Matching Uses Nakshatra, Rashi, and Then Mars

Nadi groups the twenty-seven stars into Adi, Madhya, and Antya, repeating as Adi, Madhya, Antya, Antya, Madhya, Adi. The same nadi scores zero out of 8. Tara counts from one star to the other in nines. Remainders 3, 5, and 7, called vipat, pratyak, and vadha, are the unfavorable taras, out of 3 points. These two criteria can fail while the signs look friendly. They are the reason a matching slip asks for the birth nakshatra and not only the rashi. A wrong birth time can shift the Moon across a star boundary and change both scores.

Bhakoot is zero when the signs are 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 12 apart, out of 7, with a same-lord cancellation for pairs such as Aries and Scorpio. Graha maitri, out of 5, is the friendship of the two sign lords. Gana, out of 6, compares deva, manushya, and rakshasa groups. Yoni, out of 4, compares the animal types of the stars and is easy to fake if the animals are misremembered, so a standard table should be used rather than a memory. Varna is 1 point and is not a social rank. Together with the nakshatra tests these make 36.

Mangal dosha is Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th from the lagna, often also from the Moon and Venus. It is not inside the 36. The final criterion is both 7th lords, Venus, and both Navamshas, plus the dasha that will be running. A couple can be married with a published weakness in one koota if these hold, and they can be warned with a high score if these fail. The criteria are a stack. The top of the stack is the 7th house, not the largest point value.