Bhakoot Dosha in Kundli Matching, Explained

Bhakoot dosha is present when the boy's and girl's moon signs (rasis) are 2 and 12, 5 and 9, or 6 and 8 places apart. In those positions the bhakoot koota scores 0 out of 7. It is often cancelled when both rasis have the same lord, or when the two lords are friends, so ask your pandit to check that before you worry.

Bhakoot is the second-heaviest of the 8 kootas in gun milan, after nadi. That is why a pandit reads it before he adds up the total.

What Bhakoot Koota Measures

Bhakoot (also written bhakut or bhakoota) compares the two rasis by their distance from each other. It carries 7 of the 36 gunas. There is no middle score: bhakoot gives either 7 or 0.

Drik Panchang's kundali match tutorial says bhakoot represents "children, wealth, comforts, good luck and growth of the family". That is the traditional reason families take a 0 here seriously.

It also changes how the total is read. Drik Panchang's matching page says that when bhakoot is unfavourable, the union is "never excellent". With bhakoot at 0, a total up to 20 is read as inauspicious, 21 to 25 as middling and 26 to 29 as very good.

The Three Problem Positions

Count from one rasi to the other, taking the first rasi as 1. Then count back the other way. The pair of numbers you get decides bhakoot.

All other positions give the full 7. Same rasi (1 and 1), 3 and 11, 4 and 10, and 7 and 7 are all fine for bhakoot.

A quick example. The boy is Vrishabha and the girl is Tula. Count from Vrishabha: Vrishabha 1, Mithuna 2, Karka 3, Simha 4, Kanya 5, Tula 6. Count back from Tula to Vrishabha and you get 8. So this pair is 6 and 8, shadashtak.

Not every text treats 5 and 9 the same way. The bhakoota article on OnlineJyotish quotes Jyotih Prakasam to say 5 and 9 is auspicious in one direction and harmful only in the other. Drik Panchang and most software simply give 0 for both directions.

Rasi-by-Rasi Bhakoot Chart

Find your rasi in the first column. The other three columns show the rasis that give bhakoot dosha with it.

Every rasi has six partners that give bhakoot dosha and six that do not, counting its own rasi. So roughly half of all rasi pairs start with this dosha before any cancellation. It is common.

When Bhakoot Dosha Is Cancelled

The main rule is about the rasi lords. Every rasi has a ruling planet.

OnlineJyotish states the core rule plainly: bhakoot dosha is cancelled when the two signs have the same lord. Three dosha pairs fall under it:

• Mesha and Vrischika, 6 and 8, both ruled by Mars
• Vrishabha and Tula, 6 and 8, both ruled by Venus
• Makara and Kumbha, 2 and 12, both ruled by Saturn

The same article also cancels it when the two lords are friends. For 6 and 8 it quotes Muhurta Pradipa, which names Karka with Dhanu and Simha with Meena among the pairs that are not harmful. The reason is planetary friendship: the Moon and Jupiter are friends, and so are the Sun and Jupiter.

Some astrologers go further and set the dosha aside when nadi, graha maitri and the navamsa lords are all favourable. Others do not accept these softer rules. This is why two pandits can read the same report differently, and why the software score alone is not the last word.

Is Bhakoot Dosha Serious If the Total Is High?

It depends on whether it is cancelled. A match of 25 with bhakoot at 0 and no cancellation is read by Drik Panchang as middling, not very good. The same 25 with bhakoot cancelled by a common lord is a different story.

Ask the pandit two questions: is there bhakoot dosha, and if so, is it cancelled for these two rasis?

Remedies Commonly Suggested

If the dosha stands and the family still wants to proceed, astrologers usually suggest worship of the two rasi lords. For example, a Hanuman or Murugan prayer on Tuesdays when Mars is one of the lords, or Shukra worship on Fridays for Venus. Charity on the lord's weekday, and a navagraha puja at a temple, are also common.

None of these change the score. They are done in faith, and the pandit may approve the match after them. Ask the price first and keep the receipt.

Deciding as a Family

A simple order of questions helps:

1. Is bhakoot 0? If not, there is no bhakoot dosha. Move on.
2. Do the two rasis share a lord, or are the lords friends? If yes, most pandits treat it as cancelled.
3. Is nadi also 0? Two big doshas together worry most pandits much more than one.
4. If the dosha stands, what does a full reading of both charts say?
5. Weigh everything else about the proposal and decide.

If the answer comes back as no, our page on what to do when the kundli is not matching covers the next steps and how to decline politely.

What the Biodata Needs for Bhakoot

Bhakoot needs only the two rasis. If both biodatas print the rasi correctly, anyone can check bhakoot in a minute with the chart above.

Check the rasi before printing. A birth on the day the moon changes sign can put the person in either rasi depending on the hour.

Our biodata with horoscope works out the rasi from the date, time and place of birth. Sometimes the time is not known and the moon changed sign that day. Then the rasi row stays empty, and you pick the right rasi from the list with your family astrologer.

Nadi, the only koota heavier than bhakoot, has its own page: nadi dosha. For all 8 kootas, see the 36 gun milan guide.