--- title: "Graha Maitri Koota Matching: Five Points for Liking Each Other" slug: "graha-maitri-koota-matching" canonical_url: "https://mahadasha.com/graha-maitri-koota-matching" description: "Graha Maitri koota matching runs on the two Moon-sign lords, and Mercury rules two signs that are never friends. How the 5 Gunas are scored." published_date: "2026-08-06 09:05:00" modified_date: "2026-08-06 09:05:00" author: "Pawan Acharya" keywords: "graha maitri koota matching, graha maitri koota, graha maitri milan, moon sign lord friendship, planetary friendship astrology, guna milan graha maitri" locale: "en" --- # Graha Maitri Koota Matching: Five Points for Liking Each Other > This is the koota most people would recognise if it were described to them without the Sanskrit: whether two people actually enjoy each other's company. It is worth five points and it runs on two planets. # Graha Maitri Koota Matching: Five Points for Liking Each Other Graha Maitri koota matching is worth five of the thirty-six points and, of all eight tests, it is the one that most closely describes what people mean when they say two people get on. It works by taking the lord of each partner's Moon sign and asking how those two planets regard each other. Five points makes it the largest of the kootas that are not all or nothing, so it can move a total substantially without swinging it wildly. ## How Graha Maitri koota matching is scored Find the lord of each Moon sign, then look up the natural relationship between the two planets in both directions. - Both friends, or the same planet: 5 points. - One friend and one neutral: 4 points. - Both neutral: 3 points. - One friend and one enemy: 1 point. - One neutral and one enemy: 0.5 points. - Both enemies: 0. The reason the table needs both directions is that natural planetary friendship is not symmetric. The Sun counts Mercury as neutral while Mercury counts the Sun as a friend. Saturn counts Mercury as a friend while Mercury counts Saturn as neutral. Any scoring that assumes the relationship runs both ways equally will produce wrong numbers on a good fraction of pairings. ## The two signs that are never friends Because the koota runs on sign lords rather than on signs, several signs collapse onto the same planet. Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo, Venus rules Taurus and Libra, Mars rules Aries and Scorpio, Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces, and Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius. Only the Sun and Moon rule one sign each. So twelve Moon signs reduce to seven possible lords, and a Gemini Moon and a Virgo Moon are treated as identical by this test. They score the full five points against each other, because the lord is the same planet in both cases, and the koota has no way to notice that the two people are quite different. That compression is the honest limitation here. Five of the seven lords are doing double duty, and a test with seven categories is being asked to describe twelve. It is also why Graha Maitri correlates loosely with [Varna koota matching](https://mahadasha.com/varna-koota-matching) , which sorts the same twelve signs by element and produces a different grouping entirely. ## What the five points are measuring Mental affinity. Whether two people find each other's company easy, whether conversation flows without effort, whether they want the same evening. The Moon is the mind in this system, and its lord describes the disposition of that mind, so two friendly lords describe two temperaments that fit. This is also the koota that best survives the objection people raise about the whole system. Guna Milan is often dismissed as arbitrary, and several kootas invite that. Graha Maitri does not: it is a straightforward statement that people whose minds are governed by compatible principles tend to enjoy each other, which is neither mystical nor controversial. ## What a zero in Graha Maitri costs Five points, with no dosha and no remedy. Nobody refuses a match on this koota, and that is arguably backwards. A couple who score zero here and full marks on the two large tests below will pass the thirty-six-point examination comfortably while having been told, in the one place the system speaks plainly, that they may not much like each other. If you read only one koota, read this one. If you read only one number, do not read the total. ## The awkward middle scores Most kootas produce round numbers. This one produces 0.5 and 1, and those two results confuse people more than a zero does. A score of 1 means one lord counts the other a friend while the other counts the first an enemy. That asymmetry is the interesting part. It describes a pairing where one partner is drawn to the other and the feeling is not returned in the same terms, and it is the arithmetic behind a very ordinary human situation that no other koota can express. A score of 0.5 is the milder version: one direction is neutral, the other hostile. Neither result is a crisis, and neither is nothing. What both are telling you is that the two minds are not naturally on the same side, and that whatever holds the relationship together is coming from somewhere other than easy affinity. The practical instruction is to note which direction was the hostile one, because it is not symmetric and the breakdown will tell you. A report that gives you 1 out of 5 without saying which lord dislikes which has again thrown away the useful half of the answer. ## Reading it usefully Two cross-checks are worth making. The first is against Gana koota, worth six points, which measures temperament from the nakshatras rather than the sign lords. When Graha Maitri and Gana agree, the reading is firm. When they disagree, the nakshatra-level test usually describes the instinctive layer and the sign-lord test describes the conversational one, and couples in that position often report exactly that split. The second is against the actual condition of the two lords in their own charts. A friendly pair of lords that are both debilitated is a different situation from a friendly pair that are both dignified, and Ashtakoota cannot see the difference because it never looks at anything except which planet rules which Moon sign. That check belongs with the seventh house reading and the [Navamsa chart (D9)](https://mahadasha.com/navamsa-chart-d9) . ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Graha Maitri koota matching? The fifth of the eight Guna Milan tests, worth five points. It takes the lord of each partner's Moon sign and scores the natural friendship between those two planets in both directions. ### What if both Moon signs have the same lord? Full marks, five points. That happens whenever both Moons fall in signs ruled by the same planet, for instance one in Gemini and one in Virgo, since Mercury rules both. ### Why is the relationship scored in both directions? Because natural planetary friendship is not mutual. The Sun treats Mercury as neutral while Mercury treats the Sun as a friend, so the two directions genuinely differ and the score averages them. ### Is there a Graha Maitri dosha? No. A zero costs five points and carries no named affliction, which is one of the odder features of the system given that this is the test most directly about compatibility. One last caution. Because five of the seven lords rule two signs each, this koota is the easiest one to compute correctly and misread. Getting the right planet is trivial; remembering that the planet stands for two quite different signs is the part people skip. A Capricorn Moon and an Aquarius Moon are both Saturn here, and anyone who has met one of each knows they are not interchangeable. See the lord-by-lord 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) .