Bhakoot Dosha Calculator: Check 6/8, 5/9 & 2/12 Rashi Dosh

What this Bhakoot dosha calculator checks

Bhakoot (Bhakut, also called Rashi koota) is the seventh of the eight kootas in Ashtakoot guna milan and carries 7 of the 36 points. It looks at nothing but the two Moon signs (rashis) and how far apart they sit on the zodiac wheel. Three spacings — 2/12, 6/8 and 5/9 — score 0 and are called Bhakoot dosha; every other spacing scores the full 7.

This free bhakoot dosha calculator takes either both partners’ birth details or both Moon signs from a dropdown, prints the two rashis, counts the distance in both directions (for example “bride’s rashi is 6th from groom’s; groom’s is 8th from bride’s — Shadashtak”), states Bhakoot dosha yes/no, and then checks the cancellation that matters most in practice: whether the two rashi lords are the same planet or natural friends. It finishes with the Bhakoot points out of 7.

Most pages ranking for this query are not calculators. Three of the top ten are paid-report or lead forms, one is a chart saved as an image, and one is served over plain HTTP. The two that do compute anything take only two Moon signs and never show the count in both directions. Sahita’s tool is the same Bhakoot routine that runs inside the app’s full 36-guna report in 11 Indian languages — install Sahita free from Google Play to see Bhakoot next to Nadi, Graha Maitri and Manglik for the same pair.

How to use this Bhakoot dosha calculator

1. Pick an input mode. Use the Birth details tab if you have date, time and place of birth for both partners; the tool computes each Moon sign with the Lahiri ayanamsa. Use the I know our Rashis tab if you already have both Moon signs from a kundali — or from our rashi calculator — and just want the Bhakoot verdict.
2. Enter both partners. In birth-details mode, fill in date, time and place (14,000+ Indian towns and talukas in the autocomplete). In dropdown mode, choose the groom’s rashi and the bride’s rashi from the twelve options.
3. Read the mutual count. The result shows both rashis and the count each way — 2/12, 6/8, 5/9, or a safe pair such as 3/11, 4/10, 1/7 or same sign.
4. Check the cancellation line and the points. If a dosha pair is found, the tool states whether the rashi lords are the same planet or friends (which cancels the dosha’s ill effects) and prints the Bhakoot points out of 7.

Because Bhakoot depends only on the Moon sign, and the Moon stays in one sign for about two and a quarter days, the result is usually not sensitive to birth time. The exception is a birth on the day the Moon changes sign; if your result shows the Moon within a degree of a sign boundary, use our kundli matching without birth time tool, which computes both possibilities rather than assuming noon.

What Bhakoot koota is and why it carries 7 of 36 points

Each koota in the Ashtakoot system tests one dimension of the pairing. Bhakoot is the “family and prosperity” test: the relative placement of the two Moons is read as the emotional and material relationship between the households. With 7 points it is the second-heaviest koota after Nadi (8), and together the two account for 15 of the 36 points — which is why a couple that fails both cannot score above 21, whatever the other six kootas say. The Wikipedia entry on Ashtakoota lists the eight kootas with their weights, and our 36 guna milan explained article walks through each one.

Unlike Varna or Gana, Bhakoot is all-or-nothing: a pair scores 7 or 0. That makes it the koota most likely to swing a total from “acceptable” to “below 18”, and the one families argue about most. The classical rules for what is and is not a dosha, and the cancellations, come from the Muhurta literature — Muhurta Chintamani’s Vivaha chapter is the text most pandits cite — rather than from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, which does not deal with matching at all.

The three Bhakoot doshas: Shadashtak (6/8), Nav-Pancham (5/9), Dwirdwadash (2/12)

Count inclusively from one rashi to the other, the way houses are counted in a chart. Mesha to Vrishabha is 2; Vrishabha back to Mesha is 12. The two counts always add up to 14 (or are both 1 for the same sign), so a pair is labelled by both numbers: 2/12, 6/8, 5/9, 3/11, 4/10, 7/7 or 1/1. Only three of those seven spacings are doshas.

