--- title: "Tara Koota Matching: Three Points, Counted Both Ways" slug: "tara-koota-matching" canonical_url: "https://mahadasha.com/tara-koota-matching" description: "Tara koota matching is the only test in Guna Milan scored in both directions and averaged. How the nine taras work, and which three of them cost you points." published_date: "2026-08-06 09:03:00" modified_date: "2026-08-06 09:03:00" author: "Pawan Acharya" keywords: "tara koota matching, tara koota, tara milan, tara koota points, janma sampat vipat kshema, guna milan tara, ashtakoota tara, nakshatra compatibility" locale: "en" --- # Tara Koota Matching: Three Points, Counted Both Ways > Six of the nine taras are favourable and three are not, and the count runs in both directions. That symmetry is what makes this the only koota where one partner can be lucky for the other without it being mutual. # Tara Koota Matching: Three Points, Counted Both Ways Tara koota matching measures how each partner's birth star treats the other's, and it is worth three of the thirty-six points. It is also the only koota in the whole system computed twice, once in each direction, with the results added together. That design detail is not decoration. It is the tradition acknowledging that luck between two people is not necessarily mutual. ## The nine taras Count from one partner's nakshatra to the other's, including both ends, then divide by nine and take the remainder. A remainder of zero counts as nine. The number you land on names the tara. 1. **Janma**, the birth star itself. Mixed. 2. **Sampat**, wealth. Favourable. 3. **Vipat**, danger. Unfavourable. 4. **Kshema**, well-being. Favourable. 5. **Pratyari**, obstruction. Unfavourable. 6. **Sadhaka**, achievement. Favourable. 7. **Vadha**, also called Naidhana. Unfavourable. 8. **Mitra**, friend. Favourable. 9. **Ati Mitra**, close friend. Favourable. Three of the nine are unfavourable and they are the odd positions from the third onward: the third, fifth and seventh. Six of nine are fine. So in any single direction the odds of landing on a good tara are two in three, and if both directions were independent the odds of both being good would be four in nine, a little under half. They are not quite independent, because the two counts are related, but the rough shape holds and it explains why partial Tara scores are so common. ## How Tara koota matching is scored Each direction is worth 1.5 points. Count from the bride's nakshatra to the groom's for one, and from the groom's to the bride's for the other. A favourable tara scores the full 1.5, an unfavourable one scores zero, and the two results are added. That gives three possible outcomes rather than the usual two. Three points means both directions are favourable. Zero means neither is. And 1.5, which is the case people find confusing, means exactly one direction is favourable: one partner's star is good for the other, and the reverse is not true. No other koota produces a half score from an asymmetry like this, and it is the single most interesting thing in the test. A relationship in which one person consistently brings the other luck without it flowing back is a recognisable human situation, and this is the one place Ashtakoota can describe it. ## The remainder that catches people out The count is inclusive at both ends, so counting from a nakshatra to itself gives one, not zero. And a remainder of zero after dividing by nine is read as the ninth tara, Ati Mitra, which is favourable. Both conventions are easy to get wrong by hand, and getting either wrong shifts every result. If you are checking a calculator against your own arithmetic and the answers disagree by one position, an off-by-one in the inclusive count is almost always the reason. The other detail worth knowing is that a couple sharing the same nakshatra lands on Janma tara in both directions. Janma is classed as mixed rather than clearly favourable, and different schools score it differently, so a same-nakshatra couple can be given three points, 1.5 or zero depending on whose method is being applied. Ask which convention a report used before treating that number as settled. ## What the three points are measuring Fortune rather than temperament. Where the other kootas describe how two people get along, Tara describes what happens to them: whether the association tends to be materially lucky, whether it coincides with health and stability, whether obstacles cluster around it. The tara scheme is also used well outside marriage matching. The same nine-fold count from a person's own birth star is standard practice in electional astrology for choosing a day to begin something, which is a useful reminder that this koota is a general-purpose tool borrowed into Guna Milan rather than a matching technique invented for it. ## Why the cycle is nine and not twenty-seven Twenty-seven nakshatras divided by nine gives three, and that is the structural reason the tara scheme works the way it does. Each of the nine taras is occupied by three nakshatras, spaced nine apart around the circle, so Ashwini, Magha and Mula all sit at the same position in the cycle relative to any given starting point. Nine is also the number of grahas, and the standard lordship sequence runs Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, repeating three times across the twenty-seven. That is the same sequence the Vimshottari dasha is built on, which means the tara count and the [dasha sequence](https://mahadasha.com/dasha-calculator) are two applications of one structure. A couple whose Tara score is poor are, in the underlying scheme, standing at an awkward interval in a cycle that also governs how their planetary periods unfold. None of which changes the score. It does explain why the tradition treats this test as being about fortune rather than personality, because the cycle it runs on is the timing cycle. ## What a zero in Tara costs Three points, and no formal dosha. Like the smaller kootas below it, Tara has no named affliction and no standard remedy. Its practical weight comes from position rather than reputation: three points is a meaningful slice of the eighteen a match needs, and losing all of it alongside a [Nadi koota](https://mahadasha.com/nadi-koota-matching) zero is arithmetically difficult to recover from. If the score comes back at 1.5, note the direction that failed. It is a genuine piece of information and it is the sort of thing that only shows up in a per-koota breakdown, which is one reason a bare total is worth so little. And whatever Tara says, marriage support itself is a question for the [7th house in astrology](https://mahadasha.com/7th-house-astrology) in each chart. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Tara koota matching? The third of the eight Guna Milan tests, worth three points. It counts the distance between the two nakshatras in both directions and scores each direction on whether it lands on a favourable tara. ### Why did we score 1.5 out of 3? Because one direction landed on a favourable tara and the other did not. It is the only koota that can split like this, and it describes luck flowing one way rather than both. ### Which taras are unfavourable? The third, Vipat; the fifth, Pratyari; and the seventh, Vadha. The other six are favourable, though the first, Janma, is treated as mixed and scored differently by different schools. ### What if we share the same nakshatra? Both counts give Janma tara. Because Janma is classed as mixed, the score depends on which convention is used, so check what your report applied before drawing a conclusion. See the direction-by-direction 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) .