The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 41 of 54 · Part Eight · The applied branches

#Marriage matching

#The custom

In much of India, before a marriage is arranged, the two horoscopes are compared. In the north this is usually the Ashtakoota, "eight-part", score — the "guna milan", out of 36 points. In the south it is the Dasha porutham, "ten agreements". Many families also check for Mangala dosha, "the fault of Mars".

These practices shape millions of lives. Surveys find most families consult them; matrimonial advertisements mention them. So a student should know them exactly — what the texts say, where the modern versions differ from the texts, and what the evidence shows. This chapter covers all three.

The main sources are the Muhurta Chintamani of Rama Daivajna (about 1600), chapter 6, with his own commentary, the Pramitakshara; the Muhurta Martanda of Narayana (1571); and, for the south, the Kalaprakasika (English, 1917), chapter XIII. All the comparisons use the Moon's nakshatra and sign of the two people.

#The eight parts (Ashtakoota)

The Muhurta Chintamani names the eight parts, each worth one point more than the last, for a total of 36 (Muhurta Chintamani 6.21, with the Pramitakshara). The Muhurta Martanda adds that each is "stronger than the one before" (vivaha verse 1).

#The main rules

• Tara (3). Count from each person's nakshatra to the other's (inclusive), divide by 9; remainders 3, 5 and 7 are bad (Muhurta Chintamani 6.24). Both good: 3 points; one bad: 1½. (An arithmetical curiosity: both can never be bad at once.)
• Yoni (4). Each nakshatra has an animal; the verse lists seven pairs of "great enemies": horse–buffalo, lion–elephant, sheep–monkey, mongoose–serpent, deer–dog, cat–rat, tiger–cow (6.25–26). Same animal 4 points; great enemies 0.
• Graha maitri (5). The two Moon-sign lords by natural friendship (Chapter 10): the same lord or mutual friends 5 points, down to mutual enemies 0 (6.27–28 with the Pramitakshara).
• Gana (6). Each nakshatra is deva (divine), manushya (human) or rakshasa (demonic) (6.29). The same gana is best; deva–manushya middling; the rakshasa combinations bad (6.30). The Pramitakshara gives 6, 4 and 0 points.
• Bhakoot (7). The distance between the two Moon signs. The verse: signs 6th/8th from each other mean death, 9th/5th loss of children, 2nd/12th poverty; all other distances bring happiness (6.31). Good 7 points; bad 0.
• Nadi (8). The nakshatras fall into three "nadi" groups of nine (6.34). The same nadi is called inauspicious: 0 points; different nadis 8.

#The threshold

The Muhurta Martanda says a total above 18 is auspicious (vivaha verse 1). The Muhurta Chintamani states no threshold. The common modern bands (18–24 average, 24–32 good, above 32 excellent) appear in no text found.

#The exceptions

The texts themselves give many exceptions (parihara), and most of the popular ones are genuinely classical:

• Bad bhakoot is cancelled if the two signs have the same lord, or if their lords are friends (provided the nadis differ) (Muhurta Chintamani 6.32); a cancelled bhakoot scores 4 (Pramitakshara).
• Friendship of the sign lords removes gana faults (6.33).
• If the two Moons are in the same sign but different nakshatras, or the same nakshatra but different signs, there is no nadi or gana fault (6.37).
• A rakshasa groom with a manushya bride is acceptable if bhakoot and graha friendship are good (Garga, quoted in the Pramitakshara on 6.30).

#Where modern software differs from the texts

Several numbers used by websites and apps are not the numbers in the Pramitakshara: for graha maitri, software usually gives 1 and ½ where the commentary gives 2 and 1; for gana, software uses an asymmetric table where the commentary is symmetric; the full 14 × 14 yoni table is not in any classical text read. So the "score" a website gives is partly a modern convention.

#The ten agreements (Dasha porutham)

The Kalaprakasika's chapter on "the decision of marriage" gives ten agreements (Kalaprakasika XIII, 1917, pp. 68–78):

1. Dina — the count from the bride's nakshatra to the groom's (good counts 2, 4, 6, 8 in each round of nine, with special rules);
2. Gana — as above;
3. Mahendra — the groom's nakshatra the 4th, 7th, 10th ... 25th from the bride's;
4. Stree-deergha — the groom's nakshatra far enough from the bride's (beyond the 13th; "some writers" say the 7th);
5. Yoni — the animal symbols;
6. Rasi — the distance between the Moon signs, read directionally;
7. Rasyadhipati — the friendship of the sign lords;
8. Vasya — sign-to-sign amenability;
9. Rajju — the nakshatras grouped by parts of the body (foot, thigh, navel, neck, head); the same rajju is forbidden;
10. Vedha — certain pairs of nakshatras that "repel" each other (Ashvini–Jyeshtha, Rohini–Swati, and so on).

It is a checklist, not a score: at least five of the ten should agree, and Dina and Rajju are "first in importance" (p. 76). It has no nadi and no Mangala dosha among the ten.

#Mangala dosha

What people say today. A person is "manglik" if Mars is in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house; the dosha is said to harm the marriage; two mangliks should marry each other.

