Tara

The count runs both ways — from his nakshatra to hers and from hers to his — then divided by nine. Vipat, Pratyak and Vadha are inauspicious; Janma, Sampat, Kshema, Sadhaka, Mitra and Atimitra are auspicious. One and a half gunas for each direction.

What a zero means

Tara is counted in both directions at one and a half gunas each. Both directions are never inauspicious together (the two counts always add up to 29), so the score is 1.5 or 3. A 1.5 means an inauspicious tara one way — health and fortune then deserve a little attention.

How it is counted

1. Count from the groom's nakshatra to the bride's, both ends included.
2. Divide that count by 9. A remainder of 3, 5 or 7 (Vipat, Pratyak, Vadha) is inauspicious; any other remainder makes the tara auspicious — 1.5 gunas. The same nakshatra (Janma tara) also counts as auspicious.
3. Now count the other way, bride to groom, and divide again — another 1.5 if auspicious. Both directions are never inauspicious together, so the total is 1.5 or 3.

Its weight in the verdict

This koota has no separate voice of its own. It is counted inside the single “36 gunas” voice — which means Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni and Graha-Maitri, all five, arrive together as that one voice.

Our verdict is built by weighing 39 voices, whose weights total 29.7. All thirty-six gunas together are one of them — about 3.4% of the whole verdict. The rest is decided by the 7th house, the Navamsha, the Saptamsha, Vimsopaka, Jaimini, the dasha timing, Manglik and the others. That is why this report never tells anyone to call off a marriage over a low count.

The classical table

The other seven kootas