This is a good book and deserves an Excellent rating as far as texts on Vedic Astrology are concerned. The authors are keen to teach principals rather than any cookbook style interpretations or techniques. They start with simple basic principals of synastry and build on them explaining the positions of planets in relationship to house and sign placement in each chart. They then give a good interpretation of the Kuta points system and remove some of the dogma and superstitions in regards to this ancient system. Among many other things discussed are the Ayurvedic constitutions, Kuja dosha, Yogi and Ava yogi planets, timing, and the use of the navamsha chart. This book may not be adventurous enough for some people, but I enjoyed it and thought it was well thought out and presented.

Some of the things that concerned me were that the charts given as examples appeared to be wrong in a number of cases. The chart of Mahatma Gandhi was different from the one I am familiar with as was the one for Winston Churchill. They also used the chart with the Scorpio lagna for Princess Diana which I don't use. I prefer the Virgo lagna. I skipped the sections on Diana and Charles because of this. Some may feel the section on the navamsha chart is a bit thin considering it is considered the main varga chart used in synastry. The authors tried to cover most of the principals really needed, with the most important being that the position of a planet in one navamsha chart must be looked at in the rashi chart of the other person's and visa versa.

The section on yogi and ava yogi planets was excellent and gives some much needed publicity to this under-valued technique of prediction. The section on Ayurveda was also excellent, although it may not be readily understood by the new student of jyotish. All in all this should be compulsory reading for every student of jyotish as it is written with the intention to explain the principals of chart synastry. The astrology book market is already flooded with cookbooks about synastry, but this book endeavors to teach the sound basics required to build the firm foundations needed to interpret the effects of the relationship between two charts.