What the sources say. The research for this course traced the rule back:

• Varahamihira gives only a narrow rule, in his chapter on women's charts: if the 7th house from the ascendant or the Moon is occupied by Mars and aspected by malefics, the woman is widowed young (Brihat Jataka XXIV.8). A malefic in the 8th is also a widowhood sign (XXIV.14). Nothing about the 1st, 2nd, 4th or 12th.
• The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, in its chapter on women's charts, has Mars in the 1st, 12th, 4th, 7th or 8th, without benefic aspect or association, as a widowhood yoga; the same in a man's chart for the loss of the wife; and if both partners have it, it is cancelled (80.47–49).
• Rama Daivajna's commentary (about 1600) quotes a verse with Mars in the 2nd, 12th, 4th, 7th or 8th (Pramitakshara on Muhurta Chintamani 6.7).
• The modern six-house rule merges these two lists. Counting it also from the Moon and Venus, and the long modern lists of sign exceptions, are first found in the sources read in B. V. Raman's book of 1948. Raman, himself an astrologer, called the belief a "bugbear" that had destroyed the happiness of many families, and concluded that it does not deserve the attention it gets.
• The popular cancellation "Mars in its own or exaltation sign" is not found in any classical text read.

How common is it? Since Mars can be in any house, and the rule names six of twelve, about half of all people are manglik by the six-house rule from the ascendant. Counted from the ascendant, the Moon or Venus, about 88% are. A rule that fits nearly everyone cannot tell people apart.

#The example chart

Mars is in the 7th house. By the modern six-house rule: manglik. From the Moon (Taurus), Mars is in the 12th: manglik again. By the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's rule (no benefic aspect or association on Mars — and none of Jupiter, Venus or Mercury aspects Aries): it applies. By Varahamihira's rule (Mars in the 7th aspected by malefics): Saturn and the Sun do not aspect Aries, so it does not apply.

So the same chart is "manglik" by one source and not by another. This is the honest answer to give.

#A worked comparison

Suppose the example person (Moon in Rohini, Taurus) is compared with someone whose Moon is in Hasta (Virgo).

Ashtakoota (Pramitakshara values where they are clear):

Total: about 25 to 31 out of 36 — well "above 18".

Dasha porutham: Rohini and Hasta are both in the Kantha (neck) rajju. The same rajju is forbidden by the Kalaprakasika (p. 75), and Rajju is one of the two most important agreements.

So the North Indian system calls this a good match, and the South Indian system forbids it. Two traditions, two answers, for the same couple.

#What the frequencies and the evidence say

Counting all possible pairs of birth padas (each equally likely), the research for this course found:

• about one pair in three has the same nadi, and one in two a bad bhakoot; more than two in three have one or the other — before exceptions;
• about 69% of random pairs score 18 or more;
• about 21% of random pairs share the same rajju.

No study was found that tests guna-milan or porutham scores against how marriages actually turn out — satisfaction, divorce or anything else. General tests of astrology (Chapter 52) have not found that astrologers can match charts to people above chance.

Meanwhile the harm is documented: marriages delayed or refused because of "manglik" status, families paying for rituals, and in a few reported cases worse.

#Using matching well

• If a family wishes to compare charts, compare them by a named text, with its exceptions, and say which.
• Never let a matching score, or Mangala dosha, override what the two people actually know of each other.
• Never frighten anyone with a "death" or "widowhood" reading. These words in the texts belong to their time.
• Never sell a remedy for a matching fault.

#Summary

• North Indian matching (Ashtakoota) scores eight parts worth 1 to 8 points, total 36 (Muhurta Chintamani 6.21–34); above 18 is called auspicious (Muhurta Martanda); the texts give many classical exceptions (6.32–33, 6.37).
• South Indian matching (Dasha porutham) checks ten agreements, at least five of which should agree; Dina and Rajju come first (Kalaprakasika XIII).
• Mangala dosha's roots are narrow widowhood rules (Brihat Jataka XXIV.8; Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 80.47–49); the six-house, three-reference form is modern. It fits about half to nine-tenths of all people.
• The two systems can disagree about the same couple; no study shows that either predicts marital outcomes.

#Exercises

1. What are the eight kootas, and why does nadi carry the most points?
2. Two people have their Moons in the same sign but different nakshatras. What does the Muhurta Chintamani say about nadi and gana?
3. What does Varahamihira's rule about Mars in the 7th require that the modern rule does not?
4. About what fraction of people are manglik by the six-house rule from the ascendant? Why?
5. A family is about to reject a proposal because the guna score is 17. What would you tell them?

Answers: 1. Varna, vashya, tara, yoni, graha maitri, gana, bhakoot, nadi; each is worth one more point than the last, and the Muhurta Martanda says each is stronger than the one before, so nadi (the last) is the weightiest. 2. That there is no nadi or gana fault (6.37). 3. That Mars be aspected by malefics, and it concerns only the 7th house (and malefics in the 8th). 4. About half, because Mars can be in any of twelve houses and the rule names six. 5. That the threshold is from one text and the scoring partly modern convention; that about a third of all random pairs score below 18; that the texts give exceptions that may apply; that no study shows the score predicts how a marriage goes; and that what the two people know of each other matters far more.