An Ashwini-born person's gun milan depends on four things this nakshatra fixes (a deva gana, the horse yoni, the Adi nadi and its place in the tara count) and four more that come from the Moon sign, Aries. Across the 27 nakshatras, Ashwini as the groom scores anywhere from 10 to 34 out of 36, and as the bride from 9 to 33, with most pairings landing in the average or good bands.
The table above gives every pairing from our kundli matching engine. This note explains where those numbers come from, so you can read your own row sensibly rather than just hunting for the biggest figure.
What Ashwini brings to the match
Ashwini is the first nakshatra, lying wholly within Aries. Its lord is Ketu and the sign lord is Mars. For matching, the important features are:
- Gana: deva. The gentlest of the three temperaments in the gana scheme.
- Yoni: horse (male). Its sworn enemy is the buffalo, the yoni of Hasta and Swati. Its same-animal partner is Shatabhisha.
- Nadi: Adi. Shared with eight other nakshatras.
- Moon sign: Aries, all four padas. So varna, vashya, graha maitri and bhakoot are always read from Aries for an Ashwini Moon.
Because Ashwini never leaves Aries, any range you see in an Ashwini row comes from the partner's side, when the partner's nakshatra straddles two signs.
Reading the Ashwini row
With Ashwini as the groom, 5 pairings fall below 18, 11 sit in the 18–24.5 average band, 10 reach the 25–32 good band and 1 goes above 32. With Ashwini as the bride the spread is a little wider at the bottom: 8 low, 8 average, 10 good and 1 excellent.
The standout is Bharani, the very next nakshatra: 34 with Ashwini as the groom, 33 the other way. Both Moons sit in Aries, so the sign-based kootas are full, and the two fall in different nadis. Pushya follows at 29.5 (Ashwini groom) and 30.5 (Ashwini bride). Mrigashira reaches 28 as its usual score, but its cell reads 24.5–28 because Mrigashira straddles Taurus and Gemini, and the sign-based kootas change with the side of the boundary its Moon falls on.
At the other end, Hasta gives the lowest usual total with an Ashwini groom, 10, followed by Uttara Phalguni at 11 and Jyeshtha at 13. All three share Ashwini's Adi nadi, which removes 8 points before anything else is counted, and Hasta also carries the buffalo yoni.
Groom and bride rows differ by a point or so in many places. That comes from gana, which is not symmetric, and from varna, which is read from the groom's side.
Yoni, gana and tara for Ashwini
Horse and buffalo are one of the seven sworn-enemy yoni pairs, so Ashwini with Hasta or Swati scores 0 of 4 on yoni. With Shatabhisha, which shares the horse, yoni gives the full 4.
On gana, Ashwini is fortunate: as a deva nakshatra it never scores 0. Deva with deva or manushya earns full or near-full points; deva with rakshasa earns 1.
Tara counts from Ashwini fall unfavourably on Krittika, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha (vipat), Mrigashira, Chitra and Dhanishta (pratyari), and Punarvasu, Vishakha and Purva Bhadrapada (vadha). Each direction is worth 1.5, so this costs at most 1.5 from Ashwini's side. Some traditions count tara only from the bride's nakshatra; ours counts both ways.
Nadi: the Adi group
Ashwini shares the Adi nadi with Ardra, Punarvasu, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Jyeshtha, Mula, Shatabhisha and Purva Bhadrapada. With any of these, nadi scores 0 of 8. For all of them except Ashwini itself, none of the three standard exceptions can apply, since each lies in a different nakshatra and none shares Aries. For Ashwini with Ashwini, the "same nakshatra, different padas" exception can apply.
Texts treat the same nadi as a caution, not a prohibition, and astrologers differ on how far an exception softens it. Our nadi dosha guide sets out the rule and its limits calmly.
Beyond the Ashwini score
Gun milan is one traditional screen. A full matching also looks at manglik status, the seventh house, the navamsa and the running dasha. South Indian porutham systems weigh the same two nakshatras differently again. And no chart replaces two people talking plainly about what they want. For other nakshatras, see the nakshatra compatibility chart, or start with Bharani.