36 Gun Milan, All 8 Kootas and How Each Is Scored

36 gun milan is the North Indian way of matching two horoscopes on 8 points, called kootas, that add up to 36 gunas. Varna is worth 1 guna and each koota after it is worth one more, up to Nadi with 8. Nadi and Bhakoot together carry 15 of the 36, so a pandit reads them first.

The 8 kootas are also called the ashtakoot, and the table of points is the kundli milan talika many Hindi panchangs print.

What "Gun" Means in Kundli Milan

A gun, or guna, is one point in the matching score. The word is used loosely: families say "24 gun mile" to mean the two horoscopes scored 24 out of 36.

Every koota is worked out from the moon at birth. The boy's and girl's nakshatra (birth star) and rasi (moon sign) are the only inputs. That is why a biodata with the correct nakshatra and rasi is enough for a pandit to give the score, even before he sees the full kundli. See where these two lines sit in a Hindu marriage biodata format.

The 8 Kootas at a Glance

These are the standard maximums used by Drik Panchang, Prokerala and most printed panchangs.

How Each Koota Is Scored

Varna, 1 Guna

The 12 rasis are grouped into four varnas. Kataka, Vrischika and Meena are Brahmin. Mesha, Simha and Dhanu are Kshatriya. Vrishabha, Kanya and Makara are Vaishya. Mithuna, Tula and Kumbha are Shudra.

The point is given when the boy's varna is the same as or higher than the girl's. This is the smallest koota, and few pandits reject a match over it.

Vashya, 2 Gunas

Vashya puts the rasis in five groups: human, four-footed, water, wild and insect. It checks whether one sign is "under the influence" of the other. Full match gives 2, a partial match 1 or half, and a clash 0.

Tara, 3 Gunas

Tara counts the stars from the girl's nakshatra to the boy's, and from the boy's to the girl's. Each count is divided by 9. A remainder of 3, 5 or 7 is unfavourable. Each direction gives 1.5 gunas when it is favourable, so both together give 3.

Yoni, 4 Gunas

Each of the 27 nakshatras is linked to one of 14 animals, such as the horse, elephant, snake or cat. Same animal gives 4. Friendly animals give 3 or 2. Sworn enemies, like the snake and the mongoose or the cat and the rat, give 0.

Graha Maitri, 5 Gunas

Every rasi has a ruling planet. Simha is ruled by the Sun, Kataka by the Moon, Kanya and Mithuna by Mercury, and so on. Graha Maitri checks whether these two lords are friends, neutral or enemies. The same lord or two friends give 5. Two enemies give 0.

Gana, 6 Gunas

Each nakshatra has a gana, or temperament: Deva (divine), Manushya (human) or Rakshasa (demon-like). Same gana gives 6. Deva with Rakshasa gives 0 or 1, depending on which side is which, and a very low gana score is called gana dosha.

Bhakoot, 7 Gunas

Bhakoot looks at how far apart the two moon signs are. Count from one rasi to the other. If they are 2 and 12, 5 and 9, or 6 and 8 places apart, bhakoot gives 0. Every other position gives the full 7.

A bhakoot score of 0 is called bhakoot dosha. Drik Panchang treats this as serious enough to lower the whole reading: with bhakoot unfavourable, no match is read as excellent.

Nadi, 8 Gunas

Nadi divides the 27 stars into three groups. If the boy and girl are in different nadis, nadi gives 8. If they are in the same nadi, it gives 0. That 0 is nadi dosha.

Look at the pattern. The stars go Adi, Madhya, Antya, then Antya, Madhya, Adi, and repeat. Two people born under the same nakshatra always share a nadi, so a same-star couple starts with nadi at 0. Some astrologers allow exceptions for this, for example when the padas differ. Ask yours.

A Worked Example with Two Stars

Take a boy born under Rohini, in Vrishabha rasi, and a girl born under Hasta, in Kanya rasi. These are made-up people, used only to show the reading.

Count from Vrishabha: Vrishabha is 1, Mithuna 2, Kataka 3, Simha 4, Kanya 5. Counting back from Kanya to Vrishabha gives 9. So this pair has bhakoot dosha, even though nadi gives the full 8.

This is why the total alone can mislead. A pandit would look at this pair's bhakoot first and then check whether a cancellation applies, for example when the lords of the two rasis are friends.

Is a Perfect 36 Always Good?

A full 36 is rare, and it is not needed. Drik Panchang reads anything from 31 to 36 as excellent when bhakoot is favourable.

What matters more is which kootas scored 0. A match of 30 with nadi at 0 worries most pandits more than a match of 22 where nadi and bhakoot are both full. Our page on how many gun should match for marriage explains the score bands.

Which Kootas Matter Most

Nadi and bhakoot come first, simply because they carry the most weight and because the texts treat their failure as a dosha. Drik Panchang's matching page says Nadi Kuta is given "supreme priority".

Gana comes next. After that, pandits tend to accept low scores in varna, vashya or tara if the rest of the chart is fine.

Manglik dosha is not one of the 8 kootas. It is checked separately, so a 28-guna match can still fail on manglik. See what is manglik for that check.

Guna Milan and Porutham

South Indian astrologers use thirumana porutham, a set of ten matches, instead of the 36 points. Several poruthams overlap with the kootas. Ganam is close to gana, yoni to yoni, rasi to bhakoot, rasi adhipathi to graha maitri, and vasya to vashya.

Porutham adds checks the 36 gunas do not have, such as rajju and vedha, and reads each one as pass or fail. The kundli milan guide compares the two systems side by side.

Getting the Inputs Right

Every koota depends on the nakshatra and rasi, so one wrong value changes the score. A birth near a star change is the usual trap. If the moon moved into the next nakshatra at 6:50 am and the birth was at 6:40 am, the star, the nadi and the gana can all change.

Check the birth time from the hospital papers, then print the same nakshatra and rasi on the biodata that the family horoscope shows. A biodata with the horoscope filled in works these out from the date, time and place of birth, and you can pick a different value from the list wherever your family jothidar wrote it differently.

More on doshas and porutham is in our kundli matching section.