01Why run the southern checks on a northern match?
Because they ask questions the thirty-six points do not. Guna milan averages eight kootas into one number; the Tamil and Kerala almanacs run ten pass-or-fail tests and hold two of them, Rajju and Vedha, apart from the count altogether. Several of the northern kootas have southern twins, Gana, Yoni, Bhakoot as Rasi, Graha Maitri as Rasi Adhipathi, but Rajju, Vedha, Mahendra and Stree Deergha have none, so a match can score well on the thirty-six and still fail the test the south weighs most. The full report now runs all ten southern checks on every match. This page explains the four that have no northern counterpart. The nakshatra porutham calculator runs the same ten from two stars already known.
02What is Rajju dosha, and what are the five rajju groups?
Rajju, the rope, divides the twenty-seven nakshatras into five groups named for parts of a body. Two Moons in the same group is Rajju dosha, which every almanac that grades the ten poruthams places first and refuses to weigh against a good count elsewhere. The groups as the report applies them: Pada (the feet): Ashwini, Ashlesha, Magha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Revati; Kati (the waist): Bharani, Pushya, Purva Phalguni, Anuradha, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada; Udara (the stomach): Krittika, Punarvasu, Uttara Phalguni, Vishakha, Uttara Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada; Kantha (the neck): Rohini, Ardra, Hasta, Swati, Shravana, Shatabhisha; Sira (the head): Mrigashira, Chitra, Dhanishta. The traditional reading attaches each group to the part of the body it is named for, and the Sira group, the head, is the smallest with three stars. The same nakshatra on both sides is always the same rajju, which is why the almanacs read a shared star as Rajju dosha before anything else is counted.
03What is Vedha, and which are the thirteen vedha pairs?
Vedha means obstruction. The almanac table carries thirteen fixed pairs of nakshatras held to obstruct each other, and the two Moons falling in one pair is Vedha. The pairs as the report applies them: Ashwini with Jyeshtha; Bharani with Anuradha; Krittika with Vishakha; Rohini with Swati; Ardra with Shravana; Punarvasu with Uttara Ashadha; Pushya with Purva Ashadha; Ashlesha with Mula; Magha with Revati; Purva Phalguni with Uttara Bhadrapada; Uttara Phalguni with Purva Bhadrapada; Hasta with Shatabhisha; Mrigashira with Dhanishta. Twenty-six stars are paired; Chitra is the one star left without a partner and so obstructs none. The table is the standard one of the Tamil almanac tradition, and the report checks both Moons against it on every match.
04What does the Prasna Marga say about Vedha?
The Prasna Marga, the Kerala text most often cited on these checks, is plain on both sides of the question. In 21.43 to 21.46 it holds that Vedha prevails: where the two stars obstruct each other, the pairing is not accepted whatever the other poruthams say, and it does not offer a rite to set the obstruction aside. In 21.54 the same text gives the line the report prints beside every unfavourable southern reading, chittanukulya: where there is mutual affection between the two, that outweighs every kuta. Both verses are the tradition's, and the report shows them together rather than choosing one. That is as far as a table can take the question; the rest is a chart reading.
05What are Mahendra and Stree Deergha?
Two counts from the girl's star to the boy's, with no northern twin.
Mahendra
Count from the girl's nakshatra to the boy's; Mahendra is met when the boy's stands 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd or 25th. The texts read it for the wellbeing and standing of the household, and the Prasna Marga counts its presence in a pairing's favour when other readings are mixed.
Stree Deergha
The same count, and the porutham asks for more than thirteen. Several almanacs read nine or more as enough, and the report names that variant when it would change the answer. Its name speaks of the wife's lasting wellbeing, and it is the porutham the texts set beside Rajju when the two disagree.
06Is there a remedy for Rajju dosha or Vedha?
No ritual for either exists in the texts, and this page says so rather than inventing one. The almanacs that grade Rajju first and hold Vedha to prevail offer no shanti against them; their instruction where the reading is unfavourable is the Prasna Marga's own, a reading of the two charts, and the line on mutual affection. Any rite offered under the name of Rajju dosha nivaran is a modern label on a general propitiation. We say this because it is what the tradition holds, not as a prescription of our own, and no effect of any rite has been measured or demonstrated. The tradition's instruction is the one the report gives: take both charts to an astrologer.
07What will this page not tell you?
It will not say what is going to happen to two people. Rajju and Vedha are two Moon positions read against two tables, and the almanacs that set the tables down read them as a filter before a chart reading, never as a verdict on two people. The report gives each check with the counting behind it, Prasna Marga's reading on both sides, and the northern thirty-six points and both Mangal checks beside them, so no single table is read alone. Where a reading is unfavourable the tradition's instruction is a chart reading, and that is what the report repeats.
