--- title: "Gana Koota Matching: Six Points and One Real Clash" slug: "gana-koota-matching" canonical_url: "https://mahadasha.com/gana-koota-matching" description: "Gana koota matching sorts 27 nakshatras into three temperaments, and only one of the six pairings scores a true zero. Which one, and what it costs." published_date: "2026-08-06 09:06:00" modified_date: "2026-08-06 09:06:00" author: "Pawan Acharya" keywords: "gana koota matching, gana koota, gana milan, deva manushya rakshasa gana, gana dosha, guna milan gana, ashtakoota gana, nakshatra gana" locale: "en" --- # Gana Koota Matching: Six Points and One Real Clash > Three categories produce six possible pairings, and exactly one of them scores nothing. Knowing which one turns a feared koota into a manageable piece of information. # Gana Koota Matching: Six Points and One Real Clash Gana koota matching is worth six of the thirty-six points, the second largest allocation in the system. It sorts each partner's nakshatra into one of three temperaments and scores the pairing. Because only one combination out of six produces a true zero, it fails far less often than its reputation suggests. ## The three ganas Each of the twenty-seven nakshatras is classed as Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa, and the twenty-seven divide into three groups of nine exactly. - **Deva**, the divine temperament: gentle, generous, inclined to the ideal. Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana and Revati. - **Manushya**, the human: mixed, practical, motivated by ordinary want and obligation. Bharani, Rohini, Ardra, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada and Uttara Bhadrapada. - **Rakshasa**, the demonic in the old sense of forceful rather than evil: intense, self-directed, unwilling to defer. Krittika, Ashlesha, Magha, Chitra, Vishakha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Dhanishtha and Shatabhisha. The even split into nine, nine and nine means a randomly chosen pair has a one in three chance of sharing a gana and a two in three chance of not. ## How Gana koota matching is scored Six pairings are possible if you ignore direction, and the scoring is uneven across them. - Same gana, whichever it is: 6 points. - Deva with Manushya: 6 points in most schools, 5 in some. - Manushya with Rakshasa: 3 points when the groom is Rakshasa, 0 in the reverse direction under the stricter convention. - Deva with Rakshasa: 0. This is the only pairing every school scores at nothing. So a full zero requires one partner in a Deva nakshatra and the other in a Rakshasa one. Nine nakshatras on each side gives eighty-one combinations out of the seven hundred and twenty-nine possible nakshatra pairs, which is a little over one in nine. Common enough to meet, uncommon enough that treating every Gana discussion as a crisis is out of proportion. ## What the six points are measuring Temperament in the sense of instinctive pace and priority. The Deva temperament defers and idealises. The Rakshasa temperament pushes and takes. Put them together and the classical objection is not that they fight but that they mystify each other: the one experiences the other as needlessly aggressive, and the other experiences the one as unserious. Manushya sits between and gets on with both, which is why it appears in no zero-scoring combination. That is a design feature rather than an accident, and it is worth noticing that the tradition put a third of the nakshatras in the category that cannot fail. The names are the problem here, not the content. Rakshasa translates badly and frightens people who are told they have it. The nine Rakshasa nakshatras include Magha, Chitra, Jyeshtha and Mula, which is a list of forceful and highly capable stars rather than a list of bad ones. ## How the three ganas sit around the zodiac The assignment is not a neat repeating cycle, and that is worth seeing for yourself rather than taking on trust. If the ganas ran in a simple rotation the pattern would be Deva, Manushya, Rakshasa, Deva, Manushya, Rakshasa around all twenty-seven. They do not. Ashwini is Deva, Bharani is Manushya, Krittika is Rakshasa, and then Rohini breaks the sequence by being Manushya rather than Deva. The consequence is that neighbouring nakshatras frequently share a gana, and there is no shortcut for working the classification out. It has to be looked up. Anyone deriving a gana by counting positions is going to be wrong for a good share of the zodiac. The distribution across signs is uneven too. Because a sign holds two and a quarter nakshatras, some Moon signs contain nakshatras from all three ganas and others contain only two. That is why two people with the same Moon sign can land on opposite sides of this koota, which surprises anyone who has been told that Moon sign compatibility is the whole of matching. ## What a zero in Gana costs Six points, and a named affliction: Gana dosha. Unlike the smaller kootas this one does have a dosha in the classical literature, and it is taken seriously. It also has recognised cancellations, which get quoted less often. Where both Moon signs have the same lord, or where the two Moons stand in a favourable Bhakoot relation, the Gana clash is treated as substantially reduced. Some schools also cancel it when the Moons are more than a certain distance apart. As with every cancellation rule, these are specific conditions rather than a general licence, and they should be checked rather than assumed. ## Reading Gana usefully Read it beside Yoni, which uses the same nakshatras for a different question. Yoni describes the physical layer and Gana the temperamental one, and a couple who score well on one and badly on the other are being told something specific rather than something contradictory. Then check whether the six points actually matter to the total. A Deva and Rakshasa pairing that scores full marks on [Bhakoot koota matching](https://mahadasha.com/bhakoot-koota-matching) and [Nadi koota matching](https://mahadasha.com/nadi-koota-matching) still reaches thirty out of thirty-six, which is a good score by any threshold. The kootas that sink a match are the two below this one, not this one. And as always the birth chart outranks the koota. Two people with a Gana clash and well-supported [7th houses](https://mahadasha.com/7th-house-astrology) in both charts are in a better position than a perfectly matched pair with afflicted ones. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Gana koota matching? The sixth of the eight Guna Milan tests, worth six points. It classes each partner's nakshatra as Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa and scores how those temperaments sit together. ### Is a Rakshasa gana bad? No. The word translates poorly. It describes a forceful, self-directed temperament, and the nine nakshatras in the group include several of the most capable in the zodiac. ### Which pairing scores zero? Deva with Rakshasa, and that combination alone in every school. Manushya with Rakshasa is scored differently by different traditions, and everything involving Manushya and Deva scores well. ### Can Gana dosha be cancelled? Yes, under specific classical conditions, most commonly when the two Moon signs share a lord or stand in a favourable Bhakoot relation. Check the condition rather than assuming it applies. One practical note on sources. Because the Manushya and Rakshasa combination is scored differently by different schools, two reports can hand you 3 or 0 for the same pair of charts, and both are following a real tradition. If a Gana result is going to influence a decision, find out which convention produced it before treating the number as settled. Run the full breakdown with the [Kundali matching calculator](https://mahadasha.com/kundali-matching) , and read this beside the [complete guide to the 36 Gunas](https://mahadasha.com/kundali-matching-guide) .