Yoni porutham gives each birth star an animal symbol: thirteen animals for 27 stars, two stars each except the Cow, which has three. Kalaprakasika (1917, p. 73) says the check agrees when both stars have the same animal, is neutral when the animals differ, and does not agree when the two animals are one of eight hostile pairs, such as Horse and Buffalo or Cow and Tiger.
☕ An animal for every star
In this check, yoni is the animal symbol the book gives each birth star. There are thirteen animals for the 27 stars. Twelve animals have two stars each; the Cow has three: Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha and Uttara Bhadrapada.
To check Yoni, find the animal of the bride's star and the animal of the groom's. There is nothing to count. If the two animals are the same, the check agrees. If they are different, the book calls it neutral. If they are one of the eight pairs the book names as mutually hostile, the check does not agree.
Because the book calls the hostile pairs mutually hostile, the answer is the same whichever star is the bride's: Horse with Buffalo reads the same as Buffalo with Horse. Yoni is one of the five checks the book names as chief, with Dinam, Ganam, Rasi and Rajju.
Nava Panchangam now matches two charts by these ten poruthams: sign in and open Marriage matching at navapanchangam.com/matching for a Nava verdict. This page explains the rule as the book gives it.
The animals, and how the book grades a pair
- Horse: Ashwini, Shatabhisha
- Elephant: Bharani, Revati
- Sheep: Krittika, Pushya
- Serpent: Rohini, Mrigashira
- Cat: Punarvasu, Ashlesha
- Rat: Magha, Purva Phalguni
- Cow: Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada
- Buffalo: Hasta, Swati
- Tiger: Chitra, Vishakha
- Deer: Anuradha, Jyeshta
- Dog: Ardra, Moola
- Monkey: Purva Ashadha, Shravana
- Lion: Dhanishta, Purva Bhadrapada
- Both stars have the same animal: agrees
- The animals are different: neutral
- The animals are one of the eight hostile pairs: does not agree
- The hostile pairs read the same both ways, so it does not matter whose star is whose
Frequently Asked Questions
What does yoni mean in porutham?
In this check, yoni is the animal symbol the book gives each birth star, such as Horse for Ashwini and Elephant for Bharani. The check compares the bride's animal with the groom's.
Which yoni pairs are hostile?
Kalaprakasika names eight: Monkey and Sheep, Deer and Elephant, Horse and Buffalo, Cow and Tiger, Rat and Cat, Serpent and Rat, Serpent and Mongoose, and Dog and Deer. The same animal agrees, and any other two different animals are neutral.
Which star is the Mongoose?
None. The book names the Mongoose in its list of hostile pairs, as the enemy of the Serpent, but gives it no star in its list of animals. So in this book no birth star is the Mongoose, and that pair never applies to two birth stars.
What if our animals are different but not hostile?
The book calls that neutral. Only the same animal counts as agreeing, and only the eight named pairs count as not agreeing. The Lion is in none of the eight pairs, so a Lion star is never hostile to another star.
Why does the Cow have three stars?
That is how Kalaprakasika lists them: Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha and Uttara Bhadrapada are all Cow. With twelve animals at two stars each, the Cow's three make up the 27.
From the source
The eight hostile pairs, the animal with no star, and what this page leaves out.
⚔️ The eight hostile pairs (p. 73)
The book names these pairs as mutually hostile. When the bride's animal and the groom's animal are one of them, the check does not agree:
- Monkey and Sheep
- Deer and Elephant
- Horse and Buffalo
- Cow and Tiger
- Rat and Cat
- Serpent and Rat
- Serpent and Mongoose
- Dog and Deer
The Mongoose has no star in the book's list of animals, so the Serpent and Mongoose pair never applies to two birth stars. The Lion is in no hostile pair at all.
🐄 The Cow's three stars
In Kalaprakasika the Cow has three stars: Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada. So two people born under any two of these three stars share an animal, and the check agrees. This page follows the book's list; it does not compare it with lists in other books.
✂️ What this page leaves out
Kalaprakasika opens Yoni on p. 73 with a gloss of the word and a description of the symbols, and on p. 76 it attaches a one-word outcome to agreement in Yoni. This page uses yoni only as the animal symbol and leaves both out. How the ten checks are weighed together is on the ten poruthams overview.