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In short
A Cancer Moon and a Virgo Moon score 14.5 to 28.5 out of 36 in this app, median 25.5, across all 81 nakshatra-quarter pairings with Cancer entered first; with Virgo first each total is 1 higher. The 3/11 distance keeps Bhakoot at 7, the Moon and Mercury give 3, and the nakshatra spread comes mostly from Gana.
Cancer and Virgo stand two signs apart - a water sign and an earth sign, the Moon's sign and one of Mercury's. In Guna Milan that spacing is a comfortable one, and the median score is respectable. The interesting parts are the half-friendship between the two lords and the way Gana swings across Virgo's three stars. The figures are the engine's.
Background: Cancer, Karka rashi and Virgo, Kanya rashi. The nakshatra matching hub explains all eight kootas; the Kundli matching calculator scores two real charts.
Kark and Kanya in BPHS
BPHS Ch. 4 describes them as near-opposites in character. Kark (Sl. 10-11) is watery and Sattvic, many-footed, a forest-dweller "strong in nights", ruled by Candr. Kanya (Sl. 13-14) is a biped hill-dweller strong by day, a Virgin with "grains and fire in its hands", Tamasic, ruled by Budh, and described as belonging to the business community. Sl. 5-5.5 calls Kark phlegmatic and Kanya windy. Both are among the nine signs the chapter assigns a Varna, and the engine's class table follows those assignments.
A Cancer Moon falls in Punarvasu (its last quarter), Pushya or Ashlesha. A Virgo Moon falls in Uttara Phalguni (three quarters), Hasta (four) or Chitra (two). That is 81 pairings.
The kootas this sign pair fixes
| Koota | Out of | Cancer first | Virgo first | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Varna | 1 | 0 | 1 | Different classes; the engine compares A with B |
| Vashya | 2 | 1 | 1 | Adjacent Vashya groups |
| Graha Maitri | 5 | 3 | 3 | The Moon lists Mercury as a friend; Mercury lists the Moon as an enemy |
| Bhakoot | 7 | 7 | 7 | Virgo is 3rd from Cancer; Cancer 11th from Virgo |
| Sign total | 15 | 11 | 12 |
Bhakoot (the koota) keeps all 7. The engine zeroes only the 2/12, 5/9 and 6/8 distances - a list it takes from two web references, since this app's classical books do not contain the rule - and 3/11 is not among them.
Graha Maitri (the koota) is the same lopsided relationship that appears in every Moon-Mercury pairing. In the BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 55 relationships the engine stores, the Moon has no enemies at all and counts Mercury a friend, while Mercury counts the Moon an enemy. The engine scores friend-enemy as 3. Its header notes that this is a kept value: the references disagree (two say 1, one says 2), so other software may show less.
Varna (the koota) depends on which Moon is entered first. The engine passes it when the first Moon's class is at the same place as the second's or later in its list. Cancer's class comes first in that list, so Cancer entered first fails and Virgo entered first passes. The header lists the asymmetry as unresolved. The word is used only as the koota's name for a sign classification.
The kootas the nakshatras decide
- Gana spreads evenly: 6 in 28 pairings, 3 in 27, 0 in 26. Cancer has two Deva stars and one Rakshasa (Ashlesha); Virgo has one of each kind (Hasta Deva, Uttara Phalguni Manushya, Chitra Rakshasa). Deva meets Rakshasa in both directions - Cancer's Deva stars against Chitra, and Ashlesha against Hasta.
- Nadi is 8 in 66 and 0 in 15: Punarvasu against Uttara Phalguni or Hasta (all Aadi), and Pushya against Chitra (both Madhya). Ashlesha, the only Antya star in either sign, never shares a Nadi here.
- Tara is 1.5 in every pairing.
- Yoni is 2 in every pairing: Cat and Sheep against Cow, Buffalo and Tiger, with no shared animal and no enemy pair.
With Tara and Yoni fixed, the nakshatra kootas reduce to two variables, Gana and Nadi, and they mostly move independently. An Ashlesha Moon is in an odd position: it can never share a Nadi with a Virgo Moon, so it keeps all 8 of those points, but it scores 0 Gana against Hasta and full Gana against Chitra. A Pushya Moon, by contrast, scores full Gana against Hasta and keeps Nadi there too, which is where the top of the range comes from.
The range of totals
Cancer first, the 81 totals run from 14.5 to 28.5 out of 36, median 25.5. Virgo first, 15.5 to 29.5, median 26.5. The median sits near the top because the most common outcome is a different Nadi plus at least partial Gana; the long tail down to 14.5 comes from the few pairings that lose both. Losing both happens only when a Pushya Moon meets a Chitra Moon: the two share the Madhya nadi, and Pushya is Deva while Chitra is Rakshasa.
