In Parashara's Vimshottari the first dasha belongs to the lord of the star the Moon is in at birth, and what is left of it depends on how far the Moon has gone through that star. Jataka Parijata lists four possible starting stars, the lagna's, the Moon's, the name's and the Moon's at a query, and starts from the strongest. Sanjay Rath starts from the stronger of the lagna and the Moon. Nava always starts from the Moon.
☕ One clock, several starting marks
The nine dashas always run in the same order. The only questions are where in that order you enter, and how much of the first period is already used up. Change the starting star and you change both.
Parashara counts from the birth star, the star the Moon occupies (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 46, vv. 12–14, p. 507). The share of the first dasha still to run follows the Moon's place in the star: just entered, almost all of it is left; near the end, little. Three Moons and the dasha each one starts are in the card “Three Moons and the dasha each starts” below.
Jataka Parijata names four candidate stars and starts from the strongest (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. XVIII, v. 33, pp. 1020–1021), without saying what makes a star strongest. The next verse adds the 5th star from the birth star, or the lagna (ch. XVIII, v. 34, p. 1021); the translator adds "if stronger", but the Sanskrit sets no such test, and this page follows the verse. A further verse starts other cycles from the 5th, 8th and 4th stars (ch. XVIII, v. 35, pp. 1021–1022).
Sanjay Rath weighs these options and settles on the stronger of the lagna and the Moon (Sanjay Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology, pp. 4–7). A starting point counts as strong when Jupiter or Mercury joins it or aspects it, and when four planets hold the kendras he uses a kendra-based dasa instead; his two pages state that threshold differently.
What Nava follows: the Moon's star at birth, always, as Parashara does, with the balance taken by how far the Moon has travelled through the star. The other starting stars are not used. For a chart that meets Rath's condition the whole sequence of dates would differ; staying with the Moon is a choice.
The Moon's place sets the balance
- Moon at Mesha (Aries) 10°: Aswini, Ketu dasha, 1 year 9 months left of 7 years
- Moon at Vrishabha (Taurus) 16°40′: Rohini, Moon dasha, 5 years left of 10 years
- Moon at Kataka (Cancer) 17°40′: Ashlesha, Mercury dasha, 15 years 8 months 21 days left of 17 years
- Mix-up: the lagna's star and the Moon's star are the same thing. They are two points; they fall in the same star only by chance.
- Mix-up: the books agree on what the strongest star is. Jataka Parijata gives no test; Rath gives his own.
- Mix-up: measuring the balance by distance or by the Moon's stay always agrees. Only if the Moon moved at an even pace, which it does not.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Nava start every chart from the Moon?
It is Parashara's own start, and the one Vimshottari tables are built on. The alternatives need a test of strength that Jataka Parijata does not give and that Rath states his own way, so there is no single rule to compute.
How is the balance at birth measured?
Parashara's verse takes the share of the Moon's stay in the star that has already passed, read in ghatis from the panchang (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 46, v. 16, p. 508). The translator's own lookup measures how far the Moon has travelled through the star (ch. 46, pp. 509–513), as does a later verse of the chapter (ch. 46, v. 93, p. 542). Nava measures the distance. The two usually differ by a few days of dasha, rarely by about a month.
Is a dasha from the lagna a different system?
No. The nine lords, their years and their order stay the same; only the star you enter from changes. Systems that change the lords or the years are on the page “The Dasa Family”.
Deep dive: what moves when the start moves
Why a different start changes every date, and what this builds on.
🔁 Every date follows the first
Each dasha begins where the one before it ends. So the starting star and the balance left at birth fix not just the first period but every later boundary. Start from a different star and a different lord comes first, with a different share left; every date after it moves with it.
The year the dates are counted in is a separate question, on the 360- or 365-day year.
🧭 What this builds on
Which lord rules each star, and why stars nine apart share one, is on how the star lords repeat.