What a Hindi marriage biodata is expected to contain, how the kundli is drawn in the North Indian format, and the Hindi templates you can fill in and download as a PDF.
A Hindi marriage biodata (शादी का बायोडाटा) keeps its headings in Devanagari and follows a settled order: naam, janm tithi, janm samay and janm sthan, then rashi, nakshatra and gotra. Height, complexion, education and occupation come next, with monthly or annual income stated where the family is comfortable doing so. The parivar section lists the father's and mother's names and occupations, brothers and sisters with whether they are married, and the permanent address or native district.
Gotra appears on nearly every North Indian biodata because marriage within the same gotra is avoided, so the field is read early rather than treated as background detail. Manglik status is the other field particular to this format — many families state it plainly on the page instead of waiting to be asked.
Where a kundli appears, it is drawn in the North Indian diamond format: a square divided into twelve triangular and diamond houses, with the lagna house fixed at the top centre and the rashi numbers moving around it. This is the opposite convention to the South Indian square chart, where each box always holds the same sign and the lagna is marked wherever it falls. A chart drawn in one format cannot simply be read by someone expecting the other, which is why the format is worth matching to the receiving family.
The matching itself is usually gun milan under the Ashtakoot system, which scores eight factors out of thirty-six gunas. That score is computed from nakshatra and rashi, so both have to be on the page and both have to be right. Janm samay determines the lagna, so a birth time entered from memory shifts the house positions and changes the outcome. Mangal dosha is assessed separately from the gun milan score.
One page is the norm. Devanagari conjunct characters break if a PDF substitutes a font, so open the downloaded file and confirm that matras and conjuncts such as क्ष and त्र are intact before forwarding it. Keep Hindi labels with Hindi values — labels in Hindi and answers in English is readable, but it looks unfinished.
For the photograph, a recent half-length portrait against a plain background works best. Formal clothing photographs well against the gold and cream borders these templates use, and a portrait crop fits the photo panel without cutting the shoulders.
The recurring errors are: leaving gotra blank, which stalls the first conversation; not stating manglik status, which the other family will ask about anyway; entering janm samay from memory rather than from the birth certificate or hospital record; and giving an age instead of a date of birth, which makes the biodata go stale the moment it is forwarded.
Each template below shows its price — some are free, the rest are premium designs. Pick one to see what it includes, download the sample PDF, or open it in the builder and fill in your own details.
White page with lavender section bars; the lightest of the astrology designs on screen and in print.
Gold temple-arch header with a jali lattice pattern, a Ganesha motif and a photo panel below it.
Cream page with gold corner filigree and a Ganesha motif; decoration stays at the edges.
