The Dashamsha (D10) career chart via API

The Dashamsha (D10) chart is the divisional chart in Vedic astrology read for career, profession, status, and the fruits of one's work. With the Vedika API you can compute a person's D10 from their birth details over HTTP, get every planet's sign, degree, and house in the tenth division, and optionally request a source-cited career interpretation in one call. This deep dive walks through the varga math, the exact endpoint shapes, the classical references behind the reading, and runnable code.

What the Dashamsha is and why a divisional chart matters

A divisional chart (a varga) is built by subdividing each 30-degree sign into smaller arcs and re-mapping those arcs onto signs. The Dashamsha divides every sign into ten parts of three degrees each, producing the tenth-harmonic chart. Where the birth chart (D1, or Rasi) shows the broad life, the D10 sharpens the lens onto one domain: karma in the sense of profession, public role, and worldly achievement.

The classical basis for assigning divisional charts to life areas is Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS), which enumerates the shodasavarga (sixteen divisional charts) and associates the Dashamsha with livelihood and the results of action. Practitioners cross-read the D10 with the tenth house of the D1, the karaka for profession, and the relevant Vimshottari dasha period before drawing a conclusion. A serious career reading is never the D10 alone; it is the D10 in context.

How the D10 is computed

The Dashamsha mapping follows a parity rule from BPHS. For an odd sign, the ten divisions are counted from the same sign forward; for an even sign, they are counted from the ninth sign forward. Concretely:

• Take a planet's longitude within its sign (0 to 30 degrees).
• Find which of the ten 3-degree segments it falls in (segment index 0 to 9).
• For an odd sign, the resulting D10 sign is the natal sign plus the segment index.
• For an even sign, the resulting D10 sign is the ninth sign from the natal sign, plus the segment index.

This is deterministic arithmetic once you have an accurate longitude. The hard part is the longitude itself, which is where the ephemeris quality decides everything downstream. A 0.2-degree error at the D1 level is amplified by the subdivision and can throw a planet into the wrong D10 segment near a boundary.

The endpoints you will use

The Vedika API exposes more than 600 operations across 25 domains (704 enumerated as of June 2026). For the D10 you have two natural entry points depending on whether you want raw computation or a written interpretation.

The V2 computation family (/v2/astrology/*) takes flat parameters and is the right choice when you want to render your own UI from structured data. The query endpoint nests birth details and is the right choice when you want a grounded, written reading. Both authenticate with an x-api-key: vk_live_* header against https://api.vedika.io.

Fetching the raw D10

This request asks for the divisional charts and you read the D10 block out of the response. Note the flat datetime, latitude, longitude, and timezone fields used across the V2 family.

curl -X POST https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/divisional-charts \
  -H "x-api-key: vk_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "datetime": "1988-04-12T07:45:00",
    "latitude": 19.0760,
    "longitude": 72.8777,
    "timezone": "Asia/Kolkata",
    "charts": ["D1", "D10"]
  }'

The response groups planets by chart. Reading the D10 block tells you, for example, that the tenth-lord of the D1 has moved into a particular sign and house in the Dashamsha, which is exactly the cross-reference a career analysis starts from.

Asking a career question and getting an interpreted answer

When you want prose rather than coordinates, post a natural-language question with the birth details nested under birthDetails. The platform computes the chart (including the D10), then composes an answer whose astrological claims are attributed to classical sources.

const res = await fetch("https://api.vedika.io/api/v1/astrology/query", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": "vk_live_your_key_here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    question: "What does my Dashamsha say about my career direction and timing?",
    birthDetails: {
      datetime: "1988-04-12T07:45:00",
      latitude: 19.0760,
      longitude: 72.8777,
      timezone: "Asia/Kolkata"
    }
    // add speed: "fast" for the lower-latency path
  })
});

const data = await res.json();
console.log(data.answer);       // interpreted career reading
console.log(data.chart?.D10);   // structured D10 facts behind the answer

The same shape works from any language. Here is the Python equivalent for a backend job:

import requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.vedika.io/api/v1/astrology/query",
    headers={"x-api-key": "vk_live_your_key_here"},
    json={
        "question": "Which professions suit this Dashamsha, and when do they activate?",
        "birthDetails": {
            "datetime": "1988-04-12T07:45:00",
            "latitude": 19.0760,
            "longitude": 72.8777,
            "timezone": "Asia/Kolkata",
        },
    },
    timeout=60,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
print(resp.json()["answer"])

Where the numbers come from

Every planetary longitude underneath the D10 is produced by the XALEN Ephemeris, Vedika's own open-source astronomical engine released under Apache-2.0 and published to crates.io, PyPI, and npm. It carries roughly 2,200 tests and was validated against JPL DE440 and swetest, with zero charts deviating beyond 0.1 degrees across a five-million-chart comparison.