Spacing	Sanskrit name	Score	Traditional concern	Example pairs
6/8	Shadashtak	0 (dosha)	Health, conflict, separation — the one most texts rank worst	Mesha–Kanya, Karka–Kumbha, Simha–Makara
2/12	Dwirdwadash (Dwi-Dwadash)	0 (dosha)	Money, loss, one partner “draining” the other	Mesha–Vrishabha, Tula–Vrishchika, Dhanu–Makara
5/9	Nav-Pancham	0 (dosha)	Children, progeny — the mildest of the three	Mesha–Simha, Karka–Meena, Kanya–Makara
1/1	Same rashi	7	None	Karka–Karka
1/7	Samasaptak (opposite)	7	None — full points in the standard table	Mesha–Tula, Karka–Makara
3/11	—	7	None	Mesha–Mithuna, Karka–Kanya
4/10	—	7	None	Mesha–Karka, Vrishabha–Kumbha

Two things competitor pages get wrong here. One popular article lists “1–1, 3–11, 4–10, 7–7” as the favourable pairs and leaves out 1/7 — the opposite-sign pairing, which scores the full 7 in every standard table and is one of the most common pairings in practice. Another calculator’s example of a “friendly lords” cancellation is Vrishabha (Venus) with Kumbha (Saturn) — but Vrishabha–Kumbha is a 4/10 pair, which was never a dosha, so there is nothing to cancel. If a page’s own example is not a dosha pair, its cancellation logic has not been tested.

Does direction matter — groom-to-bride or bride-to-groom?

For the standard rule, no: 2/12 and 12/2 are the same pair and both score 0. Some traditions add a directional exception — the legend on one widely-shared Bhakoot chart says the pair is harmless when the bride’s rashi is the 9th, or the 12th, counted from the groom’s, and flags only the reverse. That is a real minority reading, but it is not the one used by most matching software or by the Muhurta Chintamani table.

Sahita applies the symmetric rule by default and prints both counts, so that if your family’s astrologer follows the directional exception you have the numbers to apply it. Our Bhakoot dosha kundali matching guide covers the regional variants in detail.

Full Bhakoot score table for all 144 rashi pairs

Find the groom’s rashi in the left column and the bride’s along the top. “7” means no dosha; “0” means Bhakoot dosha, with the spacing in brackets. No other page on the first page of results gives this as text — the one chart that exists is a PNG — so you can search this table, copy it, or read it with a screen reader.

Groom ↓ / Bride →	Mesha	Vrishabha	Mithuna	Karka	Simha	Kanya	Tula	Vrishchika	Dhanu	Makara	Kumbha	Meena
Mesha	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)
Vrishabha	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7
Mithuna	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7
Karka	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)
Simha	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)
Kanya	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7
Tula	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)
Vrishchika	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)
Dhanu	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7	7
Makara	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)	7
Kumbha	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7	0 (2/12)
Meena	0 (2/12)	7	7	0 (5/9)	0 (6/8)	7	0 (6/8)	0 (5/9)	7	7	0 (2/12)	7

Half of all pairs — 72 of 144 — are dosha pairs by this raw count, which is why Bhakoot dosha is so common and why the cancellation check in the next section is the part that actually decides matches.

Bhakoot dosha cancellation rules, with the planetary friendship table

The widely accepted cancellation is about the lords of the two rashis. If the two Moon signs are ruled by the same planet, or by planets that are natural friends, the ill effects of the dosha are held to be neutralised. To apply it you need two tables: which planet rules each rashi, and which planets are friends. Both are below, and both are what this bhakoot dosha calculator uses.

Rashi lord	Rashis ruled
Mars (Mangal)	Mesha, Vrishchika
Venus (Shukra)	Vrishabha, Tula
Mercury (Budha)	Mithuna, Kanya
Moon (Chandra)	Karka
Sun (Surya)	Simha
Jupiter (Guru)	Dhanu, Meena
Saturn (Shani)	Makara, Kumbha

Planet	Friends	Neutral	Enemies
Sun	Moon, Mars, Jupiter	Mercury	Venus, Saturn
Moon	Sun, Mercury	Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn	—
Mars	Sun, Moon, Jupiter	Venus, Saturn	Mercury
Mercury	Sun, Venus	Mars, Jupiter, Saturn	Moon
Jupiter	Sun, Moon, Mars	Saturn	Mercury, Venus
Venus	Mercury, Saturn	Mars, Jupiter	Sun, Moon
Saturn	Mercury, Venus	Jupiter	Sun, Moon, Mars

This is the Naisargika Maitri (natural friendship) table from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, and the point most pages miss is that it is not symmetrical. Mars treats Saturn as neutral, but Saturn treats Mars as an enemy. Moon treats Mercury as a friend, but Mercury treats Moon as an enemy.

