Kundli milan (also written kundali milan) is the traditional comparison of a boy's and a girl's birth charts before a marriage is fixed. Done properly it takes about fifteen minutes and gives you a score out of 36, a Manglik check, and a list of questions for your pandit. This guide walks through the procedure in the order a careful family follows it.
Step 1: collect the birth details
You need four things for each of the two people: full name, date of birth, time of birth and place of birth. The time matters most. The Moon changes its nakshatra roughly every day, and the whole match is built on the Moon's position, so a wrong time can change the result.
Good sources for the time, in order of reliability: the hospital birth record, the original janam patrika written by the family pandit, the birth certificate. A time remembered by a grandparent is a last resort. If nobody can confirm it, do not guess. Use kundli milan without birth time, which shows which results stay the same across the whole day and which could change.
Step 2: enter the details as Boy (Var) and Girl (Kanya)
Put the boy's details in the Var card and the girl's in the Kanya card. This is not a formality. Several kootas give different points when the two are swapped, so entering them the wrong way round gives a wrong total. Use kundli milan by date of birth for the full match. If you only have names, kundli milan by name gives an approximate answer from the naming syllable, and you should confirm it with real birth details later.
Step 3: read the total out of 36
Ashtakoot milan gives points across eight kootas, adding up to 36:
- Varna 1
- Vashya 2
- Tara 3
- Yoni 4
- Graha Maitri 5
- Gana 6
- Bhakoot 7
- Nadi 8
The usual reading is that 18 is the minimum for a match to be considered, and 24 or more is good. A higher total is not automatically better in every case, because a few kootas weigh more than the rest. How many gunas should match explains this in detail.
Step 4: look at the three doshas before the total
A good total can hide a real problem, and a modest total can be fine. So check the dosha lines next:
- Nadi dosha applies when both have the same Nadi and costs all 8 points. See Nadi dosha.
- Bhakoot dosha applies when Bhakoot scores 0 and costs 7 points. See Bhakoot dosha.
- Gana dosha is flagged when the Gana score is very low. See Gana dosha.
Each has classical exceptions, called parihar. A dosha that is cancelled by a named rule is not treated the same as one that stands. The page for each dosha has a matching cancellation page, for example Nadi dosha cancellation, and what dosha parihar means gives the overview.
Step 5: check Manglik for both
Manglik dosha depends on where Mars sits from the ascendant in each chart, so it needs a birth time. Mars in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house makes a person Manglik. Two things then matter: whether a cancellation rule applies to that person, and whether the other person is also Manglik, in which case the two are traditionally considered to balance each other. Read Manglik dosha and Manglik cancellation rules before drawing any conclusion.
Step 6: take the questions to your pandit
A result on a screen is a starting point, not a decision. Print or save the report and take it to the family pandit with the specific questions the result raises: which dosha is present, which rule cancels it, whether the pandit agrees with the birth time used. How to read the printed report shows what each section means so you can follow the discussion.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the birth time check. This is the single biggest source of wrong results.
- Swapping Var and Kanya.
- Stopping at the total. The total is one line. The dosha lines and the Manglik check carry more weight.
- Treating a low score as a verdict. It is a reason to look closer, not a reason to end the conversation.
- Matching only by name and treating it as final.
Before you decide
Kundli milan is one input among several: the two people, the two families, health, education, work and location all matter, and the checklist before fixing a rishta covers those. If you want to look at one star in detail, each nakshatra has its own partner table, such as Ashwini nakshatra matching.
Birth details are never kept on our servers. The tool is free, online, with no sign-up and no ads, so you can run as many matches as you need while talking to the family.