Nakshatra gana calculator

Find the gana (Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa), the yoni animal and the nadi of a birth nakshatra. Choose the nakshatra, or find it from the date of birth or the first syllable of a name; then, if you like, score the Gana and Yoni kootas for two people.

Gana, yoni and nadi of the 27 nakshatras

Every nakshatra has one gana, one yoni animal and one nadi in the matching tables. For example, Rohini is Manushya gana, serpent yoni and Antya nadi.

What the three ganas are

The tradition sorts the 27 nakshatras into three ganas of nine: Deva (divine), Manushya (human) and Rakshasa (the rakshasa of the epics). The names come from the old texts. They are labels used in matching, not a verdict on anyone: a gana matters only when two birth nakshatras are compared.

• Deva gana: Ashwini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Shravana, Revati.
• Manushya gana: Bharani, Rohini, Ardra, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada.
• Rakshasa gana: Krittika, Ashlesha, Magha, Chitra, Vishakha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Dhanishta, Shatabhisha.

Nakshatra animals (yoni)

Each nakshatra also has a yoni, an animal symbol. Fourteen animals are shared among the 27 nakshatras, most of them by two, and the Yoni koota compares the two animals.

Seven pairs of animals are treated as enemies in the yoni table: horse and buffalo, elephant and lion, sheep and monkey, serpent and mongoose, dog and deer, cat and rat, cow and tiger.

How Gana and Yoni are scored in guna milan

In the 36-point Ashtakoota milan, the Gana koota carries 6 points and the Yoni koota 4. The Gana table is read with the girl’s gana as the row and the boy’s as the column:

Yoni gives 4 for the same animal, 0 for an enemy pair, and 1 to 3 for the others, the same either way round. For example, Rohini (Manushya, serpent) with Hasta (Deva, buffalo) scores 6 for Gana and 1 for Yoni. A few cells of these tables differ between texts; the calculator uses the same tables as the site’s gun milan tools.

How the calculator finds the nakshatra

1. Birth nakshatra. If a horoscope or temple record names the janma nakshatra, choose it directly. Varna belongs to the rashi, so for a nakshatra that crosses two rashis the tool shows the varna for each pada.
2. Date of birth. The date, time and place of birth fix the Moon’s sidereal position (Lahiri ayanamsa), worked out in your browser. Without a time the tool uses the Moon at noon and names any other nakshatra the Moon enters that day. The same calculation powers the nakshatra calculator by date of birth.
3. Name. The first syllable of a name is looked up in the traditional table of naming syllables, as in nakshatra by name. This follows the naming tradition and is only an approximation of the birth star.

Related tools and guides

• Kundali matching by date of birth: all eight kootas from two birth dates.
• Gun milan by name: all eight kootas from two names.
• Nadi dosha calculator: the nadi of two nakshatras and the same-nadi rule.
• Rajju dosha calculator: the rajju of two nakshatras and the vedha pairs of South Indian porutham.
• Nakshatra and pada calculator: find a birth star from the date and time.
• List of 27 nakshatras and the 27 nakshatras explained.