CHAPTER 39
1. Such is the rule relating to the life of people, regulated by the special rules regarding the periods (daya) (of the planets). Whatever is the number of years determined as being the period (daya) of any planet, they call that its dasa.
2. (But also) each (planet) obtains as its own age (vayas) an equal amount of’ time in the course of the lives of embodied beings; and, by means of their o\vn qualities and the influences of their periods (daya), they produce increase or decrease of men.
3. The Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, the Sun, and Saturn in order (possess) these ages; they are to be understood as existing concurrently with the dasas, from the birth of living beings till their extreme old age.
4. One should know that the age (vayas) of the Moon is one of drinking (one’s mother’s) milk; that of Mars is one of growing teeth; they say that of Mercury is the time of learning one’s lessons, and extends up to the time when one begins to be agitated by a desire for sexual intercourse;
5. they say that of Venus is youth, which has been considered previously in this rule (i.e., it is characterized by agitation by a desire for sexual intercourse); and that of Jupiter extends through middle age; they say the age (vayas) of the Sun is another (period) beyond that middle age; and that of Saturn is the unfortunate time of old age.
6. Whichever of the Moon, the Sun, and the ascendent has superior strength from the configuration of that time (of the nativity), its dasa is seen first, and the rest follow after in the order of their strengths.
7. Whatever planet is ruler of the age (vayas) or rises first, that is said to be lord of the dasa first; if a planet is superior in strength and is in a cardine, it is designated first among the remaining (dasas).
8. The best dasa for a planet is one which occurs during its own age (vayas) or when the planet is in its exaltation and has temporal strength; the middling dada when the planet is in its base-triplicity, in its own house, in a friend’s house, or in the birth-sign (the sign occupied by the Moon at the time of the nativity) ;
9. and a dasa is (called) ruined, pale, and rough when the planet is in its dejection, in an enemy’s house or navamsa, or overcome. Whatever (dasa) is spoken of when the lord of the sixth or eighth place is an enemy of the lord of the nativity, that (dasa) gives many faults.
10. If a malefic planet is in the sixth or eighth place and is aspected by an enemy which is in the house of a malefic, then it causes death in its dasa or diseases, wandering, imprisonment, and impoverishment.
In the Yavanajataka: the influence of the dasas.
