata gives the same cycle and the same years from the same star (ch. XVIII, v. 3, p. 1006 of that book). Each lord, its years and its three stars are in the card “The nine lords and their three stars” below.
A run of nine stars covers exactly four signs, so each run begins at the start of a sign: Mesha (Aries), Simha (Leo) and Dhanu (Sagittarius). That is why Aswini, Magha and Moola each open a sign and share a lord, and any two stars nine apart stand at the same place in their run, so they share a lord too.
B. V. Raman lists the same nine groups of three (B. V. Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope, vol. 2, p. 127). He follows Parashara, so his list repeats the same rule rather than confirming it from a second source. Nava finds the lord from the Moon's position: the number of the star it is in, counted round in nines. Every one of the 27 stars comes out with the lord the books give it.
Each lord, its years and its stars
- Ketu (7 years): Aswini, Magha, Moola
- Venus (20 years): Bharani, Poorva Phalguni, Poorva Ashadha
- Sun (6 years): Krithikai, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha
- Moon (10 years): Rohini, Hasta, Shravana
- Mars (7 years): Mrigashirsha, Chitra, Dhanishta
- Rahu (18 years): Ardra, Swati, Shatabhisha
- Jupiter (16 years): Punarvasu, Vishakha, Poorva Bhadrapada
- Saturn (19 years): Pushya, Anuradha, Uttara Bhadrapada
- Mercury (17 years): Ashlesha, Jyeshta, Revathi
- Mix-up: a star's lord is the lord of the sign it is in. They are two different things: Krithikai lies in two signs, yet its dasha lord is the Sun.
- Mix-up: everyone's dashas start with Ketu. The order is fixed, but each person enters it at the lord of their own birth star.
- Mix-up: Raman's list proves Parashara's. Raman follows Parashara, so the two are one rule told twice, not two witnesses.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the books start the count at Krittika and not Aswini?
Their list opens with the Sun, whose first star is Krithikai. Starting at Aswini gives the same cycle from a different point: Aswini and Bharani belong to Ketu and Venus, the last two lords of the books' list, whose turn comes just before the Sun's comes round again. No star changes its lord.
Do all three stars of a lord give the same first dasha?
They give the same lord and the same full years. How much of that dasha is left at birth depends on how far the Moon had gone through the star, so two people with stars nine apart start the same dasha with different balances.
Where does Nava show my birth star and its lord?
On the You tab, once your birth details are added: your birth star, and your periods starting from its lord, with dates.
Deep dive: counting a star's lord by hand
The books' count from Krittika, where the start of the dasha is taken up next, and what this builds on.
🔢 The count from Krittika
The books count from Krithikai, the Sun's first star, and take the lords in this order: Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus. Count from Krithikai to the birth star, counting both ends, and divide by 9. The remainder names the lord; a remainder of 0 means the ninth.
For Moola: it is star 17 from Krithikai; 17 divided by 9 leaves 8, and the 8th lord in that order is Ketu. It is the 19th star from Aswini, so it shares its lord with Aswini, the 1st.
🌙 From the lord to the first dasha
The star's lord names the first dasha; the Moon's place inside the star sets how much of it is left. Some books also allow other starting stars. Both are on where the dasha starts, and the other dasa systems, which give the stars to other lords, on the dasa family.
🧭 What this builds on
What a dasha and a bhukti are, and how to read a dasha line, is on dasha and bhukti.