Marathi Marriage Biodata Format - Field Order, Templates and a Free Maker

A Marathi marriage biodata, also called a lagnacha biodata or lagna parichay patra, follows a set order: an auspicious header and photograph, personal details, horoscope details, community and kul, education, work and income, family and native place, then a few lines of expectations and one contact. This post explains each field in that order, gives a sample you can copy into Word or Google Docs, and covers what to keep off a page that will be forwarded.

Order matters because a biodata is rarely read. It is skimmed - thirty seconds on a phone screen, often by an aunt or an uncle, often with four other biodatas open in the same WhatsApp group. In those thirty seconds nobody is judging your sentences. They are looking for six or seven specific things, in the order they expect to find them. Get the order right and your biodata feels familiar and trustworthy. Get it wrong and a perfectly good match quietly scrolls past.

This post is about format - the field order, what each traditional field is doing there, and which layout to pick. If you want help with the actual writing - tone, honesty, what to leave out - read our guide to making a marriage biodata that stands out.

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What a lagna parichay patra is

In Maharashtra the marriage biodata is often still called a lagna parichay patra - literally an introduction letter for marriage. That name explains the format better than the English word "biodata" does. It is not a resume. A resume argues for you; a parichay patra simply introduces you and your family, in the order a Marathi family expects an introduction to happen.

That order is not arbitrary. It mirrors how a traditional first conversation goes: who are you, when and where were you born, what does your patrika say, which community and kul, what have you studied, what do you do, whose son or daughter are you, where are your people from, and finally - how do we reach you. Every biodata that "feels right" to a Maharashtrian family is following that sequence, whether the person who made it realised it or not.

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Marathi biodata format: the field order

Most Maharashtrian biodatas, from the handwritten ones circulated in the nineties to the PDFs on WhatsApp today, follow this sequence.

1. Auspicious header and photograph. A short salutation at the top - ॐ, श्री, श्री गणेशाय नमः, or the family kuldaivat's name - marks the page as auspicious before any personal detail begins. Immediately below sits the full name and one recent photograph. Some families place the photo top-right beside the name, others centre it under the header; both are normal.
2. Personal details. Full name written the Marathi way, with the father's name in the middle (Sneha Prakash Deshmukh), then date of birth, birth time, birth place, height and blood group. Birth time and birth place are not decoration - they are the two things a family needs before a patrika can be cast or matched, and including them saves a phone call. Height appears early because it is one of the first filters families apply. Blood group is optional; many families include it and some do not. For a second marriage, marital status goes in this block too.
3. Astrological details. Gotra, devak, rashi, nakshatra and charan, often with gan, nadi and Manglik status. Keep them together in one block. Families who do kundli matching will look for this block first; families who do not will simply read past it. Splitting them across the page makes both groups work harder.
4. Community, kul and education. Caste or community and, where families use one, the sub-caste (Maratha, 96 Kuli Maratha, Brahmin - Deshastha, Kokanastha or Karhade, Dhangar, Sonar and so on), the kul or family lineage and the kuldaivat if your family names one, then education with the highest qualification first, the institution and the year. For many Marathi families that one community line answers a question they would otherwise have to ask awkwardly, and naming the college matters more in Maharashtra than people admit.
5. Occupation and income. Designation, employer or nature of business, and the city you work in. "Software Engineer, IT company, Hinjewadi Pune" tells a family more than "Service". Income conventions differ for a vadhu and a var, which is covered further down.
6. Family background. Father's name and occupation, mother's name and occupation, siblings with their education, work and marital status, whether the family is joint or nuclear, and the mool gaav or native place. Many Marathi biodatas also give the mama's name (the maternal uncle, and so the ajol or mother's family) and a short line of relatives' surnames, because that is where two families most often find a connection. The native place is doing real work here: it signals the region, the extended family network, and sometimes the dialect.
7. Lifestyle, expectations and contact. Diet, whether you drink or smoke, hobbies, and two or three honest lines about the kind of person and household you are looking for - short is better, since a long demand list reads as difficult. Close with one phone number, the name of the contact person and the city. That is enough for a document that will travel further than you expect. Aadhaar, PAN and a full address never belong here; the section on digital biodatas below explains why.

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The astrological block, explained

These fields cause the most confusion, especially for people making a biodata for the first time.

• Gotra. The paternal lineage traced to an ancestral sage, inherited from the father's side. Traditionally a bride and groom of the same gotra are not matched, so families check it early.
• Devak. Particularly important in Maratha, Kunbi and several other Maharashtrian communities. The devak is the kul's sacred emblem, often a tree, leaf or object, installed and worshipped before the wedding. Many families avoid a match where both sides share the same devak, in much the same spirit as gotra. Our post on gotra and devak explains both and how to find yours.
• Rashi. The moon sign at birth.
• Nakshatra. The birth star, one of twenty-seven, set by the moon's position at your birth time. It is the base input for guna milan.
• Charan. The quarter, or pada, of your nakshatra, written as 1, 2, 3 or 4. The traditional first syllable of the given name (namakshar) is read from the nakshatra and its charan, which is why families often write the two together.
• Gan and nadi. Both follow from the nakshatra. Gan is one of three temperaments (dev, manushya, rakshas) and nadi one of three groups (adi, madhya, antya). They are two of the eight factors in guna milan, and nadi carries the most points, so families who match horoscopes look for them.
• Manglik. Whether the horoscope has Mangal dosha. If yours does, say so plainly; families who care will check it anyway. Our Manglik explainer covers what it means.

