Glossary · concept
Guna Milan
Also written Ashtakoota · the 36 gunas · guna matching
Guna Milan ("matching of qualities"), also called Ashtakoota ("eight factors"), is the traditional compatibility score used when a marriage is considered. It compares the two people's Moon signs and birth nakshatras across eight kootas, each carrying more points the more it weighs, for 36 in all:
- Varna (1 point): outlook on life.
- Vashya (2): mutual influence, who naturally gives way to whom.
- Tara (3): the count between the two birth stars, read as how well two people steady each other.
- Yoni (4): physical and sexual compatibility, pictured through an animal for each nakshatra.
- Graha Maitri (5): whether the planets ruling the two Moon signs are friends, read as mental rapport.
- Gana (6): temperament, Deva (gentle), Manushya (practical) or Rakshasa (intense).
- Bhakoot (7): the distance between the two Moon signs, read as emotional rhythm.
- Nadi (8): constitution, tied in tradition to health and children.
By custom a match should reach 18 of 36: 18 to 24 is acceptable, 25 to 32 good, and 33 or more excellent. Families also look past the total at any koota that scores nothing, above all Nadi and Bhakoot, where a zero is named a dosha (flaw); tradition lists exceptions that can lift either one.
Because it reads only the two Moons, Guna Milan is a starting point rather than the whole picture. It is read beside Mangal Dosha and the full charts, as a fuller Kundli Matching does.
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