D10 Chart Calculator (Dasamsa)

Ten equal parts and the odd–even rule

Each dasamsa spans 3°, so the boundaries inside a sign fall on round numbers — 3°, 6°, 9° and on to 30°. Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra assigns signs to the ten parts in one of two ways. In an odd sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius) the first part belongs to the sign itself and the rest follow in zodiacal order. In an even sign (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces) the count opens at the ninth sign from it.

Two rows of the 1961 chart show both branches. The Moon is at Aquarius 3°18′: Aquarius is odd, 3°18′ is in the second part, and one sign on from Aquarius is Pisces, so the Moon's D10 sign is Pisces. Saturn is at Capricorn 4°17′: Capricorn is even, so the count opens at Virgo, 4°17′ is again the second part, and one on from Virgo is Libra. The D10 degree is the distance travelled into the part times ten, which is why Saturn reads 12°52′.

The rule has a quiet consequence. In an odd sign the first part maps back onto the sign itself; in an even sign the part that does so is the fifth, 12° to 15°, because four steps on from the ninth sign brings the count home. Jupiter at Capricorn 13°07′ sits in exactly that part, and it is the only body in the example that holds one sign in both the Rasi and the dasamsa.

The ten guardians of the directions

Parashara attaches a presiding deity to each dasamsa: the ten dikpalas, guardians of the quarters of space. In odd signs they run Indra, Agni, Yama, Rakshasa, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, Ishana, Brahma and Ananta; in even signs the same list runs backwards, from Ananta to Indra. Readers differ on how much weight the deities should carry, and the calculator does not print them.

They take a moment to work out from the table. The example's Rasi lagna, Scorpio 11°23′, lies in the fourth dasamsa of an even sign. Counting the reversed list — Ananta, Brahma, Ishana, Kubera — puts the lagna's dasamsa under Kubera, the guardian of the north. Any row can be handled the same way: decide whether the sign is odd or even, find which of the ten parts the degree falls in, and count from the matching end of the list.

Power and position, read through the tenth

In chapter 7 of Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra, where each division is given its subject, the dasamsa is allotted to power and position: standing, authority, the station a person holds. Calling it the career chart is a fair modern gloss, but the classical scope is wider than a job title. It covers status and the exercise of influence as much as any particular occupation.

A reading of the dasamsa chart usually begins with the D10 lagna and its lord, moves to the tenth house of the D10 with its occupants and lord, and then looks for the Rasi chart's own tenth lord to see where it lands in the division. Some readers also weigh the planets the classical lists name as significators of the tenth house, among them the Sun and Saturn. The result panel follows the same order of attention when it calls out the D10's tenth house and the placement of its lord.

An empty tenth house in the D10 is ordinary and says nothing by itself. Most houses in any chart hold no planet, and such a house is read through its lord — the lord's sign, house and dignity — which is why the result reports the lord's position whether the house is occupied or not.

The 1961 dasamsa, house by house

The example's D10 lagna is Libra at 23°55′, and Saturn sits on it at 12°52′; a reader would note at once that Libra is Saturn's sign of exaltation. Counting round from Libra, the tenth house of the D10 is Cancer, and it is empty. Its lord, the Moon, is in Pisces, the sixth house of the dasamsa, sharing that sign with Mercury at 15°46′.

The seventh house, Aries, holds the Sun at 4°15′ and Mars at 9°09′ — Aries being the Sun's exaltation sign and one of the two signs Mars rules. Jupiter is in Capricorn in the fourth. Venus, lord of the Libra lagna, shares Sagittarius in the third with Rahu, and Ketu is in Gemini in the ninth.

One more row is worth finding. The Rasi lagna is Scorpio, so the D1's tenth house is Leo and its lord is the Sun; in the dasamsa the Sun is in Aries, seventh from the D10 lagna. Gathering these facts — the lagna lord, the tenth and its lord, the D1's tenth lord — is the method. Turning them into a statement about someone's working life takes the rest of the chart and the dashas, and this page stops at the facts.

Twelve minutes of birth time

With every part only 3° wide, the D10 lagna changes about every twelve minutes on average — more often than the navamsa lagna does. The tenth house of the D10 is counted from that lagna, so an error of a quarter of an hour in the recorded time can move the whole callout: another tenth sign, another lord, another set of occupants.

The example makes the point sharply. Its rising degree, Scorpio 11°23′, is only about 37′ of arc short of 12°, the next dasamsa boundary. A birth roughly three minutes later would have given a Scorpio D10 lagna, a Leo tenth house and the Sun as that house's lord. A dasamsa drawn from an approximate time is best treated as provisional for exactly this reason.

Planets move through the dasamsas far more slowly, the Moon excepted — it crosses a 3° part in roughly five to six hours — so the planetary signs in the table are usually sound even when the houses are in doubt.

Where the D10 fits in a reading

The dasamsa is one of the sixteen divisions Parashara describes, and like all of them it is read with the Rasi chart, not in place of it. A planet strong in the D1 and well placed in the D10 is weighed differently from one that is strong in only one of them; the division qualifies what the Rasi chart states. The table shows the nine grahas with Rahu and Ketu included, while Uranus, Neptune and Pluto lie outside the classical scheme and are left off.

Nothing in the D10 fixes a date. Timing in the classical system comes from the dashas, and a dasamsa placement becomes relevant when the dasha of the planet concerned is running. This page shows the static chart; reading it against a dasha timeline is work for the full birth chart.

Which house of the D10 chart shows career?

The tenth, counted from the D10's own lagna rather than from the birth ascendant. Readers look at its sign, at any planets in it and at where its lord sits within the dasamsa. The D10 lagna and its lord matter as well, and so does the sign and house that the Rasi chart's tenth lord occupies in the D10.

Is dasamsa the same as dashamsha or D10?

Yes — three names for one chart. Dasamsa and dashamsha are two romanisations of the Sanskrit for a tenth part, and D10 is the numbered shorthand for the tenth divisional chart. All three refer to the division of each sign into ten portions of 3° under Parashara's odd-sign and even-sign rule.

Should the D10 be read from its own lagna or from the Rasi lagna?

From its own. Every divisional chart has a lagna of its own, found by dividing the rising degree, and houses in the D10 are numbered from it. Counting dasamsa placements from the birth ascendant mixes two charts and is not how divisional charts are normally read. The table on this page numbers each house from the D10 lagna.

How exact does my birth time need to be for a D10 chart?

Within a few minutes, if you want to rely on its houses. The D10 ascendant has just 3° of the rising sign to cross before it changes, which can take well under a quarter of an hour. If your time comes from memory rather than a birth record, lean on the planetary signs and set the houses aside.

Can the D10 chart tell me which profession to choose?

Not in the sense of a list of jobs. Classical texts tie the dasamsa to power and status, and practitioners infer kinds of work from the signs and planets involved, but those inferences vary between schools and lean on the whole chart. The D10 is better used to see how the career themes of the Rasi chart are qualified than to pick an occupation.

What does it mean when a planet has the same sign in D1 and D10?

It occupies one sign in both charts, which some readers count as a steadying factor for that planet in matters of standing — an extension of the vargottama idea normally applied to the navamsa. It can only happen in the first 3° of an odd sign or between 12° and 15° of an even one. Treat it as a descriptive note, not a ruling.