Ashtakoot Guna Milan — the 36 Points, Derived — Where each of the eight scores actually comes from: the lookup tables, the arithmetic, and the half points nobody mentions

Ashtakoot assigns 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 points to eight factors, totalling 36. Four read the Moon sign, four read the nakshatra, and two of them can return half points — so a real Guna Milan total is not always a whole number.

ashtakoot guna milan — the 36 points, derived, kundli matching, guna milan, ashtakoot, kundali milan

Where each of the eight scores actually comes from: the lookup tables, the arithmetic, and the half points nobody mentions.

Ashtakoot Guna Milan is usually explained as eight named qualities with eight point values. That is accurate but not useful: it tells you the scoreboard without telling you the rules. This page gives the rules.

The structure is deliberate. The point values ascend 1 through 8, and the ordering is not arbitrary — the factors classical texts treat as most consequential carry the most weight. Nadi is 8, Bhakoot is 7, Gana is 6. Varna, worth a single point, is the lightest thing in the system despite being the one people argue about most.

One structural fact gets lost in nearly every explanation: the split between what reads the sign and what reads the star. Varna, Vashya, Graha Maitri and Bhakoot are computed from the Moon SIGN — 15 points. Tara, Yoni, Gana and Nadi are computed from the NAKSHATRA — 21 points. That division is why a missing birth time costs 21 points and a missing name costs none.

The eight kootas, rule by rule

Each row is the actual computation, not a paraphrase of its meaning.

Two of these award fractional scores, which surprises people who expect integers. Tara returns 1.5 when the count is favourable in one direction but not the other. Graha Maitri draws from a planetary friendship table that contains 0.5 and 3 alongside the whole numbers, so a Moon–Venus pairing scores 0.5 out of 5 rather than 0 or 1.

Two of them are also pass/fail rather than graded. Bhakoot returns either 7 or 0 — there is no middle. Nadi returns either 8 or 0. Between them that is 15 of the 36 points behaving as switches, which is why totals cluster rather than spreading smoothly.

Koota	Points	Input	The rule
Varna	1	Moon sign	Sign → varna rank (Brahmin > Kshatriya > Vaishya > Shudra). 1 point if the groom's rank is equal or higher, else 0.
Vashya	2	Moon sign	Sign → one of five vashya classes. Same class scores 2; certain adjacent-class pairs score 1; otherwise 0.
Tara	3	Nakshatra	Count between the two nakshatras in both directions, each mod 9. Remainders 2, 4 and 6 are inauspicious. Both good = 3, one good = 1.5, neither = 0.
Yoni	4	Nakshatra	Each nakshatra maps to one of 14 animal yonis; the score is read off a 14×14 matrix. Same yoni scores 4; traditional enemy pairs score 0.
Graha Maitri	5	Moon sign	Each sign has a ruling planet; the two rulers are looked up in a 7×7 friendship table containing 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 4 and 5.
Gana	6	Nakshatra	Each nakshatra is Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa. A 3×3 table: like-with-like and Deva–Manushya score 6; Manushya–Rakshasa scores 0.
Bhakoot	7	Moon sign	Distance between the two signs. Distances of 2/12, 5/9 and 6/8 score 0; everything else scores 7. Cancelled when both signs share a ruling planet.
Nadi	8	Nakshatra	Each nakshatra is Adi, Madhya or Antya. Different nadi scores 8; the same nadi scores 0.

Sign-derived: Varna + Vashya + Graha Maitri + Bhakoot = 15. Nakshatra-derived: Tara + Yoni + Gana + Nadi = 21.

What the 36-point scale actually looks like

We ran the engine across every possible pairing to see how the scores fall.

The conventional advice — "18 or above is acceptable, 24 and up is good" — is quoted everywhere without any sense of how selective those bars are. So we computed the whole space: all 27 × 27 nakshatra pairs against all 12 × 12 sign pairs, which is 104,976 distinct combinations, and counted.

The result is that 18 is a much lower bar than it sounds and 28 is a much higher one. Roughly seven pairings in ten clear 18. Only about one in seven clears 28. If a matchmaker tells you a 19 is "above the minimum", that is true and also true of most randomly chosen couples.

The dosha base rates are the more useful numbers. A third of all pairings carry Nadi dosha and nearly half carry Bhakoot dosha before any cancellation is considered. These are not rare events being flagged — they are common outcomes of a coarse rule, which is exactly why the classical literature carries so many exceptions to them.

Outcome	Combinations	Share of all pairings
Total ≥ 18 (conventional minimum)	74,561	71.0%
Total ≥ 24 (conventionally "good")	37,387	35.6%
Total ≥ 28 (conventionally "excellent")	14,121	13.5%
Nadi dosha present	34,992	33.3%
Bhakoot dosha present (before cancellation)	48,114	45.8%

Computed over all 104,976 nakshatra × sign combinations. This is the shape of the scale itself, not a sample of real couples — real populations are not uniformly distributed across nakshatras.

What Ashtakoot does not look at

The 36 points read two things: the Moon sign and the nakshatra. That is the entire input. The Sun is not consulted. Nor are Venus, Jupiter, the Lagna, the houses, the dashas, or any aspect between the two charts.

This is worth sitting with, because it is easy to assume a "36-point compatibility analysis" is comprehensive. It is a Moon-based screen, and it was designed as one — a fast first filter applied to a shortlist before anyone invested in a fuller reading. Manglik is assessed separately precisely because Mars is not in the 36.

A serious synastry reading looks at the Lagna lords, the 7th house from both charts, Venus and Jupiter placements, and the dasha periods each person is running when the marriage would begin. Ashtakoot does none of that. Treating it as the whole assessment is the most common way the system is misused.

