Tamil Jathagam Biodata Format for Marriage

What a Tamil marriage biodata contains

A Tamil marriage biodata (திருமண பயோடேட்டா) is normally a single A4 page with the labels printed in Tamil. The order families expect is settled: name, date of birth, birth time and birth place first, then natchathiram, raasi and lagnam, then gothram (for families who use one) and kula deivam. Education and occupation follow, then the family block — thandhai and thaai with their occupations, brothers and sisters with their marital status, and the sondha ooru or native place. A phone number for the parent or relative circulating the biodata closes the page.

Two fields appear on almost every Tamil biodata and on few others: kula deivam, the family deity together with its temple, and sondha ooru. Both are used to place a family, and leaving either blank tends to be noticed and asked about.

The jathagam section: Rasi and Navamsam

Most Tamil biodatas carry the jathagam on the same sheet rather than as a separate attachment. The charts are drawn in the South Indian square format: twelve boxes around the edge, each permanently assigned to one raasi. Meenam sits in the top-left box and Mesham next to it, with the signs running clockwise, and the lagnam is marked inside whichever box it falls in. Two charts are standard, the Rasi chart and the Navamsam chart, and a full sheet also lists the planetary positions and the dasa balance at birth (dasa iruppu).

The written rows beside the charts matter as much as the charts themselves. Natchathiram is given with its paadham, the quarter of the star. Nine of the 27 stars span two raasis, so the paadham decides which raasi applies, and astrologers also use it when both people share the same star. Lagnam and raasi are listed as separate rows. Birth time has to be accurate to the minute: lagnam changes roughly every two hours and paadham changes within a single star's span, so a rounded birth time produces a chart an astrologer will set aside when checking the ten poruthams.

Formatting and photo tips

Keep the biodata to one page. Tamil script needs more horizontal room than English, so long labels wrap awkwardly in two narrow columns and a single column of label-and-value rows reads better. Open the downloaded PDF on a phone before sending it — Tamil renders correctly only when the font is embedded, and a page showing boxes instead of letters is the most frequent complaint.

If the design has a photo panel, use a half-length photograph taken facing the camera against a plain wall in daylight. Portrait orientation fits the panel without cropping. Avoid group photographs, sunglasses and heavy filters.

Common mistakes

Four errors recur. Writing the natchathiram in English transliteration in one place and in Tamil in another, so the two do not match. Giving the star but omitting the paadham. Rounding the birth time to the nearest half hour. And mixing Tamil labels with English values, which makes the page awkward to read aloud over a phone call — still the way most of these details are actually passed on.