Kundli milan by the Ashtakoot method produces a number out of 36. It is worth understanding what goes into that number, because a great deal rests on it in practice and very little of it is usually explained.

Everything comes from the Moon

All eight kootas are derived from the nakshatra the Moon occupied at each person's birth — and from the sign that nakshatra falls in. Nothing else in either chart is used. Not the ascendant, not the Sun, not any other planet.

That is a striking limitation once you notice it. Two people with different ascendants, different dashas and different planetary strengths score identically if their Moon nakshatras match.

The eight, and their weights

  • Varna (1 point) — a fourfold classification from the Moon sign. The lowest weight of the eight.
  • Vashya (2) — a grouping of the signs into categories such as quadruped and human.
  • Tara (3) — counts nakshatras from one to the other and back, checking whether either count falls in an inauspicious position.
  • Yoni (4) — each nakshatra has an animal symbol; the koota scores their traditional compatibility.
  • Graha Maitri (5) — friendship between the lords of the two Moon signs. The first koota that uses planetary relationships.
  • Gana (6) — divides nakshatras into deva, manushya and rakshasa temperaments.
  • Bhakoot (7) — the distance between the two Moon signs. Certain distances score zero outright.
  • Nadi (8) — the heaviest single koota. Same nadi scores zero; different scores full.

Nadi and Bhakoot together carry 15 of the 36 points, which is why two charts can lose nearly half the total on two factors alone.

What the score does not include

The Ashtakoot system says nothing about age, education, health, finances, temperament as observed rather than inferred, or whether two people actually like each other. It also does not consider Manglik status — that is a separate check, which is why our matching page reports it separately.

How to read the number

Traditional guidance treats 18 and above as workable and 25 and above as good. But a number produced from one variable per chart cannot carry the weight often placed on it, and the classical texts themselves list many conditions that cancel a low score.

We show the full breakdown rather than only the total, so you can see which kootas the points came from and which they did not. A score of 20 built on strong Nadi and Bhakoot is a different thing from a score of 20 that lost both.

Said plainly

This is one traditional measure among many, and it is a narrow one. It is not a verdict on a relationship, and no calculation here — ours included — is a reason on its own to make or break one.