Gana — the 3×3 table in full

Gana is 6 points and the smallest table in the system, so it is the easiest one to verify by hand. Each nakshatra belongs to exactly one of three temperaments, nine nakshatras each.

	Bride Deva	Bride Manushya	Bride Rakshasa
Groom Deva	6	6	1
Groom Manushya	6	6	0
Groom Rakshasa	1	0	6

The table is not symmetric: Manushya groom with Rakshasa bride scores 0, and the reverse also scores 0, but Deva–Rakshasa scores 1 in both directions. Deva: Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana, Revati. Manushya: Bharani, Rohini, Ardra, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada. Rakshasa: Krittika, Ashlesha, Magha, Chitra, Vishakha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Dhanishta, Shatabhisha.

The twelve rashis and their ruling planets

Graha Maitri and the Bhakoot cancellation both run through this column. Three planets rule two signs each, which is what makes cancellation possible at all.

Rashi	English	Ruling planet
Mesha	Aries	Mars
Vrishabha	Taurus	Venus
Mithuna	Gemini	Mercury
Karka	Cancer	Moon
Simha	Leo	Sun
Kanya	Virgo	Mercury
Tula	Libra	Venus
Vrishchika	Scorpio	Mars
Dhanu	Sagittarius	Jupiter
Makara	Capricorn	Saturn
Kumbha	Aquarius	Saturn
Meena	Pisces	Jupiter

The Sun and Moon rule one sign each; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn rule two. Rahu and Ketu rule none, which is why the friendship table is 7×7 and not 9×9.

All eight kootas, computed for one pair

Groom: Moon in Rohini, Vrishabha rashi. Bride: Moon in Hasta, Kanya rashi. Every line below is a table lookup or a modular count you can repeat.

Step	Value
Varna — Vrishabha vs Kanya rank	1 of 1 (groom rank not lower)
Vashya — Vrishabha (Chatushpad) × Kanya (Manav)	1 of 2 (adjacent classes)
Tara — Rohini (4) and Hasta (13), both counts mod 9	3 of 3 (both remainders favourable)
Yoni — Rohini (Sarpa) × Hasta (Mahisha), 14×14 lookup	1 of 4
Graha Maitri — Venus × Mercury	5 of 5 (mutual friends)
Gana — Rohini is Manushya, Hasta is Deva	6 of 6
Bhakoot — Vrishabha to Kanya is a 5/9 distance	0 of 7, Bhakoot dosha; lords Venus and Mercury differ, so no cancellation
Nadi — Rohini is Antya, Hasta is Adi: different	8 of 8

25 of 36, with Bhakoot dosha present and Nadi clear.

Note what the total conceals. 25 sits comfortably above the conventional 18 and would usually be reported as a good match, yet the single largest failure in the reading — a zeroed Bhakoot — is invisible in the number. This is the structural reason the doshas are always reported alongside the total rather than folded into it.

Frequently asked

What are the 8 kootas in Guna Milan?

Varna (1 point), Vashya (2), Tara (3), Yoni (4), Graha Maitri (5), Gana (6), Bhakoot (7) and Nadi (8), totalling 36. Varna, Vashya, Graha Maitri and Bhakoot are computed from the Moon sign; Tara, Yoni, Gana and Nadi are computed from the nakshatra.

How many gunas are required for marriage?

18 of 36 is the conventional minimum and 24 or more is usually called a good match. Those are practice conventions rather than calibrated thresholds — computed across every possible pairing, about 71% clear 18 and only about 13.5% clear 28.

Can a Guna Milan score be a decimal?

Yes. Tara returns 1.5 when the count is favourable in one direction only, and the planetary friendship table used by Graha Maitri contains 0.5 and 3. A total of 25.5 or 21.5 is a normal result, not a calculation error.

Which koota is the most important?

By point weight, Nadi at 8 and Bhakoot at 7. Both are pass/fail rather than graded, so between them they control 15 points as two switches. In practice matchmakers weigh the doshas more heavily than the total, because a high score can coexist with a zeroed Nadi.

Does a 36 out of 36 score exist?

Yes — it is achievable, though it requires every one of the eight lookups to return its maximum simultaneously. It is worth remembering that a perfect Ashtakoot score still says nothing about the Lagna, the dashas or Manglik status, none of which the 36 points examine.

What this page can NOT tell you

• Ashtakoot reads only the Moon sign and the nakshatra. It does not consider the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, the Lagna, the houses, the dashas or any cross-chart aspect.
• The scale is coarse. Bhakoot and Nadi are pass/fail switches worth 15 points between them, so totals cluster rather than distributing smoothly and small chart differences can move a total by 8 points.
• The point thresholds (18 / 24 / 28) are conventions from classical and matchmaking practice, not calibrated cut-offs. About 71% of all possible pairings clear 18.
• Our engine applies the shared-ruler cancellation for Bhakoot but applies no automatic cancellation for Nadi. Classical texts describe Nadi exceptions; we do not auto-apply them because they depend on judgement calls a calculator should not make silently.
• Nothing here predicts marital outcome. Ashtakoot is a screening heuristic from classical literature and has never been validated against relationship data.

The rules stated here are the rules the engine executes, read off the implementation rather than a secondary source. The distribution figures were produced by running all 104,976 nakshatra × sign combinations through the engine and counting outcomes.

How AskSoma computes and what we refuse to claim · Engine: Swiss Ephemeris via @asksoma/compatibility-core (calculateGunaMilan), Lahiri sidereal Moon longitude and nakshatra · Ayanamsa: Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) · Content reviewed 2026-08-07