Graha Maitri Kuta

Graha Maitri Kuta is the fifth of the eight kutas of Ashta Kuta, five points. The points are counted from the friendship of the lords of the Moon signs: for each of the two you take the rashi where the Moon stands, look at its lord, and ask how those two planets stand to one another.

Place in the system

This is the only kuta that works with a relationship between planets rather than with a position. All the others compare attributes — a class, a current, an animal, a layer. Here two lords are compared, and the measure is taken from the general table of planetary friendship and enmity, the same one used in the birth chart with no reference to marriage at all.

Hence the name: maitri means friendship. The kuta asks whether the lords of the two Moon signs get along.

Its scale is graded, unlike Nadi Kuta and Bhakoot Kuta, where only a full score or zero occurs. The full five is given when the lords are friends, or when it is one and the same planet; below that come intermediate steps down to zero at mutual enmity. A half step also appears in the tables.

Practical meaning

Behind this kuta lies a thought easy to miss: a person's mind is described by two things — the sign of the Moon and the lord of that sign. Two people may have different Moon signs and still share a lord, or friendly lords — and then their way of thinking turns out alike, though its expressions differ.

Planetary relations are not always mutual, and the kuta catches that. Gemini and Cancer stand side by side, yet Mercury counts the Moon an enemy while the Moon has no enemies at all — and part of the score is lost on exactly that one-sidedness.

Five points is the fifth weight of eight by severity. A loss here is noticeable but does not void the reading: Graha Maitri is not among the blocking kutas.

In daily practice

Zero is rare in this kuta: mutual enmity holds for only two pairs of lords. The full score, by contrast, is the commonest outcome — it also goes to pairs of signs that share a lord.

It is useful to read this kuta together with Bhakoot Kuta: both proceed from the Moon sign but from different sides. Bhakoot takes the distance between the signs, Graha Maitri the relation of their lords. Agreement between the two strengthens the picture; disagreement shows that geometry and rulership say different things about the couple.

If the lords of the Moon signs are one and the same planet, the kuta gives its maximum whether or not the signs coincide.