Kundali matching: the 36 points of Guna Milan explained
A match is reported as a number out of 36. Here is what the eight koots each look at, how many points each carries, what scores are usually read as, and what a single number cannot see.
"Your match is 24 out of 36." It is the sentence families hear first, and it is almost always delivered without saying what the 36 are made of.
They are made of eight things, called koots, and the method is called Ashtakoot Guna Milan. Knowing what each one looks at is most of the way to knowing how much weight to give the total.
What every koot starts from
All eight are worked out from just two facts about each person: the sign the Moon was in (the rashi) and the nakshatra it was in at birth. Nothing else in either chart enters the score. That is its strength — it is quick and repeatable — and also its limit, which we come back to below.
The eight koots and their points
- Varna — 1 point. A traditional grading of temperament and ego, read from the Moon sign. Worth the least, and the most often over-read.
- Vashya — 2 points. How far each person tends to influence or yield to the other.
- Tara — 3 points. Counted between the two nakshatras, and read as the couple's compatibility in health and wellbeing.
- Yoni — 4 points. Each nakshatra is assigned a creature, and the pairing is read for physical compatibility.
- Graha Maitri — 5 points. Whether the lords of the two Moon signs are friends, neutral or opposed. This is the koot most associated with mental compatibility and friendship.
- Gana — 6 points. Each nakshatra belongs to one of three temperaments — Deva, Manushya, Rakshasa — and the points depend on how well the two sit together.
- Bhakoot — 7 points. The relationship between the two Moon signs, read as emotional harmony and, in some traditions, shared fortunes.
- Nadi — 8 points. The most heavily weighted. Each nakshatra falls into one of three nadis, and two people in the same one score nothing here. It is read as a health and constitution match and is also the most debated of the eight.
The points are 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 36.
What scores are usually read as
A common rule of thumb:
- Below 18 is traditionally read as a weak match.
- 18 to 23 as acceptable.
- 24 to 32 as good.
- Above 32 as very good.
Treat those as conventions, not verdicts. Different traditions draw the lines differently, and almost every astrologer who uses the score treats it as the start of a discussion.
What the number cannot tell you
Guna Milan looks at two Moons. It does not look at either person's lagna, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, their dashas, or how any of those interact across the two charts. A couple can score 30 and have serious difficulties in the full picture, and another can score 19 and have a very strong one.
The other thing usually checked beside it is Mangal Dosha, which is not part of the 36 at all and is worth understanding before anyone reacts to a word they were told in passing.
Try it on your own charts
Our kundali matching works out all eight koots from both birth charts, shows the points each one scored and why, and flags Mangal Dosha for both people. It shows its working, so you can see which koots carried the total rather than being handed a bare number.