Share your birth details
Date, exact time of birth and place — the time to the minute is what makes the chart usable.
Astrology · Matching
Guna Milan
Guna Milan is the ashtakoota system, which scores eight koota factors out of thirty-six from the birth nakshatras of the two people. It is a screening step rather than a verdict: a high score with an unaddressed dosha, or a low score from a single koota, both need looking at properly.
How it works
From your details to the answer
The chart is cast and read
Your Janma Kundali, divisional charts, running dasha and current gochara are read together.
You receive the analysis
A written answer to the question you asked, with the placements it rests on stated plainly.
Talk it through
A call with the astrologer to go over the reading and the remedies, if you want one.
Guide
When is Guna Milan useful?
It is used at the first stage of matching, when several proposals are being narrowed down.
Astrologers differ on method — ayanamsa, dasha system and house division are all matters on which respected traditions disagree. A reading states which conventions it follows, and describes tendency and timing rather than settling a decision for you.
Scope
What the consultation covers
All eight kootas computed, each reported with its own points rather than as a total
Which kootas the lost points came from, since that matters more than the number
Nadi and Bhakoot checked specifically, as the two heaviest factors
Whether a recognised exception applies to any koota that failed
In the chart
What the astrologer reads for Guna Milan
- Nadi koota — 8 points
- The heaviest single factor. Nadi is computed from the birth nakshatras and classifies each as Aadi, Madhya or Antya; the same nadi on both sides loses all eight at once, which is how a match drops below the threshold on one factor.
- Bhakoot koota — 7 points
- Read from the mutual position of the two moon signs. With Nadi it accounts for fifteen of the thirty-six, so a score is largely decided by these two before the other six are counted.
- Gana koota — 6 points
- Classifies each birth star as Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa and scores the pairing for temperament — the largest of the remaining factors.
- The five lighter kootas
- Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni and Graha Maitri carry 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points. Together they are fifteen, so a match can lose all of them and still reach the usual threshold if Nadi and Bhakoot hold.
Sources
What is established, and what varies
The first list is what published practice describes consistently. The second is where schools, regions and sampradayams legitimately differ — and where the astrologer’s own tradition decides the answer rather than a general rule.
Consistently described
- The eight kootas and their points are Varna 1, Vashya 2, Tara 3, Yoni 4, Graha Maitri 5, Gana 6, Bhakoot 7 and Nadi 8, totalling 36.
- Nadi classifies a birth star as Aadi, Madhya or Antya; Gana classifies it as Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa.
- All eight are computed from the birth nakshatras and moon signs of the two people, without reference to the rest of either chart.
Varies by tradition
- The threshold. Eighteen is the figure most commonly quoted; sources differ, and several set separate thresholds for particular kootas.
- Which exceptions to nadi and bhakoot dosha are accepted, which differs substantially between schools and regions.
- Whether ashtakoota is used at all in preference to the ten poruthams, which is the more usual Telugu practice.
In plain terms
The eight kootas, and what each reads
Guna Milan is the ashtakoota system: eight kootas scored from the birth nakshatras and moon signs of two people, totalling thirty-six. It is a screening step and not a verdict. The points are distributed very unevenly — Nadi carries eight and Varna one — so a bare total conceals which kootas it came from, and a high score with an unaddressed dosha or a low score from a single lost koota both need reading rather than accepting. This page is the score worked through koota by koota, with the points shown.
- Varna, Vashya, Tara and Yoni
- The four lighter kootas — one, two, three and four points. Classification, mutual influence, the count between the birth stars, and temperament by the animal assigned to each nakshatra. Ten points between them, rarely decisive alone.
- Graha Maitri
- Five points, for the friendship between the lords of the two moon signs. The tradition's approximation of mental compatibility, and with Gana the part of the system that is most about the people.
- Gana
- Six points, for temperament — each birth star is deva, manushya or rakshasa, and the pairing is scored. A deva–rakshasa pairing loses most of the six.
- Bhakoot
- Seven points, for the relationship between the two moon signs counted from each other. The second-largest block, and a common source of an objection — but one with well-documented exceptions.
- Nadi
- Eight points, the largest single block. Each birth star is Aadi, Madhya or Antya, and both parties sharing a nadi loses all eight. Losing Nadi alone costs more than the four lighter kootas together.
- The threshold
- Eighteen out of thirty-six is the figure most often quoted as the point for further consideration. It is a convention rather than doctrine, several sources set it differently, and a total is a sum of unequal parts.
Related consultations
What the score does not do, and where to go for it
Guna milan is arithmetic from two birth stars. Everything it does not cover — the seventh houses, the timing, the doshas as rules, the Telugu poruthams — has a reading of its own.
The reasoning behind the number
Both charts read individually, then together, for temperament, family and timing. The depth a score cannot carry.
Marriage Compatibility →The whole match
Score, poruthams, both seventh houses, both dasha sequences, and any dosha with its cancellation. The standard matching consultation, of which this page is one part.
