Ashtakoota (guna milan): the eight kutas
Ashtakoota (eight kutas) is the traditional matching method for marriage in Jyotish. It compares two birth charts across eight areas and gives each area a share of a total.
What it is
The eight kutas are Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni, Graha Maitri, Gana, Bhakoot and Nadi. Commonly cited maximum points are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, making 36. The scores are the traditional ones; the site has not yet verified them against a published source.
How it is worked out or read
Each kuta uses the Moon's nakshatra and sign of the two people, and some use the Lagna or the Sun. The method needs accurate birth times and places, because the Moon's nakshatra can change with a small error.
Where it appears on this site
This site does not compute Ashtakoota yet. The matching tool is listed as coming soon on the tools page.
What the eight areas are meant to cover
The eight kutas were designed to look at several areas of a relationship at once: temperament, attraction, health and progeny, the sharing of resources, the emotional bond and the harmony of daily habits. Each kuta is a traditional lens rather than a full description of a person, and the method asks the reader to look through all of them together. The classical view is that no single area settles a match, and that the eight are meant to be weighed rather than added up without thought.
A reader who meets the method for the first time should note that it compares two birth charts at one point each, using mainly the Moon's nakshatra and sign. It does not compare the whole charts, their dashas or the lives the two people will lead together.
How the method is usually taught
Traditional teaching presents the eight kutas in a fixed order and gives each a range of points. The order is often the same across books, though the point values and the rules for each kuta differ between sources. A reader studying the method should therefore keep a note of which source defines each kuta, since two books can reach different totals from the same two charts for reasons that are entirely in the tables.
Teachers commonly stress that the method is an aid to discussion rather than a verdict. The totals are a way of organising observations, and the decision remains with the people involved and with any practitioner they consult.
What this site does and does not do
This site does not compute a total for any match, and it does not show the point values of the kutas as results. The matching tool is listed as coming soon, and until the tables have been checked against a stated source, the method is described here only so that a reader can recognise it. Each kuta has its own short article that explains its concept, and the readers can follow the description without any score being produced.