How the compatibility score works
Vedic compatibility matching is called Ashtakoot: eight criteria totalling thirty-six points. Ashta means eight, kuta means category. It has long been used in northern India as one input to a marriage decision, and appears in Japanese sources as guna milan or the thirty-six-point method.
The eight, in ascending weight: Varna (1), Vashya (2), Tara (3), Yoni (4), Graha Maitri (5), Gana (6), Bhakoot (7) and Nadi (8). Heavier weight means greater classical importance — Bhakoot and Nadi alone account for fifteen of the thirty-six, which is how plainly the tradition singles them out.
Crucially, all eight are computed from the Moon's position alone. Once you know each person's Moon sign and Moon nakshatra, the rest follows mechanically from classical tables. This page asks for birth times because the nakshatra depends on them.
What each criterion looks at
Varna reads temperament as a hierarchy; Vashya, where the balance of initiative sits; Tara, auspiciousness judged from the distance between the two mansions; Yoni, physical and instinctive fit, expressed through animal symbols. Graha Maitri asks whether the lords of the two Moon signs are friends, neutral or enemies. Gana sorts temperament into deva, manushya and rakshasa; Bhakoot reads the positional relationship of the Moon signs; Nadi divides constitution three ways.
Bhakoot and Nadi carry the most classical weight. Bhakoot scores zero when the two Moon signs stand in a 6–8, 5–9 or 2–12 relationship — the Bhakoot dosha. Nadi scores zero when both people share the same nadi. Traditionally, a zero in either is treated as a caution regardless of how high the total looks.
This page shows all eight components, not just the total. That is deliberate: two couples can both score 24 while one lost its points on Yoni and the other on Nadi, and those are not the same situation. Showing only a total would imply a precision that does not exist.
How to hold the number
Eighteen points is commonly cited as the threshold for a match, but that number should not be taken at face value. Ashtakoot looks only at two Moon positions. It does not consider the ascendant, the seventh house and its lord, the condition of Venus and Mars, or which dasha period each person is currently living through.
In practice, low-scoring pairs often do fine and high-scoring ones still meet hard seasons. The classical literature itself contains several rules under which a Bhakoot dosha is cancelled by other placements — the score was never meant to stand alone as a conclusion. Compatibility only means something once two whole charts are read against each other.
We would not recommend using this score on its own to decide whether to continue a relationship. Its proper use, as we see it, is as a starting point for putting into words what tends to happen between two people.
- The score derives from two Moon positions only, and includes neither ascendant nor seventh house
- A zero in Bhakoot or Nadi has classically weighed more than the total
- Classical rules cancel doshas in several cases, which mechanical scoring cannot capture