Varna and Varna Koota
What is Varna?
The Varna of a person can be understood as a natural inclination or a natural temperament of a person.
Note: You can skip the information below and directly go to Varna Koota if you are only interested in Varna for its applications of vedic astrology.
History of Varna system
In ancient Indian, the people and society have identified and classified themselves into four types, namely the four varnas. These four varnas are Brahman varna or Brahmin varna, Kshatriya varna, Vaishya varna and Shudra varna.
The following are the key feature of a person belonging to a specific Varna.
Brahman varna: A person belonging to Brahmin varna have a natural tendency to be a visionary. By visionary we mean they have a good ability to see what's behind the actual surface. They are the people who can very well understand the "cause and effect relationship" in any event.
On the other side, they can be most impulsive about either their or others emotions.
Kshatriya varna: The people of Kshatriya varna can be understood as warm-blooded creatures. They were significantly identified by their boldness, honesty, valour and ability of tolerance. These people are very good as a shield of any society. They have the ability to confront and defend either verbally or by actions.
On the other side, the can be quickly given to anger.
Vaishya varna: The people of Vaishya varna have a natural gift to evaluate things on efficiency. They can find a way of doing things the simpler way. They have the most enterprising nature. And for a society, they can run a market where things or values are exchanged or be part of that exchange.
Sometimes the gain and profitability might cause them to oversee the ethics of society.
Shudra varna: The mindset of shudra varna people is very different. They view the current society as a general template. Their mindset is often about following the best-presented idea from society.
The Shudra varna people have a 'follower' type of mindset. They can be best the people when it comes to offering dedication to the dominant social values. And they can be worst performing people when the fundamental values of society are set to something worst.
Ideally, non of these classes mentioned above are recognised as higher or lower, But all of them have their well-defined functions in society. In the ancient Indian timeline, when this varna classification was highly replaced and dominated by another classification that had the same name but a different soul, the proper functioning of the society deteriorated This classification was known as the "caste classification" or the "caste system".
The classification of society based on Caste and caste system was the point where the whole of the social structure began to collapse for Indian culture.
The very reason for it is that a Varna classification is based on birth and natural talent and tendencies. While caste classification is pure nepotism where a son of a brahmin is considered a brahmin as well. But that child born to a person with brahmin varna not necessarily had brahmin varna in kundli to function for that social responsibilities. It was then the whole varna classification of society lost its soul and purpose. Slowly after that, things came downhill for ancient Indian culture. But fortunately, somehow, the vedic astrology was preserved. And Vedic astrology is the only way to find the actual varna of anyone from their birth details or kundli.
The whole point of discussing the ancient roots of varna was to give you a better idea of the subject.
Finding the Varna of a person
To find the Varna of a person all we need to know is the Birth sign or Janma Rashi of that person. The Janma Rashi is the Moon Sign of the person. The varna of a person depends on the Moon sign and is independent of the Birth Nakshatra or the Janma Nakshatra.
As we know there are four types of varna: Brahmin varna, Kshatriya varna, Vaishya varna and Shudra varna.
A person born into any of three water sign will be of Brahmin varna.
A person born into any of three fire sign will be of Kshatriya varna.
A person born into any of three earth sign will be of Vaishya varna.
A person born into any of three air sign will be of Shudra varna.
So the varna of a person depends on the moon sign at birth. The type of varna anyone might have can be better understood with the help of the table below.
| Varna |
Moon Signs |
Element of Sign |
| Brahmin Varna |
Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces |
Water |
| Kshatriya Varna |
Aries, Leo and Sagittarius |
Fire |
| Vaishya Varna |
Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn |
Earth |
| Shudra Varna |
Gemini, Libra and Aquarius |
Air |
What is Varna Koota?
Varna Koota is one of the compatibility parameter or compatibility factor in kundli matching which checks the compatibility of varna between the boy and girl.
Varna Koota is only the part of kundli matching style of North India. In South India, this parameter is not taken into account.
How is Varna Milan or Varna matching done?
Varna matching is has a simple process, where a couple either score a good varna match or an unsatisfactory varna match.
In Varna matching the basic rule is: The Varna of the Groom should be higher than that of Bride or should be equal to the varna of the bride.
To understand the higher and lower in varna, we need to understand that varnas have a pecking order which also denotes their spiritual development. The order of varnas is as below:
Brahmin > Kshatriya > Vaishya > Shudra
In Ashtakoot Guna milan if the above condition satisfies one point is given and if the condition is not fulfilled then no point is given for varna matching between bride and groom.
The varna holds only one point from the total distribution of 36 points in the Ashtakoot method of kundli matching.
So we can understand that for a couple to score a point in varna matching, the varna of a groom should be higher than or equal to the varna of the bride.
| Bride ↓ |
Groom |
| Brahmin |
Kshatriya |
Vaishya |
Shudra |
| Brahmin |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Kshatriya |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| Vaishya |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Shudra |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Effects of Varna Koota on Married life
The Varna Koota holds a nominal effect in the matters of marriage compatibility when compared to the other parameters of kundli matching like Gana matching, Nadi matching, Yoni matching or Graha Maitri.
A bad Varna matching is not a problem for the married life if other compatibility factors score very well.
But we are of opinion that normally the same varna goes very well with each other. And Brahmin varna and Shudra varna have good compatibility, while Kshatriya varna and Vaishya varna are much compatible with each other. But the order of the husband's varna should be higher than the wife.
A good Varna matching with most of the other compatibility factors performing well can act as a sweetener in the relationship of a couple. A couple tends to reciprocate slightly better with each other. If there is good Gana matching in the kundli Milan, a well-matched Varna Koota will add more value to that Gana matching between a couple.
