What is a daśā, and what does “I am in Śani mahādaśā” mean?

a daśā is a planetary period; the Vimśottarī system divides a 120-year life cycle among the nine grahas.

The most widely used system, Vimśottarī daśā, gives each graha a fixed span: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rāhu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17 — 120 in all. Which one you start with depends on your birth nakṣatra, and how much of it is left depends on how far the Moon had travelled through that nakṣatra.

Each mahādaśā is split into antardaśās (sub-periods) of all nine planets, and those into smaller pratyantardaśās. The idea is that a planet “gives its results” — good or difficult — mainly during its own periods, coloured by its place in your chart.

So “Śani mahādaśā” simply means a 19-year chapter in which Saturn's themes — work, discipline, responsibility, patience — come to the front. It is not automatically bad; for many charts Saturn is a builder.

Source: Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra (daśā chapters) · Vimśottarī total: 120 years

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