So the test must be run in both directions, which is exactly what the Graha Maitri koota does: both friends scores 5, one friend and one neutral scores 4, both neutral 3, and any enemy relationship 1 or less. Sahita cancels Bhakoot dosha when the lords are the same planet or the Graha Maitri score is 4 or 5 — that is, mutual friends, or friend on one side and neutral on the other. Anything involving an enemy relationship leaves the dosha standing.

Run across all 36 distinct dosha pairs, the rule cancels 25 of them. Every 5/9 pair is cancelled, because trine signs share an element and their lords are always friendly — which is the real reason astrologers call Nav-Pancham the mildest Bhakoot dosha. The eleven pairs where the dosha stands are: Mesha–Vrishabha, Tula–Vrishchika, Mithuna–Karka, Dhanu–Makara and Kumbha–Meena (2/12); and Mesha–Kanya, Vrishabha–Dhanu, Mithuna–Vrishchika, Karka–Kumbha, Simha–Makara and Tula–Meena (6/8). If your pair is not on that list, the calculator will report the dosha as cancelled. The full reasoning for each is in our Bhakoot dosha cancellation guide.

One scoring note that explains a lot of family arguments. When the dosha is cancelled, Sahita marks it cancelled but leaves the Bhakoot koota at 0/7 in the total, the same way AstroSage and most software do. Some pandits restore the 7 points instead. Neither is “wrong”, but it means two reports for the same couple can differ by exactly seven — see app score vs astrologer score.

Two further cancellations circulate: a Navamsa (D9) connection between the Moons, and the argument that a clean Nadi koota offsets Bhakoot. Both are matters of judgement rather than table lookups, and a good astrologer applies them after the basic verdict — which is what the Sahita app report is designed to hand them.

Can we marry if Bhakoot is 0?

Yes, in most cases, and the answer depends on three things in order. First, is the dosha cancelled by the lords? If so, most astrologers treat the 0 as a paperwork zero and move on. Second, if it stands, which spacing is it?

A standing 5/9 is rare (the table above shows none survive the lord test), a standing 2/12 is usually read as a money-and-adjustment warning, and a standing 6/8 — Shadashtak — is the one families take most seriously. Third, what does the rest of the chart say? A 6/8 pair with a clean Nadi, strong Graha Maitri and no Manglik on either side is a very different proposition from a 6/8 pair that also fails Nadi.

Real couples have written about each of these situations on this site: Bhakoot 6/8 — should we break the engagement?, a Bhakoot 2/12 couple’s real story, and what happened when a family ignored Bhakoot dosha, five years later. None of them is a prediction; all of them are more useful than a paid PDF. To see how your own pair’s Bhakoot sits against the other seven kootas, run the full match in Sahita — it is free and needs no login.

Bhakoot and Nadi dosha together: the double-zero case

Because Bhakoot and Nadi are the two heaviest kootas, a couple that fails both starts from 21/36 at best and usually lands in the low teens once Gana or Yoni take a few points too. This is the “double zero” that most traditional astrologers will not pass without a strong cancellation on at least one side. There is a classical link between the two: several Muhurta authors hold that Nadi dosha is softened when Bhakoot is clean (same rashi or friendly lords), and that Bhakoot dosha is softened when Nadi is clean — so the cancellations interact.

What no text supports is the idea that a high total can simply absorb both zeros; a 24/36 with both doshas standing is weaker than an 18/36 with neither. Check the Nadi side with our Nadi dosha calculator, then run both charts through kundali matching to see the interaction on your total, or use the gun milan score checker to see how a given score reads with each dosha toggled on and off.

Effects traditionally attributed to Bhakoot dosha, and the remedies

The Muhurta texts attach a theme to each spacing rather than a list of events: 6/8 to health and conflict between the spouses, 2/12 to finances and loss, 5/9 to children. Modern pages inflate these into “Mrityu Shadashtak” warnings about death and divorce, and one currently ranking page tells you to buy a ₹1,100 report before it will say which spacing you have.

