Compatibility — Ashtakoota

Varna, Vashya, Tara & Yoni

The lighter four — ten points between them.

Varna (1 point) — temperament class

Each Moon sign falls into one of four classes, by element:

| Varna | Element | Signs |
|---|---|---|
| Brahmin | Water | Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces |
| Kshatriya | Fire | Aries, Leo, Sagittarius |
| Vaishya | Earth | Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn |
| Shudra | Air | Gemini, Libra, Aquarius |

The point is awarded when the boy's varna is the same or higher than the girl's.

Worth being direct: this koota encodes a social hierarchy from the period it was written in, and it is worth exactly one point of thirty-six — the least of all eight. Read it as a note on temperamental register, not as anything about anyone's worth.

Vashya (2 points) — mutual influence

Vashya groups the Moon signs by nature — quadruped, human, aquatic, wild, and insect classes — and asks how readily one can influence or be influenced by the other.

It speaks to adaptability: whether one partner naturally accommodates the other, or whether both hold their ground. At 2 points it is a light factor, and scores of 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 are all possible.

Tara (3 points) — shared fortune

Tara is worked by counting nakshatras — the same counting you already know from the Nakshatras chapter.

Count from the girl's birth star to the boy's, and take the remainder on division by 9; then count the other way and do the same. Certain resulting taras are favourable and others are not.

Scoring is stepped: 3 points if both directions are favourable, 1.5 if only one is, 0 if neither. That two-way check is the point — Tara asks whether each partner is auspicious for the other, which need not be symmetric.

Yoni (4 points) — instinctive affinity

Yoni assigns each of the 27 nakshatras one of 14 animals, each with a sex — horse, elephant, goat, serpent, dog, cat, rat, and so on. Compatibility is read off a grid of how those animals relate.

The same animal scores full marks. Naturally hostile pairs — the classic examples being cat and rat, serpent and mongoose — score lowest. Everything else falls between.

It speaks to physical and instinctive affinity: the wordless, temperamental fit that isn't about shared values or interests. At 4 points it is the heaviest of the lower four.

Remember it

Varna is class (1), Vashya is influence (2), Tara is counted stars (3), Yoni is animals (4). Ten points in total — worth understanding, rarely worth arguing about.

Terms introduced here

Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni

The lower-weighted four: temperament class, mutual influence, shared fortune, and instinctive affinity.