Kundali Matching →Nadi, on its own
Eight points and its own set of exceptions — the same rasi, the same nakshatra lord, different padas. Worth reading alone before a match is set aside on it.
Nadi Dosha Analysis →A Mars objection
Kuja dosha is not a koota at all — it is a placement in one chart, with its own rules and cancellations — and it is read separately from the score.
Kuja Dosha / Manglik Analysis →One chart, for marriage
What each chart indicates about marriage as such, before any comparison — the seventh, the Navamsa, the karakas.
Marriage Astrology →The wedding time
Once the families have decided, the date is a muhurtham cast forward against both charts, not a further reading of the score.
Marriage Muhurtham →The arithmetic
What each koota is scored from
| Points | Computed from | |
|---|---|---|
| Varna | 1 | The moon sign's varna class, one of four. |
| Vashya | 2 | The moon sign's vashya group, and which of the two the tradition reads as influencing the other. |
| Tara | 3 | The count from each birth star to the other, taken modulo nine. |
| Yoni | 4 | The animal assigned to each birth star, and whether the pair are friendly, neutral or hostile. |
| Graha Maitri | 5 | The natural friendship between the two moon-sign lords. |
| Gana | 6 | The deva, manushya or rakshasa class of each birth star. |
| Bhakoot | 7 | The two moon signs counted from each other — 2/12, 5/9 and 6/8 are the classical objections. |
| Nadi | 8 | The Aadi, Madhya or Antya nadi of each birth star. Same nadi loses all eight. |
| Total | 36 | Eighteen is the conventional threshold for further discussion. A convention, not a rule. |
Every koota is computed from the two birth stars or the two moon signs, and nothing else. That is the whole reason the score is a screening step: it never sees a seventh house, a dasha or a lagna.
Come prepared
Questions worth asking about a score
A score arrives as a number and is very easily received as a verdict. These are the questions that turn it back into eight separate readings.
- Which kootas were lost, and how many points did each cost?
- If Nadi or Bhakoot was lost, does one of the documented exceptions apply — same rasi, same lord, different padas?
- How did Gana and Graha Maitri read — the two kootas most about the people?
- Did you compute from the birth nakshatra and moon sign only, and did both birth times give a reliable nakshatra?
- Why does this total differ from the one a website gave — a different ayanamsa, a different exception applied?
- What does this score not cover that a matching reading would?
- Would the ten poruthams, which my family may use instead, reach the same conclusion?
- Is eighteen the threshold you use, and why that figure?
Suitability
Who this reading is for
- A family has been quoted a total and wants to see how it was built, koota by koota.
- Two calculators have given different scores for the same pair and you want to know which is right and why.
- A single koota has sunk the total and you want to know whether an exception applies before the match is set aside.
- The score is high and you want to know what it does not cover before treating it as settled.
- You want the eight kootas explained in plain terms, with the points shown.
- You are about to ask for a full matching reading and want the arithmetic done cleanly first.
- You would rather have the eight numbers than the one.
A score is a screening step, and it screens on two facts about each person. It sees no seventh house, no dasha and no lagna, and it is silent on everything that is not in a birth star. Eighteen is a convention and not a rule; a low total with an exception in play, or a high one with a dosha unaddressed, both need reading rather than accepting. Treat the number as the start of a conversation with the families, not as the end of one.
Before you book
What to have ready
- Date of birth, time of birth as precisely as you know it, and place of birth.
- Say so if the birth time is uncertain — it can be narrowed by rectification rather than guessed.
- The specific question you want answered, which focuses the reading far more than a general request.
- For a property or premises, the floor plan and the direction the main entrance faces.
Do not act on a reading alone where a decision also needs professional advice — medical, legal or financial. A consultation is one input, and it is offered as one.
Written and reviewed by the AnugrahaSidhi editorial team. Last substantive review: . How we source and correct this material is set out in our editorial policy.
Common questions
Before you book
We scored 30 out of 36. Is that enough?
It is comfortably above the usual threshold, and it still does not settle the match on its own. Which six points were lost matters, and so does everything ashtakoota does not look at — both seventh houses, both dasha sequences, and any dosha. A high score is a reason to proceed to a full reading, not a substitute for one.
Can guna milan be done from names or dates alone?
It needs each person's birth nakshatra and moon sign, which are computed from date, time and place. Sites that ask only for a name are not computing anything.
Why do two calculators give different scores?
Usually ayanamsa. If a Moon sits near a nakshatra boundary, a small difference in ayanamsa moves it into the neighbouring star, which changes several kootas at once. Birth times rounded to the nearest hour do the same.
Which languages is the reading available in?
Telugu, Hindi and English. Ask for the one you want when you book.
Related
Others in Matching
Ask about Guna Milan
Send your birth details and the question you want answered. You get the reading in writing, with the placements it rests on named, and a call to talk it through.