Bhakoot is a compatibility rule with a documented, lookup-table cancellation. It does not predict anyone’s lifespan, and no page that tells you otherwise has read the source text. For the wider context of how these rules sit within Jyotisha, the Wikipedia overview of Hindu astrology is a neutral starting point.

If the dosha stands after the lord test and the families wish to proceed, the remedies are the standard Moon-and-Shiva set. None is required if the dosha is cancelled.

• Maha Mrityunjaya jaap. Prescribed for the 6/8 spacing in particular; usually 1.25 lakh recitations by priests on the couple’s behalf, or a daily count by the couple.
• Shiva–Parvati puja or Gauri Shankar Rudraksha. The pairing of Shiva and Parvati is invoked as the model of a balanced household; a Bhakoot Shanti puja is often done at a Shiva temple before the muhurta is fixed.
• Daan. Donation of items associated with the two rashi lords — for example rice and white cloth for the Moon, or black sesame and iron for Saturn.
• Match the whole chart, not one koota. The remedy most astrologers actually recommend is to look at the strength of the 7th house and the Moon in both charts before deciding. Our Bhakoot dosha puja and remedies guide lists what each ritual involves and what it costs. The Sahita app prints the Bhakoot verdict in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, Odia and English so both sets of parents read the same result — get Sahita in your language.

Frequently asked questions

How is Bhakoot counted — from the boy’s rashi or the girl’s?

Both, and it does not matter for the standard rule. Count inclusively from the groom’s Moon sign to the bride’s and back again; the two numbers always add to 14, so 2/12 and 12/2 are the same pair. The calculator prints both counts because a minority tradition treats the pair as harmless in one direction (bride 9th or 12th from groom) and flags only the reverse; with both numbers on screen you can apply that reading if needed.

Does the same rashi lord cancel Bhakoot dosha, like Mesha–Vrishchika?

Yes. Mesha and Vrishchika are a 6/8 pair, but both are ruled by Mars, so the dosha is cancelled. The same applies to Vrishabha–Tula (both Venus, 6/8) and Makara–Kumbha (both Saturn, 2/12). Mithuna–Kanya and Dhanu–Meena also share a lord but are both 4/10 pairs, so they never had a dosha to cancel. The tool names “same lord” as the reason when this rule fires.

Which Bhakoot dosha is the worst — is 6/8 really “Mrityu Shadashtak”?

Shadashtak (6/8) is the spacing the texts treat most seriously, and some later authors attach the word mrityu to it. That is a label for its theme — health and separation — not a prediction. In scoring, all three doshas are identical at 0/7, and the lord-based cancellation applies to all three. A cancelled 6/8 is, by the rules, less concerning than a standing 2/12. Check the cancellation before reacting to the name.

Does a Navamsa connection cancel Bhakoot dosha?

Some astrologers accept it: if the two Moons fall in the same or friendly Navamsa signs, the Bhakoot dosha in the Rashi chart is held to be reduced. It is a legitimate secondary check, but it needs a reasonably accurate birth time for both partners (the Moon changes Navamsa roughly every six hours) and it is not in the standard koota tables. Sahita reports the lord-based cancellation, which is the primary one, and leaves the Navamsa reading to your astrologer.

Does Bhakoot dosha apply to a love marriage?

The rule does not know how the couple met; it only reads two Moon signs. Whether the family chooses to apply it is a different question. Many couples in love marriages run the check anyway, mainly so that parents have a clear answer — and a cancelled dosha, printed with the rule that cancels it, settles most of those conversations. Our kundali matching for marriage guide discusses how families weigh a single koota against the whole chart.

Is Bhakoot the only factor in deciding compatibility?

No. It is one of eight kootas and worth 7 of 36 points, and it sits alongside the Manglik check, which is outside the score. A pair can have Bhakoot 0 and score 26/36 with everything else clean, or Bhakoot 7 and score 14. Use this bhakoot dosha calculator for the one question it answers well, then run the Manglik calculator for each partner and the full match for the total.

Related reading: Kundali by date of birth · Mesha rashi marriage compatibility · Kundali matching score meaning