Article text is currently English only. The calculation below and the rest of the interface follow your chosen language.
In short
Tara koota is the third of the eight Ashtakoot matching factors and is worth three points. It counts the nakshatras from one person's Moon to the other's, both ways, and checks where each count falls in a repeating cycle of nine. This app gives 3, 1.5 or 0 depending on whether both, one or neither count is favourable.
What the term means
Tara means "star", and Tara koota compares the two people's Moon nakshatras, their birth stars. It is worth three points of 36 in guna milan. The idea is a count: how many nakshatras on is the other person's star from yours, and is that position in the repeating cycle of nine one the tradition treats as favourable? The app's one-line description of it is "health, fortune and general wellbeing together".
Where the term comes from
The matching rule is not in the texts this app reads. In BPHS the word Tara appears as the name of a dasha in the list of Ch. 46 Sl. 6-11, systems Parashara says are not appropriate, not as a matching factor. The koota comes from the published references the project adopted for Ashtakoot, and the project's rules document lists it among the kootas left unchanged in the 2026 review.
How this app computes it
- Count from the first Moon's nakshatra to the second's, inclusive, giving a number from 1 to 27. Then count the other way.
- Divide each count by 9. A remainder of 3, 5 or 7 marks the count unfavourable; any other remainder is favourable.
- Both favourable: 3 points. One favourable: 1.5. Neither: 0.
- It reads the Janma Nakshatra of each person, so an untimed birth day on which the Moon changed nakshatra puts it in doubt. It is one of the four kootas used in business and friendship matching.
A small illustration
From Ashwini to Magha is a count of 10, and from Magha back to Ashwini 19. Both leave a remainder of 1 when divided by 9, so both are favourable and the engine scores the full 3. From Ashwini to Krittika the count is 3, unfavourable; from Krittika back to Ashwini it is 26, remainder 8, favourable. One of two gives 1.5, which is what the engine returns for that pair.
Pages that use this term
- Kundli matching calculator - the Tara score with the other seven.
- Aries and Leo Moon sign compatibility - the Tara values seen for that sign pair.
- Moon sign and nakshatra - why the nakshatra kootas need a birth time.
- Ashwini nakshatra - the starting star in the examples above.
- Compatibility - the fuller two-chart reading.
Related terms
Nakshatra, Koota, Yoni koota and Gana koota.
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.