In the same engine, Cancer with Leo (the adjacent sign) scores only 12 to 20, and Cancer with Libra (4/10) 12.5 to 28. Virgo's advantage over Leo is mainly Bhakoot: 3/11 keeps its 7 points where 2/12 loses them. Comparisons like these describe the rule set, not people born under these signs.
To know where a couple sits, look up both birth stars with the nakshatra calculator. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why a birth time is needed for that.
Worked example: Cancer 1 degree with Virgo 1 degree
A Moon at 1 degree of Cancer is in the last quarter of Punarvasu; a Moon at 1 degree of Virgo is in Uttara Phalguni. Cancer entered first:
| Koota | Score | Out of | What decided it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varna | 0 | 1 | Sign: Cancer entered first |
| Vashya | 1 | 2 | Sign: adjacent groups |
| Tara | 1.5 | 3 | Nakshatra: count 6 favourable, 23 unfavourable |
| Yoni | 2 | 4 | Nakshatra: Cat and Cow |
| Graha Maitri | 3 | 5 | Sign: Moon friendly, Mercury hostile |
| Gana | 3 | 6 | Nakshatra: Deva with Manushya |
| Bhakoot | 7 | 7 | Sign: 3/11 |
| Nadi | 0 | 8 | Nakshatra: Aadi with Aadi |
| Total | 17.5 | 36 |
This example lands well under the 25.5 median because it is one of the 15 shared-Nadi pairings: Punarvasu and Uttara Phalguni are both Aadi. Had the Cancer Moon been a few degrees later, in Pushya, Nadi would be 8 (Madhya against Aadi) and Gana would stay at 3, since Pushya is Deva and Uttara Phalguni Manushya - an 8-point swing from a few hours of the Moon's motion.
The example also shows how the sign rows and the star rows can point in different directions. The sign kootas give 11, a solid figure built on a full Bhakoot. The star kootas give 6.5, held back by the shared Nadi. A reader told only "Cancer and Virgo" would know the first number with certainty and nothing about the second; that is the main reason the app asks for birth times rather than signs. It is also why the summary at the top gives a range, not a single score.
What the classical texts say
The engine relies on BPHS for two things only: the sign classes of Ch. 4 and the friendships of Ch. 3 Sl. 55, which together explain the Varna and Graha Maitri rows above. The Ashtakoot points and the Bhakoot distances are not in BPHS, nor in Saravali, the Bhrigu Sutras, Daivajna Vallabha or Advanced Predictive Astrology. None of these books comments on a Cancer Moon matched with a Virgo Moon.
One classical observation is relevant to the Graha Maitri result. The Moon in the Ch. 3 lists has no natural enemies, so in every pairing that involves a Cancer Moon, any hostility comes from the other side. Here it comes from Mercury, which counts the Moon an enemy - which is why the score is 3, not 5, despite the Moon's friendliness.
What a score does not tell you
A 14.5 or a 28.5 is how two Moon positions meet one set of rules. It does not describe a couple and does not decide anything for them; this app does not advise anyone on marriage. Mars placement is a separate check, covered in Mangal dosha: what it is and is not. Nadi dosha explains the shared-Nadi result. The love compatibility calculator gives a lighter comparison. Related pairs: Cancer and Leo, Cancer and Libra and Gemini and Virgo.
- What is the Guna Milan score for a Cancer Moon and a Virgo Moon?
- 14.5 to 28.5 out of 36 in this app with Cancer entered first (median 25.5), or 15.5 to 29.5 with Virgo first.
- Is there Bhakoot dosha for Cancer and Virgo?
- No. The signs are 3 and 11 apart, which keeps the full 7 points. Only 2/12, 5/9 and 6/8 score 0.
- Why is Graha Maitri 3?
- The Moon counts Mercury a friend, but Mercury counts the Moon an enemy. The engine scores that one-sided case at 3; its references disagree, giving 1 or 2.
- Why is the total one point higher when Virgo is entered first?
- Varna compares the first Moon to the second. Virgo first passes; Cancer first does not.
- How do we find our actual score?
- Use the match tool with both birth dates, times and places.
Kundli Matching (Guna Milan)
The classical Ashtakoot score out of 36, computed from two birth dates.
This one has its own page
This one runs on its own page, built for it, where the full result is laid out properly. No account is needed there either.