If two horoscopes have been matched for marriage in India, someone has quoted a number out of 36. It gets treated like an exam result — 28 is a relief, 16 is a crisis, and nobody asks what was actually measured.
The number comes from Ashtakoota Milan: eight tests, each worth a different amount, adding to 36. What makes it interesting is not the total but which tests you passed, because they are not weighted equally and they do not measure the same kind of thing.
The eight kootas
Each koota compares a specific factor between the two charts, and almost all of them are derived from the Moon's nakshatra — not the Sun sign, and mostly not even the Moon sign alone.
- Varna — 1 point. Broad temperament and the nature of each person's work. The lightest test, and rightly so.
- Vashya — 2 points. Mutual influence: who naturally holds sway, and whether that is comfortable for both.
- Tara — 3 points. Health, fortune and how the relationship affects each partner's luck, counted between the two birth stars.
- Yoni — 4 points. Physical and sexual compatibility, mapped through animal symbols assigned to each nakshatra.
- Graha Maitri — 5 points. Friendship between the lords of the two Moon signs — mental and intellectual compatibility. Whether you enjoy each other's company at a Tuesday level, not just a wedding-day level.
- Gana — 6 points. Temperament type: deva (gentle), manushya (mixed), rakshasa (forceful). A mismatch here shows up as one partner consistently experiencing the other as too much or too little.
- Bhakoot — 7 points. The distance between the two Moon signs. Certain distances are held to strain finances, health and family life.
- Nadi — 8 points. The heaviest single test. Constitutional type — broadly the ayurvedic humours. Traditionally connected to the health of children.
Notice the shape of that list. Nadi and Bhakoot alone are 15 of the 36. Two couples can both score 21 and have completely different situations: one lost 15 points on those two, the other lost them spread thinly across six minor kootas. The first is a genuine flag; the second is noise.
Why 18 is the pass mark
The conventional threshold is 18 out of 36 — half. Below 18 the match is traditionally considered unsuitable; 18 to 24 is workable; 25 to 32 is very good; above 32 is rare enough that experienced astrologers usually double-check the birth data before celebrating.
A detail worth knowing: a very high score is not automatically the goal. Scores in the mid-thirties often mean the two charts are extremely similar, and similarity is not the same as compatibility. Two people with identical temperaments share their strengths and also their blind spots.
Nadi dosha, and the part families are not told
Zero out of 8 on Nadi is called Nadi dosha, and it is the single most common reason a match is refused in India.
What is much less commonly mentioned is that classical texts list explicit cancellations. Nadi dosha is traditionally held not to apply when the two share the same Moon sign but different nakshatras, or the same nakshatra but different padas, and there are further exemptions depending on lineage. As with Mangal Dosha, the cancellation rules are part of the tradition — leaving them out is not caution, it is an incomplete reading.
The same is true of Bhakoot. Certain otherwise-flagged combinations are considered nullified when the Moon-sign lords are friends or the same planet.
What Guna Milan does not measure
This is the important limitation, and any honest astrologer will say it plainly. Ashtakoota is built almost entirely from the Moon's nakshatra. It says nothing about:
- Mangal Dosha in either chart, which is assessed separately;
- the 7th house and its lord in each chart — the actual house of marriage;
- the dashas each person is running, which is what governs timing;
- longevity, finances, or the condition of Venus and Jupiter as the karakas of marriage.
A couple scoring 30 can be entering a decade of difficult dashas. A couple scoring 17 can have beautifully complementary 7th houses. This is why the number should open a conversation rather than end one.
Getting a real reading
If a number has been quoted at your family and it is causing trouble, the useful thing is a breakdown: which kootas scored, which did not, whether any cancellation applies, and what the rest of the two charts say.
Our Marriage Compatibility Report gives the full Ashtakoota table — every koota, what it scored out of what, and what it measures — alongside the parts Guna Milan ignores. You can also read the general nature of any pairing on our zodiac compatibility pages first.
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