What Gana measures

Kundli matching in North India usually means Ashtakoot, the “eight-part” match. It scores a couple on eight kootas (tests), and the eight add up to a total out of 36 points, also called gunas. Gana is the sixth of the eight in the usual order, and it carries 6 of the 36 points. Only Bhakoot (7) and Nadi (8) carry more. Bhakoot compares the two Moon signs: how far one sits from the other around the twelve. Nadi puts each birth star into one of three classes, Adi, Madhya and Antya, and scores 0 when both people share one, unless a classical exception gives the points back.

Gana means “group” or “class”. The koota sorts people into three classes of temperament: Deva, Manushya and Rakshasa. It then scores how well the two classes sit together.

The class is not chosen and not read from behaviour. It comes from one fact in the birth chart: the nakshatra (birth star) the Moon was in when the person was born. The sky is divided into 27 nakshatras, and each one belongs to one of the three ganas. So the two birth stars on a matching sheet settle the Gana score completely. Gana needs only the two birth stars; no other planet enters it.

That also makes Gana one of the four kootas read from the nakshatra rather than from the Moon sign. The other three are Tara, Yoni and Nadi. Our guide to why calculators give different guna scores shows why that matters when a birth time is uncertain.

The three ganas and the 27 birth stars

The 27 nakshatras divide evenly: nine Deva, nine Manushya, nine Rakshasa. The table below is the one our engine scores with. Find each person’s birth star on the matching sheet, then find its column.

Deva means “divine”. The tradition describes the Deva temperament as gentle and principled. Deva stars: Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana and Revati.

Manushya means “human”. The Manushya temperament is described as practical and mixed: some of each of the other two. Manushya stars: Bharani, Rohini, Ardra, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada and Uttara Bhadrapada.

Rakshasa is usually translated “demon”, and that word does the class a disservice. In matching it names a temperament described as intense, independent and self-directed. It is not a judgement of a person’s character or morals, and nobody born under a Rakshasa star is a lesser match for being so. Rakshasa stars: Krittika, Ashlesha, Magha, Chitra, Vishakha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Dhanishta and Shatabhisha.

About a third of all people are born under each gana. If a relative says one of you is “rakshasa gana”, they have told you which nine stars the Moon was in, nothing more.

How the six points are scored

Our engine scores Gana from a fixed table of the nine possible pairs of ganas. It reads the groom’s gana first and the bride’s second. Our star-based calculator calls them the boy and the girl.

When both people have the same gana, Gana scores the full 6, whichever gana it is. Deva with Deva, Manushya with Manushya and Rakshasa with Rakshasa all score 6.

Deva with Rakshasa scores 1, in either order. Manushya with Rakshasa scores 0, in either order. These two pairs are where every low Gana score comes from.

Deva with Manushya is the one pair whose score depends on who is who. A Deva groom with a Manushya bride scores 6. A Manushya groom with a Deva bride scores 5. That one point is the only difference between the two directions anywhere in the table.

So Gana has only four possible scores: 6, 5, 1 and 0. There is no 2, 3 or 4, and no half point. If your sheet shows any other number for Gana, check that you are reading the Gana line.

Why “0 out of 6” is so common

A zero on any koota can look alarming on a sheet. On Gana it is an ordinary result, and arithmetic shows why.

There are 27 × 27 = 729 ways to pair a groom’s birth star with a bride’s. Each gana holds nine stars, so each pair of ganas covers 9 × 9 = 81 of those pairings. Take each birth star as equally likely, which is a fair approximation because each nakshatra is the same width of sky. Then the scores fall like this.

Six points come up in 324 of the 729 pairings, 4 in every 9: the three same-gana pairs plus the Deva groom with a Manushya bride. Five points come up in 81, 1 in 9. One point comes up in 162, 2 in 9: Deva with Rakshasa, both ways. Zero comes up in 162, also 2 in 9: Manushya with Rakshasa, both ways.

So more than one couple in five sees a 0 on the Gana line, from no cause other than which two of the 27 stars the Moon was in. Across all 729 pairings the average Gana score is 3.44 out of 6.

A 0 here takes 6 points off the total, and the other seven kootas can still give up to 30. A low Gana score on its own does not push a match below the 18 out of 36 that many families treat as the line. Our guide to the 36 gunas explains what each total means.

Why two calculators can print different Gana scores

If two matching reports give the same couple different Gana scores, there are two usual reasons.

The first is a different birth star. Gana follows the nakshatra, and the Moon crosses into the next nakshatra about once a day. A birth near a boundary can fall in one star on one calculator and the next star on another, if the two use a different ayanamsa (the correction between the star-based zodiac and the Western one) or a slightly different birth time. Neighbouring stars often belong to different ganas, so the Gana score can jump from 6 to 0 with them. Our guide to why calculators give different guna scores measures how often this happens.

The second is direction. Our engine reads the groom’s gana first. A tool that swaps the two roles gives 5 where ours gives 6 for a Deva–Manushya couple, and 6 where ours gives 5. Swap the two people in the tool yourself and see whether the Gana number moves.

Our engine’s table is the one shown above. We could not find a text and verse number that fixes every cell of it, so we show it as our table and say so, rather than call it the only correct one. Family astrologers and regional almanacs may use a table that differs in a cell or two. If a report’s Gana number puzzles you, ask which table it used.

What a low Gana decides, and what it does not

Gana is 6 of 36 points. It is one reading of temperament from one fact in each chart, the birth star. It cannot see how two people actually live, talk or settle a disagreement.

Read it with the rest of the sheet. The two heaviest kootas, Bhakoot (7) and Nadi (8), are the ones families most often treat as deciding, and both have classical exceptions that can give their points back. Our Nadi and Bhakoot guide explains when a 0 on either one is cancelled, and our Nadi check tests the three Nadi exceptions from the two birth stars and their padas (the four quarters of each star).

A family astrologer may say that a good gana match softens a Nadi dosha. Some readings do treat a gana agreement as reducing how much weight a same-Nadi result carries. Our Nadi check does not apply that reading. It lists it as a rule it does not cover, so a Gana score never changes the Nadi verdict you see there.

A sheet may print “Gana dosha” beside a 0. Treat it as a label for a low score on one koota, not as a warning about the marriage. Nothing in a Gana score calls for a remedy, a fee or a fear. If a temperament difference worries you, talk about it together. Two people can do that; a table cannot.

Gana Porutham in the South

In the Tamil tradition, matching often uses Dasa Porutham, a set of ten tests, instead of the eight kootas. One of the ten is Gana Porutham. It uses the same three classes, Deva, Manushya and Rakshasa, on the same 27 stars, and asks the same question about temperament.

The difference is in the output. A porutham is usually read as agreeing or not agreeing. Ashtakoot, and our engine with it, grades Gana on its 0-to-6 scale. Our comparison of Dasa Porutham and the 36 gunas sets the two systems side by side, including the tests one has and the other does not.

Check your own Gana in a minute

You need the two birth stars and their padas, which every matching report lists. Open our star-based calculator, enter both, and it scores all eight kootas, Gana among them. There is nothing to sign up for.

If your sheet already lists all eight koota scores, enter them in the koota score reader. It reads them back one by one and tells you what they add up to. It does not re-score anything, and nothing is saved.

To read a Gana score against the rest of a match, ask Jyothshi. Give it the two birth stars or the eight scores, and it explains what Gana adds, what Bhakoot and Nadi say, and what the numbers leave open.

• Rebuild all eight scores from two birth stars: the star-based calculator.
• Read the eight scores from your sheet: the koota score reader.
• A 0 on Nadi or Bhakoot too: our Nadi and Bhakoot guide.