Dashami tithi is the tenth lunar day of each fortnight. In the bright half the Moon stands 108 to 120 degrees ahead of the Sun, two-thirds to three-quarters lit and strong; in the dark half it stands 288 to 300 degrees ahead, a thinning Moon a quarter to a third lit, rising in the small hours. It is the tithi of Vijayadashami, the day of victory, and of Ganga Dussehra. Its presiding deity is Yama, which alarms some families until they learn which side of Yama the tradition means here, and its planet in the weekday scheme is the Moon. Roughly one birth in fifteen falls on it. This article looks at what being born on dashami tithi signifies, how differently the Moon behaves across the two fortnights, the tradition’s associations for the day, and their modest weight next to the chart the kundali calculator produces.
The tithi before is Navami, the day of Durga, and the tithi after is Ekadashi.
Conventions used. A birth is assigned the lunar day current at its minute, the thirty tithis dividing the Moon’s circuit away from the Sun into equal twelve-degree parts. Sign placements are sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa. Percentages were measured on random birth moments across 1950 to 2010 with the Swiss Ephemeris.
Born on Dashami? Read the full chart behind it.
A consultation reads your Moon's sign, nakshatra and strength, the lagna and its lord, and the dasha you are running, and explains what the chart shows for the years ahead.
In this article
- Dashami tithi: the tenth day in outline
- Shukla Dashami: a strong Moon in trine
- Krishna Dashami: a thinning Moon in the morning sky
- Yama as Dharmaraja, the keeper of order
- Purna again: fullness and completion
- The Moon, lord of the tenth tithi
- Leo and Scorpio: the burnt signs
- Vijayadashami and the self-auspicious days
- Ganga Dussehra and the other Dashamis
- Dashami in KP
- Two Dashami births
- Frequently asked questions
Dashami tithi: the tenth day in outline
Dashami is the tenth. The Muhurta Chintamani names Yama, called Antaka there, as its deity; it is the second of the Purna tithis after Panchami; some lists describe it as Saumya, gentle or sober; and its planet in the weekday count is the Moon. Its burnt signs are Leo and Scorpio. Each half accounted for 3.4 percent of births in the sample. Saumya is the word used for the Moon’s own nature, mild, cool and agreeable, and it sits comfortably with a tithi the Moon rules. The dashami tithi meaning, then, joins order and consequence through its deity with fullness through its class, and a gentle, lunar temper through its name and planet.
Shukla Dashami: a strong Moon in trine
On Shukla Dashami the Moon is between two-thirds and three-quarters lit, a bright gibbous Moon that sets well after midnight. In 79 percent of shukla dashami births it sits in the fifth sign from the Sun, and in the rest in the fourth, so for most of these births the two luminaries are in trine. By phase the Moon is firmly benefic. The traditional reading is warm: confidence that rests on emotional security, generosity, and a knack for keeping a household or group in good spirits.
Krishna Dashami: a thinning Moon in the morning sky
On Krishna Dashami the Moon is only a quarter to a third lit, rising in the early hours and still visible after sunrise. It sits in the eleventh sign from the Sun in 81 percent of krishna dashami births, in the tenth otherwise, and by phase it is weak. The classical picture for this half is quieter: a person who sets their own standards, works steadily without much need for encouragement, and often carries responsibilities others would find heavy. As with every weak-phase Moon, its sign, nakshatra and aspects can shift that reading a long way.
Yama as Dharmaraja, the keeper of order
Yama’s name frightens people, and a birth on his tithi is sometimes treated as ominous. The tradition’s own picture is different. Yama is Dharmaraja, king of dharma, the first mortal and the judge who weighs every life with complete fairness, and it is to him that the young Nachiketa goes for the teaching on the self in the Katha Upanishad. He governs order, accountability and consequence, not misfortune. As a birth deity he points to a strong sense of right and wrong, respect for rules and fairness, reliability, and a willingness to face hard truths calmly. Nothing about a Dashami birth predicts harm, and no responsible reading would suggest otherwise. The tradition’s warmest story about him is the one behind Bhai Dooj, when his sister Yamuna feeds him and he grants long life to every brother so honoured, which is hardly the portrait of a god to fear.
Purna again: fullness and completion
Dashami is the middle Purna tithi, between Panchami and the fifteenth tithi, Purnima or Amavasya. Purna tithis suit completion and most auspicious work in muhurta, and a Purna tithi on a Thursday is counted Siddha. Like Panchami, Dashami ends in a tithi gandanta junction: its last forty-eight minutes and the first forty-eight of Ekadashi form one of the six windows described in the Panchami article, and only a small fraction of Dashami births fall inside it. The Purna quality, read into a person, is a liking for seeing things through to a proper end.
The Moon, lord of the tenth tithi
The weekday count gives the Moon two tithis, Dwitiya and Dashami. For a Dashami birth that makes the natal Moon the planet to read first, since it both defines the tithi and rules it. On Shukla Dashami the combination is usually favourable: a strong, well-lit Moon ruling its own tithi. On Krishna Dashami the tithi lord is weak by phase, and its sign and aspects need a careful look before any conclusion is drawn. The one combination worth flagging is a Krishna Dashami Moon in Scorpio: weak by phase, debilitated by sign, and in one of the tithi’s own burnt signs. Even then the verdict belongs to the aspects, the Moon’s dispositor and any cancellation of the debilitation, not to the tally of weaknesses.
Leo and Scorpio: the burnt signs
Navami and Dashami burn the same two signs. For a Dashami birth these are the Sun’s Leo and Mars’s Scorpio, and the tradition expects the bhavas they occupy to fall a little short while the two rulers act with less force. A ruler sitting in the sixth, eighth or twelfth, a retrograde ruler and a natural malefic in the sign are the usual exceptions. It is a detail to note in passing, and a strong Sun or Mars elsewhere in the chart easily outweighs it.
