Kundli Milan for Marriage, Explained for Families

Kundli milan for marriage is the check a pandit does on the boy's and girl's horoscopes before the families go ahead. In North India it means ashtakoot gun milan: 8 points, called kootas, with a total of 36 gunas. Most families look for 18 or more, and the pandit also checks nadi, bhakoot and manglik dosha separately.

This page is for parents who have just been asked, "Can you send the kundli?" It explains what the pandit looks at, so the result makes sense when it comes back.

What Kundli Milan Is, and What It Is Not

Kundli milan (also written kundali milan, or kundli matching) is a comparison of two birth charts. A kundli, or janam kundli, is the chart of the sky at the moment a person was born. In Tamil it is the jathagam, in Malayalam the jathakam, in Marathi the patrika.

Almost all of the 36-point score comes from one thing: where the moon was at birth. The moon's nakshatra (birth star) and rasi (moon sign) for the boy and the girl are compared in eight different ways.

Kundli milan does not look at education or income, or at the family. It does not promise anything either. It is one of the checks families do, usually after the biodatas have been exchanged and before the first visit. A Hindu marriage biodata format usually carries the rasi, nakshatra and gotra lines the pandit needs.

The 8 Kootas and the 36 Gunas

Ashtakoot milan gives each koota a fixed maximum. The numbers below are the standard ones, as listed in Drik Panchang's kundali match tutorial.

The last two carry 15 of the 36 points between them. That is why a pandit reads nadi and bhakoot first, before he even adds up the total. Our 36 gun milan guide goes through each koota with its scoring rule.

What the Score Means

The total is read in bands. Drik Panchang uses these bands when bhakoot is favourable:

In practice, most North Indian families and pandits treat 18 as the pass mark. Below 18, many families do not take the proposal further. Above 24, most are comfortable.

When bhakoot is unfavourable, the bands drop. Drik Panchang says such a union is "never excellent", and anything up to 20 is read as inauspicious. Nadi is given the highest priority of all, and with an unfavourable nadi, even 28 gunas are treated as a poor match. There is more on this in how many gun should match for marriage.

Doshas Checked Along with the Gunas

Three doshas come up again and again in kundli matching.

Nadi dosha comes when both have the same nadi, so nadi scores 0 out of 8. Many pandits will not approve the match on this alone, though some allow exceptions, for example when the two stars are the same but the rasi or the pada is different.

Bhakoot dosha comes when the two moon signs sit 2 and 12, 5 and 9, or 6 and 8 places from each other. Bhakoot then scores 0 out of 7.

Manglik dosha, also called mangal dosh, kuja dosha or chevvai dosham, depends on where Mars sits in the chart. It is not part of the 36 points at all. Drik Panchang says so plainly in its matching page. The pandit checks it on the side, and most families want a manglik to marry a manglik. Read what is manglik for the house rule and the regional differences.

South Indian Porutham and North Indian Gun Milan

South Indian families usually check thirumana porutham instead of the 36 gunas. Porutham is a list of ten matches, read as pass or fail, not as a score.

The ten poruthams, as listed on Prokerala's porutham page, are dinam, ganam, yoni, rasi, rasi adhipathi, rajju, vedha, vasya, mahendram and stree deergham.

Many Tamil astrologers will not approve a match if rajju fails, whatever the other nine say. Kerala astrologers have their own way of reading papasamyam (the balance of malefic planets), which is why a Malayali jothishi may ask for the full jathakam and not just the star.

If one family is from Lucknow and the other from Madurai, agree early on which system will be used. A 22-guna match and a 6-porutham match can come from the same two charts.

What You Need Before Matching

Collect these for both the boy and the girl:

1. Date of birth.
2. Exact time of birth, to the minute.
3. Place of birth, the town or the hospital's town, not the native place.
4. The family's old horoscope, if one was written at birth.

The time matters more than people think. The moon changes nakshatra roughly once a day, so on some days a birth at 7:10 am and one at 9:40 am fall under different stars. The lagna (ascendant) changes about every two hours.

If the time of birth is not known, gun milan can still be done from the nakshatra and rasi, because all 8 kootas come from the moon. What cannot be checked properly is manglik dosha from the lagna. Some families use the name's first letter to find a nakshatra, but most pandits treat that as a last resort.

Put the same values on the biodata. When rasi, nakshatra and lagna are printed on it, the other family's pandit can start matching straight from the biodata. You can make a biodata with rasi and nakshatra filled in from the birth details, and Tamil families can use the jathagam biodata format.

When the Kundli Does Not Match

A low score is the start of a conversation with the pandit, not the end.

Ask him three things. Which kootas scored 0? Is there any cancellation for the dosha he found? And would he still approve the match given the rest of the two charts?

Classical texts have cancellation rules for nadi, bhakoot and manglik dosha. A good pandit will tell you if one applies. Some families take a second opinion from another astrologer, especially when two software reports disagree.

Some families go ahead anyway, after weighing everything else about the proposal. That is a family decision, and nobody can make it for you. If manglik dosha is the problem, families often ask about remedies. Our page on manglik dosha remedies lists what is commonly done and what each one involves.

Is Online Kundli Matching Reliable?

Online kundli matching uses the same tables a pandit uses, so for the 36-point score it is usually right, as long as the birth details are right.

Two reports can still differ. The usual reasons are a different birth time typed in, a different ayanamsa setting, or a place name the software read wrongly. Sites also differ on which cancellation rules they apply. Compare the nakshatra and rasi on both reports first. If those match, the gunas should match too.

Checklist to Take to Your Pandit

Take this list to the pandit or jothidar, so nothing is left for a second visit:

• Both horoscopes, or the date, time and place of birth for both
• Both biodatas, so he has the names and the gotra
• Which system the families agreed on: gun milan, porutham or both
• A question on nadi and bhakoot, even if the total is good
• A question on manglik status for both, from lagna and moon
• If anything fails, a question on cancellation or remedy

Write down the score and his comments on the same page. The other family will ask for them.

More guides on scores, doshas and porutham are in our kundli matching section.