Tara Kuta

Tara Kuta is the third of the eight kutas of Ashta Kuta, three points. It measures the distance between the partners' nakshatras: the nakshatras are counted both ways, and the remainder of the division by nine decides the outcome. Tara here means "star": the ordinal number of a nakshatra within a set of nine, a notation rather than a luminary.

Place in the system

The count is made twice. First from the nakshatra of the bride's Moon to the groom's, then back; each time the nakshatras are counted with the starting one as the first, the number is divided by nine and the remainder taken. The two remainders give the result.

The nine taras are named in order, and they are not all alike. Three of the nine are held unfavourable; when one of the two counts falls on such a tara, the kuta loses part of its score.

Three points is a light weight — one twelfth of the whole scale. Tara is not among the blocking doshas, and a loss here does not change the reading order of the rest.

Practical meaning

Behind the count lies an idea of a cycle: the nakshatras run in a circle, and one person's position relative to the other within that circle describes how the other turns out for them — supporting, neutral, or demanding effort.

The two-way count matters here. The circle is not symmetrical: if one person finds the other in a favourable tara, the reverse does not follow automatically. The kuta counts both ways because it describes a relationship between two people.

This too, however, is not universal: the southern tradition in the Kalaprakasika counts one way only, from the bride to the groom. The divergence of schools here touches the procedure of counting itself.

In daily practice

With the two-way count zero does not arise at all: at most one of the two counts turns out unfavourable, and the kuta loses exactly half its weight. Zero is possible where the count runs one way — in the southern line of the Kalaprakasika.

It is useful to read this kuta together with Yoni Kuta and Gana Kuta: all three proceed from the nakshatra but ask different things — Tara about position in the cycle, Yoni about bodily cast, Gana about character. The three look from different sides, so a divergence in their conclusions is to be expected.

Do not confuse with

Tara Bala is not the same thing, though the arithmetic is shared. Tara Bala is a transit technique: the nine taras are counted from a person's Moon nakshatra to the nakshatra of the current day, and the result speaks of the day, not of people. It is used when choosing a time for an undertaking.

Tara Kuta takes the same counting rule but applies it between the nakshatras of two people, and does so both ways. The same rule, a different application: one technique answers "what sort of day is this for me", the other "how do these two stand relative to one another".

The shared name is no accident — a common root "tara" and a common count by nine — but the conclusions of one do not carry over to the other.