Nadi dosha — what it is, and what cancels it

Every one of the 27 nakshatras belongs to one of three nadis — Aadi, Madhya or Antya — which map onto the Ayurvedic constitutions of vata, pitta and kapha. Your nadi is decided by the nakshatra your Moon was in at birth, and by nothing else.

If both Moons fall in the same nadi, the koota scores 0 of 8 and that is what "Nadi dosha" names. The classical reasoning is that two identical constitutions reinforce each other rather than balance each other, and the concern the texts attach to it is about progeny and health rather than about compatibility of temperament.

Because it is eight points in one lump, a nadi clash on its own drops a total by more than a fifth. A couple scoring 26 with differing nadis scores 18 with the same one, and 18 is the number that starts arguments at home — which is why this is the first field to check when a total looks surprisingly low.

Which nakshatra falls in which nadi. The pattern runs in a zigzag through groups of three, which is why it cannot be worked out by counting.

Nadi dosha has more recognised exceptions than almost any other rule in Gun Milan, and almost nobody prints them. These are the ones the classical sources name.

• Same rashi, different nakshatra

  If both Moons are in the same rashi but in different nakshatras, the standard texts treat the nadi clash as cancelled.

• Same nakshatra, different rashi

  The mirror of the above: one nakshatra can span two rashis, and Moons in the same nakshatra but different rashis are held to cancel it.

• Same nakshatra, different pada

  Both Moons in one nakshatra but in different quarters of it is also treated as cancelling, on the same reasoning — the constitutions are not in fact identical.

• The rashi lords are the same or friendly

  Where the two Moon rashis are ruled by the same graha, or by grahas that are natural friends, several traditions set the clash aside.

• The rest of the chart says otherwise

  A strong Navamsa agreement, or a well-placed 7th lord in both charts, is treated by practising astrologers as outweighing a single koota — which is what "look at the whole chart" actually means in practice.

Be clear about what our tool does and does not do here: it computes the koota and tells you whether the nadis clash. It does not decide which of the exceptions above applies to you — that is a reading, not an arithmetic, and a calculator that claimed otherwise would be making the decision for an astrologer it has not consulted.

• It is not a bar to marriage. The same texts that define it define five ways it lapses, and the second-commonest is a coincidence of nakshatra that costs nothing to check.
• It is not a medical finding. Nothing about a nakshatra pairing has anything to say about anyone’s actual health, and the pages that imply otherwise are selling something.
• It is not most of the match. It is 8 of 36 points, in an arithmetic that ignores the ascendant, the seventh house, both Venuses and every dasha either person is running.

Rather than working out your nadi from a table, put both birth details in and see all eight kootas computed — Nadi, Bhakoot, and whether Manglik is cancelled. Free, and nothing is saved.