What Ashtakoota matching is
Ashtakoota, also called Gun Milan, Kundali Milan or horoscope matching, is the North Indian way of matching two people for marriage. It compares only two positions: the Moon of the boy and the Moon of the girl, each taken as a nakshatra (one of the 27 lunar mansions of 13°20′) and a Rashi (the sidereal sign the Moon occupies). Eight comparisons, the kootas, each carry a fixed number of points, from one for Varna up to eight for Nadi, so the total runs from 0 to 36. The rules this calculator applies are those of the Muhurta Chintamani, a manual of electional astrology written around 1600, in its chapter on marriage (ch. 6, verses 21–36). South India follows a different scheme of ten or twelve poruthams, which this page does not score.
Because only the Moons are needed, you can match two people from their birth details or simply from the nakshatra and pada written in a family horoscope. If you only know a birth date, place and time, the kundli calculator shows the Moon’s nakshatra and the rest of the Vedic chart.
The eight kootas
The tables are written for a bride and a groom: several of them read from her Moon to his and score the two directions differently. That is the only reason the form asks for a boy and a girl.
Varna
The twelve signs fall into four grades. The water signs are Brahmin, the fire signs Kshatriya, the earth signs Vaishya and the air signs Shudra (verse 22). The single point is given when the groom’s Moon sign is of the same grade as the bride’s or a higher one.
Vashya
Vashya asks whether one Moon sign is under the sway of the other. Verse 23 sets out the relations for the human signs and for Leo and leaves the rest to custom. The table in use today groups the signs into five classes (quadruped, human, water-dwelling, wild and insect, with Sagittarius and Capricorn split at their middle degree) and gives 2 points for one class, down to 0 for classes that do not yield to each other.
Tara
Count the nakshatras from the bride’s to the groom’s, both included, and divide by nine; then count back from his to hers. A remainder of 3, 5 or 7 (the taras called Vipat, Pratyari and Vadha) is unfavourable (verse 24). Each favourable direction is worth one and a half points, so Tara gives 3, 1½ or nothing.
Yoni
Every nakshatra has an animal, fourteen in all, from the horse of Ashwini to the elephant of Revati. The same animal for both scores the full 4. Seven pairs are named as great enemies and score 0: horse and buffalo, elephant and lion, sheep and monkey, serpent and mongoose, dog and deer, cat and rat, cow and tiger (verses 25–26). Other pairs fall in between.
Graha Maitri
This koota looks at the lords of the two Moon signs and at how each regards the other in the natural friendship of the planets (verses 27–28). The same lord, or two lords who are friends both ways, gives 5; a friend and a neutral 4; two neutrals 3; a friend and an enemy 1; a neutral and an enemy ½; two enemies nothing.
Gana
Each nakshatra belongs to one of three temperaments: Deva (divine), Manushya (human) or Rakshasa (fierce) (verse 29). The same gana scores 6. The commentary quoted under verse 30 gives 5 for a Deva groom with a Manushya bride and 4 for the reverse. A Rakshasa groom still earns 2 with a Deva bride and 1 with a Manushya bride, while a Rakshasa bride with a groom of either other gana scores 0.
Bhakoot
Bhakoot counts the two Moon signs from each other. When they stand 2/12, 5/9 or 6/8 apart the koota gives nothing; any other distance, the same sign included, gives all 7 points (verse 31).
Nadi
The nakshatras run through three nadis, Adi, Madhya and Antya, in the order 1-2-3-3-2-1 (verse 34). Two Moons in different nadis score the full 8, two in the same nadi score 0. The text treats a shared middle nadi as the gravest case.
Nadi and Bhakoot dosha, and when they are cancelled
A dosha here is simply a koota that scores nothing where the text sees harm. Nadi dosha means one nadi for both Moons; Bhakoot dosha means Moon signs 2/12, 5/9 or 6/8 apart. The Muhurta Chintamani then lists conditions that remove the fault, and the calculator checks the ones that need nothing but the two Moons.
Nadi dosha is cancelled when the two Moons share a Rashi but sit in different nakshatras, when they share a nakshatra but fall in different Rashis, or when they share both and differ only by pada (verse 36). Bhakoot dosha is cancelled when one planet rules both Rashis or when their lords are friends of each other, but only while the nadis differ (verse 32); B. V. Raman’s Muhurtha repeats the first two conditions. The text gives further conditions of a technical kind, such as the friendship of the navamsa lords for Bhakoot (verse 32) and for Gana (verse 33), which this page does not apply.
A cancelled dosha does not change the points. The table still shows 0 for that koota; the dosha block beneath it says the fault is present and which rule cancels it, so you can weigh it yourself.
What the score means
The total adds the eight kootas. Common practice treats 18 of the 36 points as the minimum for a match, although the Muhurta Chintamani itself names no such threshold. The words under the number (not recommended, average, good, excellent) follow a popular modern scale, shown with its limits so you can see where a total sits.
Read the number as a summary of eight tables, not as a judgement on two people. Astrologers who use Ashtakoota weigh the doshas separately and usually look at more than the Moons before they say anything about a marriage.
Why sites give different scores
Two calculators can disagree on the same pair because they follow different tables. Gana is the clearest case: the common table is printed both ways round, so programs disagree on a Deva bride with a Rakshasa groom; the commentary followed here gives that pair 2, and a Deva groom with a Manushya bride 5, not 6. Yoni tables differ by a point in their middle values, and some score cow and tiger above zero. Vashya tables vary in their half points and in where they split Sagittarius and Capricorn. Some programs score the unfavourable taras as favourable, and some cancel Bhakoot dosha without checking the nadis. South Indian lists also place the signs in other varnas.
This calculator takes every table the Muhurta Chintamani spells out, and for Vashya and the middle values of Yoni, which the text does not tabulate, the table in common use. If your result differs from another site by a few points, one of these choices is usually the reason.
What matching does not cover
Manglik dosha, the placement of Mars, is a separate check and is not part of this score. Ashtakoota also ignores the rest of both charts: the ascendants, the seventh houses, the planets other than the Moon. Raman advises judging the strength of the charts before the kootas are counted at all.
The calculator compares two Moon positions by traditional tables. It is offered for entertainment only and is no substitute for knowing each other.
Ask about the relationship in AstroGPT
If a question about this relationship is on your mind, ask it in AstroGPT. The app casts a chart for the moment you ask; in Vedic mode it reads that chart as Prashna, the Indian practice of answering a question from the sky of the moment. It does not compare two birth charts, so it answers the question you ask rather than the match.
Ask about the relationship
AstroGPT answers a question about the relationship from the chart of the moment you ask. In Vedic mode it reads the Prashna chart.