Kundli Milan

What Kundli Milan measures

Every one of the eight kootas is read from a single thing: the Moon — its sign and its nakshatra in each chart. Nothing else in either horoscope enters the score.

So it needs both birth times, and it is silent about everything the Moon does not touch.

The eight kootas

They are not equally weighted, and the weighting is the part most summaries leave out. Nadi alone carries eight of the thirty-six; Varna carries one.

Varna 1 point

Work and temperament in the broadest sense — the traditional grouping of the twelve signs into four types. It carries one point, which is a fair reflection of how much weight it is given.

Vashya 2 points

Which partner naturally takes the lead, and whether that is mutual. Low scores here point at a pull for control rather than at incompatibility.

Tara 3 points

The count between the two birth nakshatras, read as how the relationship fares through time — periods of ease and periods of strain.

Yoni 4 points

Physical and instinctive compatibility. Each nakshatra carries an animal symbol, and the system reads the pairing of the two.

Graha Maitri 5 points

Whether the planets ruling the two moon signs are friendly to each other. In practice this is the mental and intellectual fit — whether two people find each other easy to think alongside.

Gana 6 points

Temperament, sorted into three types: Deva, Manushya and Rakshasa. A mismatch here is about differing instincts under pressure rather than about character.

Bhakoot 7 points

The distance between the two moon signs, read for the general prosperity and direction of the household. One of the two kootas that can block a match on its own.

Nadi 8 points

Constitution, in something like the Ayurvedic sense — Aadi, Madhya and Antya. It carries the most points of any koota and is the one most often cited when a match is refused.

What the score means

32–36

Rare. Very few pairs of charts reach this.

25–31

A strong score by the classical reckoning.

18–24

The conventional threshold for proceeding. Most matches that go ahead sit here.

Below 18

Traditionally a prompt for closer analysis rather than a refusal — which is what the next section is about.

Two matches on the same total can be quite different. Twenty points lost across Varna, Vashya and Tara is not the same situation as twenty points with a zero on Nadi, even though the number is identical.

Nadi and Bhakoot — the two that usually cause the trouble

Between them these carry fifteen of the thirty-six points, so a match can lose nearly half its score on two factors while doing well on the other six. That is the most common reason a couple is told their charts do not match.

Both have documented cancelling conditions, and the classical texts are clearer about them than most summaries suggest. Nadi dosha is set aside when the two share a moon sign but not a nakshatra, when they share a nakshatra but sit in different padas, or when one planet rules both moon signs. Bhakoot dosha is set aside when the moon-sign lords are the same planet or are mutual friends.

Our result runs those checks and reports them alongside the finding. A zero with a cancellation in force is a different thing from a zero without one, and being told only the zero is what makes this frightening rather than useful.

Manglik dosha

Separate from the 36 gunas and checked on its own. Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house from the Lagna makes a chart Manglik. Because it depends on houses rather than the Moon, it needs an accurate birth time in a way the guna score does not.

The cancellations matter as much as the finding. Both charts Manglik is the most cited, and is treated as the two offsetting. Mars in its own sign or exalted, Mars aspected by Jupiter, and the affliction falling in a sign ruled by Mars or Saturn are the others we check. All eight cancellations, and what each rests on →

What Guna Milan does not measure

Worth stating plainly, because a score out of 36 reads like a verdict and is not one. The eight kootas compare two moon positions. They do not know:

• — how two people actually treat each other
• — whether they want the same kind of life
• — money, work, or where either of them will live
• — either family, and how much room the couple will have
• — health, beyond the constitutional grouping Nadi uses
• — whether both people are choosing this freely

Those decide more than the score does. Guna Milan is one input among several, and it is at its most useful when read as a description of eight specific comparisons rather than as a judgement on a marriage.

How it is calculated

Both charts are computed from the Swiss Ephemeris, sidereal, with the Lahiri ayanamsa. The score uses the standard Ashtakoot weightings — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, summing to 36 — from each chart's moon longitude, which is what fixes both the moon sign and the nakshatra. Manglik is read from the Lagna, separately.

Common questions