Ashtakoota Scores Two Moons; a Love Marriage Needs the 5th and 7th

Ashtakoota compares the two Moon nakshatras. It was built for that lunar match: varna 1, vashya 2, tara 3, yoni 4, graha maitri 5, gana 6, bhakoot 7, nadi 8. A love marriage is judged from the 5th and 7th houses, so a guna score cannot approve or cancel it alone. You can have 30 points and a 7th lord in the 8th. You can have 18 points and a clean exchange between the 5th and 7th lords, which is the actual love-marriage yoga. Necessity is the wrong frame. The Moon score answers a Moon question. The wedding answers a 7th-house question. Do both, and do not let the number shout louder than the lords.

Because the match was not arranged, couples skip nadi, worth 8, and then act surprised by a conflict the Moons were already describing. Skipping is a choice. It is not a cancellation. Bhakoot, the sign distance, still measures 2/12, 5/9, and 6/8 tensions if those are the Moon signs. A love match with the same nadi should know the score is low for a named reason, then look harder at both lagnas. The 7th houses might be fine. They might not. Mangal dosha is not inside the 36 points at all. Mars in the 7th can sit beside a perfect guna score. If you only match the Moons, you will miss Mars.

It is worth doing when both birth times exist, so you are not using the guna score to hide a missing lagna. It is less useful when one time is unknown and the Moon score is being asked to carry the whole marriage. In that case say the Moons are compatible or not, and say the 7th is unknown. For a love marriage the minimum honest set is: both 7th lords, both Venuses, both D9 7ths if the times are solid, and the Ashtakoota total itemized so yoni is not blamed for nadi. The dasha of the 7th lord still times the wedding. Thirty-six points do not pick the month.