Compatibility — Ashtakoota

How Guna Milan Works

Eight factors, thirty-six points, two Moons.

What is being compared

Ashtakoota (eight-fold) — also called guna milan or kundali matching — compares two charts on eight factors, each worth a different number of points, totalling 36.

What it actually compares is narrow and worth stating up front: the two natal Moon positions. Each partner's Moon nakshatra (and Moon sign) is the entire input. Nothing else in either chart enters the count.

That narrowness is the source of both its usefulness — it is fast, deterministic, and needs only two birth details — and of every way it is misused.

The eight kootas and their weights

| # | Koota | Points | Speaks to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Varna | 1 | Temperamental hierarchy and ego balance |
| 2 | Vashya | 2 | Mutual influence and adaptability |
| 3 | Tara | 3 | Shared fortune and well-being |
| 4 | Yoni | 4 | Physical and instinctive affinity |
| 5 | Graha Maitri | 5 | Mental wavelength and friendship |
| 6 | Gana | 6 | Temperament class match |
| 7 | Bhakoot | 7 | Emotional harmony and prosperity of the union |
| 8 | Nadi | 8 | Constitution, health and progeny |

The weights are simply 1 through 8, and 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 = 36. Nothing to memorise beyond the order.

Where the weight actually sits

That ordering matters more than it looks. The top four — Graha Maitri, Gana, Bhakoot and Nadi — carry 26 of the 36 points. The bottom four carry 10.

So a report showing a low total is almost always failing on one or two of the heavy kootas, and Nadi alone is 8 points — nearly a quarter of the scale. A single nadi mismatch drops a score from a possible 36 to a maximum of 28.

When you read a total, always ask which kootas failed. "22 out of 36" means nothing until you know whether it lost 8 on nadi or dribbled away points across the light ones.

Why the Moon

The Moon is manas — mind, feeling, temperament, the instinctive register. A marriage, in the classical framing, is a daily meeting of two temperaments, so the Moon is a defensible thing to compare.

But notice what is not compared: neither lagna, neither 7th house, neither 7th lord, neither Venus, no dashas, no divisional charts, no Mars condition. All of that is where a real reading of a marriage actually lives.

Guna milan is a screening tool built from two data points. Held to that, it is genuinely useful.

Remember it

Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni, Graha Maitri, Gana, Bhakoot, Nadi — worth 1 through 8, adding to 36. Two Moons in, one number out.

Terms introduced here

What guna milan is

An eight-factor comparison of two natal Moon positions, scored out of 36 points.

The eight kootas

Varna 1, Vashya 2, Tara 3, Yoni 4, Graha Maitri 5, Gana 6, Bhakoot 7, Nadi 8 — the weights are 1 through 8, summing to 36.

Graha Maitri, Gana, Bhakoot, Nadi

The heavier four, carrying 26 of the 36 points: mental wavelength, temperament, emotional harmony, and constitution.

It uses the Moon only

Every koota is derived from the two Moon nakshatras and Moon signs. The rest of both charts is untouched by the count.