Vijayadashami and the self-auspicious days
Vijayadashami, the Shukla Dashami of Ashvin, is the day of victory: Durga’s over Mahishasura and Rama’s over Ravana. Maharashtrian tradition counts it among the sade-teen muhurta: three full days and one half day each year that are auspicious enough on their own, with no electional search required. Two of the others fall on tithis covered in this series, Pratipada and Tritiya.
| Day | Tithi | Sun usually in | Traditionally begun on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gudi Padwa and Ugadi | Chaitra Shukla Pratipada | Pisces | The new year and new ventures |
| Akshaya Tritiya | Vaishakha Shukla Tritiya | Aries, where it is exalted | Purchases of gold, charity and beginnings that should last |
| Vijayadashami | Ashvin Shukla Dashami | Virgo | A child’s first letters, journeys and new undertakings |
| Bali Pratipada, the half day | Kartika Shukla Pratipada | Libra | The business new year in some regions and gifts between spouses |
In Kerala and elsewhere in the south, Vijayadashami is the day of Vidyarambham, when small children are taken to write their first letters, often in rice or sand, under a teacher’s or grandparent’s hand. For a person born on the day, its reputation is a pleasant thing to carry. It does not change the chart, but it often shapes how a family sees a child. Even on these days, careful astrologers still check the lagna and the Moon for a major undertaking; the tradition removes the need to hunt for a date, not the need to look at the moment.
Ganga Dussehra and the other Dashamis
The word Dussehra, from dasha-hara, is usually explained as the remover of ten, and it names two festivals on this tithi. Vijayadashami is the better known. Ganga Dussehra, the Shukla Dashami of Jyeshtha, marks the descent of the Ganga to earth, and bathing in the river that day is believed to wash away ten kinds of wrongdoing. Vijayadashami itself carries several customs besides the burning of Ravana’s effigy: Aparajita puja for the undefeated goddess, the exchange of shami leaves as symbolic gold in Maharashtra, and in many families the worship of books and tools begun the day before. The dark-half Dashamis carry fewer observances, though Ekadashi fasters often begin their preparation on the evening before, on Dashami.
Dashami in KP
KP makes no use of the birth tithi, and a technical point shows why the two stand apart. A tithi is the difference between the Moon’s longitude and the Sun’s, so it is identical whichever ayanamsa is used: the correction cancels out. KP’s sub-lords, by contrast, sit on the zodiac itself, and the choice between the Lahiri value and the KP variants discussed in the site’s article on the KP New ayanamsa can move a cusp into a different sub. The tithi is robust and descriptive; the sub-lords are sensitive and decisive, which is exactly why KP relies on them.
Two Dashami births
A man born in the hour before dawn on Vijayadashami, particulars changed, Cancer on the ascendant. His Sun sits at 20 degrees Virgo in the third house and the Moon at 14 degrees Capricorn in the seventh, 114 degrees ahead: Shukla Dashami, with a strong Moon that is also his lagna lord and the tithi’s lord. Because his birth tithi is Vijayadashami itself, his lunar birthday and Vidyarambham fall together every year, and his grandfather wrote his first letters in rice on his fourth. He now teaches Malayalam literature at a college. The site’s page on the Moon in Capricorn describes the steady, disciplined temper that goes with his Moon’s sign, and it fits him better than any festival does.
The second is a woman, particulars again changed, born moments after sunrise with Capricorn on the ascendant and the Sun at 10 degrees Sagittarius in the twelfth. The Moon, at 4 degrees Libra in the tenth, is 294 degrees ahead of the Sun: Krishna Dashami, a thin, waning Moon weak by phase. Her grandmother worried about a birth on Yama’s tithi. Saturn sits exalted in Libra beside the Moon in the tenth, a placement the page on Saturn in Libra describes as the planet of justice at its most balanced. She is a district judge with a reputation for patience and fairness, which is as good a description of Dharmaraja as any.
Frequently asked questions
What is Dashami tithi?
The tenth lunar day of each fortnight: the Moon 108 to 120 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Dashami, or 288 to 300 degrees on Krishna Dashami. It is a Purna tithi.
Should a birth on Yama’s tithi worry a family?
No. Yama here is Dharmaraja, the lord of order and fair judgment, and a Dashami birth predicts no harm. The tithi is associated with integrity and a sense of justice.
How do Shukla and Krishna Dashami differ?
On Shukla Dashami the Moon is two-thirds to three-quarters lit, strong and usually in trine to the Sun. On Krishna Dashami it is a quarter to a third lit, weak by phase and usually in the eleventh sign from the Sun.
Which planet rules Dashami?
The Moon, in the weekday scheme of tithi lords, which gives it Dwitiya as well. Its deity in the Muhurta Chintamani is Yama.
Why is Vijayadashami considered auspicious?
It celebrates the victories of Durga and Rama, and tradition counts it among the three and a half self-auspicious days of the year, along with Gudi Padwa, Akshaya Tritiya and half of Bali Pratipada.
What are the burnt signs of Dashami?
The same pair Navami burns: Leo, the Sun’s sign, and Scorpio, the sign of Mars. For a nativity it is a minor adjustment hedged with exceptions.
What is Ganga Dussehra?
The Shukla Dashami of Jyeshtha, marking the Ganga’s descent to earth, when bathing in the river is believed to remove ten kinds of wrongdoing.
A tithi of order. Now read the chart itself.
A consultation reads your Moon, the lagna and its lord, and the cusps that matter for your questions in the dasha you are running, and places the Dashami birth where it belongs.