That figure is an ephemeris precision statement about astronomical positions, not a claim about astrology being predictive. It matters here because the Dashamsha is a tenth-harmonic chart: small longitude errors near a 3-degree segment boundary flip a planet into the adjacent D10 sign. Tight ephemeris agreement keeps the varga subdivision honest, so the structured D10 you render matches what a careful practitioner would draw by hand from the same birth data.

Three systems, one request surface

Vedika serves Vedic (sidereal), Western (tropical), and KP from a single API, alongside Jaimini, Tajaka, Lal Kitab, and numerology. The Dashamsha is a Vedic varga, so it is computed sidereally with the ayanamsa applied, while a Western natal call from the same engine uses tropical longitudes. Keeping all three systems behind one request surface means a product that offers career readings in multiple traditions does not need three vendors.

Reading the D10 responsibly

A D10 endpoint is only as trustworthy as the sources behind its interpretation. Vedika attributes astrological statements to texts actually used in Jyotish training, such as Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Phaladeepika, and Jataka Parijata for career significations, rather than paraphrasing unsourced web summaries. If you are building a product where users will scrutinise the reasoning, that traceability is the difference between a number you can defend and one you cannot.

A few practical guardrails when you wire the D10 into your own app:

• Always pass an explicit timezone. A missing or wrong timezone shifts the ascendant and can move the whole D10 by a house.
• Cross-read the D10 with the D1 tenth house and the running dasha before presenting a verdict; the API returns both so you can show the chain of reasoning.
• Treat the interpretation as guidance, not a deterministic life outcome, and present it that way to end users.

Try it without a key

You can explore the request and response shapes before committing. The free sandbox serves mock endpoints with no authentication, so you can wire up your D10 rendering against realistic payloads first. When you are ready for live charts, see pricing (plans from Starter at $12/month up to Enterprise, with per-query usage between $0.01 and $0.05) and the full API documentation for every divisional-chart parameter. If you are comparing divisions, the Navamsa (D9) marriage chart guide covers the same pattern for relationship analysis.

Key facts

• The Dashamsha (D10) divides each sign into ten 3-degree parts and is read for career, profession, and status.
• Raw D10 positions: POST /v2/astrology/divisional-charts with flat datetime, latitude, longitude, timezone.
• Interpreted career reading: POST /api/v1/astrology/query with nested birthDetails; SSE streaming at /api/v1/astrology/query/stream.
• Auth is x-api-key: vk_live_* against https://api.vedika.io.
• Longitudes come from the XALEN Ephemeris (Apache-2.0, ~2,200 tests), validated vs JPL DE440 and swetest within 0.1 degrees across five million charts.
• Vedic, Western, and KP share one API; the D10 is computed sidereally.
• Career interpretation is attributed to BPHS, Phaladeepika, and Jataka Parijata.
• Answers available in 30 languages, including 14 Indic languages.

FAQ

What is the Dashamsha (D10) chart used for? It is the tenth divisional chart, read primarily for career, profession, status, authority, and the fruits of one's actions, with its foundation in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra.

How do I get a D10 chart from the Vedika API? Post birth details to /v2/astrology/divisional-charts for raw positions, or ask a career question at /api/v1/astrology/query for a computed-and-interpreted answer, both with an x-api-key header.

Is the D10 calculation accurate? The underlying longitudes are produced by the XALEN Ephemeris, validated against JPL DE440 and swetest within 0.1 degrees; the D10 subdivision is then applied deterministically.

Which classical sources back the D10 interpretation? Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Phaladeepika, and Jataka Parijata, among the texts used in formal Jyotish training.