Gun milan: kundli matching with Mangal dosha
Gun milan scores a match out of 36 points from the two birth Moons. Enter the boy’s and the girl’s name, birth date, time and place. You get all eight kootas with their points, Nadi and Bhakoot dosha, the verdict, and Mangal dosha for each of you, which the 36 points leave out.
What is gun milan?
Gun milan, also called Ashtakoota milan or kundli matching, is the standard Indian check of a proposed marriage. It compares the boy’s and the girl’s birth Moons on eight counts, the kootas, each worth from 1 to 8 points, 36 in all. The more points, the better the match is read; most families look for 18 or more before they go further.
Everything in the 36 comes from where the Moon stood at each birth: its rashi, its nakshatra and the quarter of the nakshatra. That is why the calculator asks for the birth time and place of both, not just the dates. The Moon changes nakshatra roughly once a day, so a birth date alone can put a person in the wrong nakshatra and change half the kootas.
What do the eight kootas measure?
Each koota looks at one side of married life and has a fixed maximum. Varna (1 point) compares temperament and work, Vashya (2) mutual attraction, Tara (3) fortune from each other’s birth star, Yoni (4) physical compatibility, Graha Maitri (5) the friendship of the two Moon-sign lords, Gana (6) nature, Bhakoot (7) the families’ welfare and children, and Nadi (8) health and offspring. The table below the result gives each person’s group for every koota and the points the pair gets.
The heavy ones are the last two. Bhakoot and Nadi together carry 15 of the 36 points, and a zero in either is called a dosha.
What are Nadi dosha and Bhakoot dosha?
Nadi dosha is when both people share the same nadi (Aadi, Madhya or Antya). It scores 0 of 8 and is treated as the most serious result: with Nadi dosha the match is not recommended whatever the total. It is excused, and scores the full 8, when the two share a rashi but not a nakshatra, share a nakshatra but not a rashi, or share both with their Moons at least one pada (3°20′) apart.
Bhakoot dosha is when the two Moon signs sit 2 and 12, 5 and 9, or 6 and 8 signs apart. It scores 0 of 7 and lowers the verdict: with Bhakoot dosha, 26 or more is still very good, 21 to 25 is ordinary, and 20 or less is not recommended.
How is the total read?
Without either dosha, 31 to 36 points is excellent, 21 to 30 very good, 17 to 20 ordinary, and 16 or less not recommended. A half point, which Vashya, Tara and Graha Maitri can give, is dropped from the total, so 27½ is read as 27. These are the bands the standard panchangs print, and the calculator states which band your total falls in and why.
A score is a starting point for a conversation, not a decision. Families also look at the full kundli, at Mangal dosha, and at everything gun milan does not measure.
Why is Mangal dosha checked separately?
Mangal dosha is not part of the 36 points. It is read from each person’s own chart: Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house from the lagna. Many charts that have it also carry a combination that cancels it, so the result shows both. The custom is that a Manglik should marry a Manglik, so the calculator compares the two of you. The Mangal dosha calculator explains each rule for one person.
How was this calculator checked?
Before it went live, its scores were compared with a standard reference panchang’s kundli match for 729 couples, one for every pairing of the 27 nakshatras, plus the same-nakshatra cases, and its Mangal dosha with 282 charts. Every koota, every total and every verdict agreed. The positions come from the same engine as this site’s panchang timings, checked against Swiss Ephemeris; the methodology page has the details.
The eight kootas and their points
| Koota | What it looks at | Maximum points |
|---|---|---|
| Varna | temperament and work | 1 |
| Vashya | mutual attraction | 2 |
| Tara | fortune | 3 |
| Yoni | physical compatibility | 4 |
| Graha Maitri | friendship of the rashi lords | 5 |
| Gana | nature | 6 |
| Bhakoot | family welfare and children | 7 |
| Nadi | health and children | 8 |
| Total | 36 |
Gun milan: frequently asked questions
How many gun are needed for marriage?
Eighteen or more of 36 is the usual minimum, and 21 or more is read as a good match. But the number is not the whole story: a match with Nadi dosha is not recommended even at 28, and Bhakoot dosha lowers every band. The calculator applies both rules and gives the verdict with its reason.
Can gun milan be done with names only?
Families sometimes match by the first letter of the names when a birth time is not known, through the naam rashi. It is a fallback, and a rough one: the nakshatra a name points to need not be the one the Moon was in. This calculator matches by birth details only; to see what a name points to, use the naam se rashi tool.
Which is more important, the boy’s details or the girl’s?
Both are needed, and they are not interchangeable. Varna, Vashya, Graha Maitri and Gana score differently depending on who is who: a Rakshasa gana boy with a Deva gana girl scores 1, the other way round 0. Enter the boy’s details in the boy’s column, as the tradition reads them.
What if both of us have the same nakshatra?
Then Nadi is the same too, which is usually Nadi dosha. It is excused if the nakshatra spans two rashis and your Moons are in different ones, or if your Moons are at least one pada (3°20′) apart. If they are closer than that, both Nadi and Bhakoot score 0 and the match is not recommended. When the gap is within a minute of arc of 3°20′, the calculator says it is too close to call.
Our birth times are approximate. Does it matter?
It matters when a Moon is close to the edge of a nakshatra or a rashi, or a lagna close to the edge of a sign. The calculator works out how many minutes away the nearest edge is for each of you and warns you when it is under 30 minutes, so you know which answer could change.
Is our data saved anywhere?
No. The whole calculation runs in your browser. Only the two birth places you pick are sent to our server, by town name, to get their latitude, longitude and time zone. Names, dates and times stay on your device and are gone when you close the page.