If your family does not follow astrology, you can leave this block out entirely, or include only gotra. Neither choice is wrong. Practice also differs by community: Buddhist (Ambedkarite) Marathi biodatas often leave out gotra, devak and horoscope fields altogether, and Jain, Christian and Muslim Marathi families follow their own conventions. Use the fields your family actually uses. A biodata that quietly omits nakshatra is far better than one that guesses it. For families who do want a full comparison before meeting, our post on kundli matching and guna milan explains what those thirty-six points actually measure.

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Four template layouts and when each fits

The fields stay the same. What changes is how they sit on the page.

• Traditional single page with a religious header. A Ganesh or kuldaivat motif at the top, a decorative border, and the details in a single column beneath. This is the layout that older relatives and vadhu var suchak kendras recognise instantly. Best when your biodata will be printed, carried to a mandal, or handed across a table.
• Modern two-column minimal. Photo and personal details on one side, family and expectations on the other, no ornament, one accent colour. Reads very well on a phone screen and looks current without looking casual. Best for WhatsApp circulation and for matches found online.
• Detailed two-page layout. Page one carries the personal, astrological and professional details; page two carries the full family tree, including uncles, married sisters and their families. Larger families and those circulating through community networks often prefer this, because relatives genuinely read page two.
• Photo-led layout. One good full-width photograph at the top with the details set compactly below. Suitable when a strong recent photograph exists and the biodata is being shared digitally. It is a poor choice for black-and-white printing.

Any word processor can produce these. Make the layout once in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice, then export a PDF each time you change something. Our free biodata maker does the traditional single page and the modern two-column layout in Marathi or English, opens with the sample below already filled in, and saves the result as a PDF, a Word file or a picture.

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A sample biodata you can copy

This is the text of a simple one-page biodata in the order above, with the Marathi heading each family will expect. The person is invented. Replace each line with your own details and drop any line your family does not use.

Field	Marathi heading	Example
Header	श्री गणेशाय नमः
Name	नाव	Sneha Prakash Deshmukh
Date of birth	जन्मतारीख	14 March 1998
Birth time and place	जन्मवेळ व जन्मस्थळ	6:40 am, Satara
Height	उंची	5 ft 3 in
Blood group	रक्तगट	B+
Gotra and devak	गोत्र व देवक	Kashyap; devak: panchpallav
Rashi, nakshatra, charan	रास, नक्षत्र, चरण	Vrushabh; Rohini, charan 2
Gan and nadi	गण व नाडी	Manushya; Antya
Manglik	मंगळ	No
Community and kul	जात व कुळ	96 Kuli Maratha; kuldaivat: Khandoba, Jejuri
Education	शिक्षण	B.E. (Computer), COEP Pune, 2020
Work	नोकरी	Software engineer, IT company, Hinjewadi, Pune
Income	उत्पन्न	₹9-10 lakh a year
Father	वडील	Prakash Deshmukh, retired teacher
Mother	आई	Sunita Deshmukh, homemaker
Siblings	भावंडे	One elder brother, married, engineer in Pune
Mama	मामा	Ravindra Jadhav, Karad
Native place	मूळ गाव	Wai, District Satara
Expectations	अपेक्षा	Graduate, settled in Pune, values family
Contact	संपर्क	Prakash Deshmukh (father), 98XXX XXXXX, Pune

The gotra, devak and horoscope values above are placeholders showing where each item goes. Take yours from your own patrika and from the elders in your family, not from this example.

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Vadhu and var - where the conventions differ

The field order is nearly identical for a bride and a groom. The differences are conventions, not rules, and Maharashtrian families vary widely on them.

1. Income. For a var, income is usually stated plainly - annual package or monthly salary. For a vadhu, many families state it as a range, describe the role without a figure, or leave it out. Both approaches are common and neither reflects badly on anyone. If a woman's earning is part of what she wants a match to know, state it.
2. Height. Stated for both, but families comparing a vadhu and var pair pay closer attention to it than to almost any other single number.
3. Family detail. Vadhu biodatas traditionally carry slightly more family detail - siblings, married sisters and their in-laws' places - because the wider family network is being introduced too.
4. Contact person. For a vadhu it is very often a parent or brother rather than the woman herself. This is a privacy convention more than a formality, and it is a sensible one for any biodata that will be forwarded widely.
5. Expectations. A var's biodata tends to name preferences about the household; a vadhu's tends to name preferences about the person. There is no reason to follow either pattern if it does not fit you.

Treat all of these as defaults you are free to change. What matters is that your biodata is consistent with what your family will actually say when a call comes.

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Digital biodata vs printed biodata

Nearly every biodata today lives in two places at once, and the two need slightly different care.

• Always share a PDF, not a photo of a page. Screenshots blur when forwarded, and photographs of printed sheets look careless. A PDF keeps its layout on every phone.
• Name the file properly. Sneha_Deshmukh_Biodata.pdf is findable three weeks later in a crowded WhatsApp chat. IMG-20260815-WA0031.jpg is not.
• Keep it under about 2 MB. Large files fail to send on weak networks and get compressed by messaging apps, which is exactly how a sharp biodata turns into a grainy one.
• Print in a size that survives a photocopy. Anything below 11 point body text turns muddy after one round of copying at a suchak kendra.
• Limit what you expose. A widely circulated biodata does not need your full residential address, your office address, three phone numbers and your social media handles. The city, one number and one contact person are enough. Anything more is only useful to people you did not intend to reach.
• Never put Aadhaar or PAN on it. UIDAI has asked people not to post Aadhaar numbers publicly and to share them only when there is a real need. A biodata is not that need. If a family later wants proof of identity, a masked Aadhaar, which shows only the last four digits, is enough, and it comes after you have met.
• Keep one master copy. Update job, city and photograph in one place and re-export, rather than editing the version that happens to be at hand.

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A good Marathi biodata is not a beautiful document. It is a familiar one: the right fields, in the order families read them, with nothing missing and nothing padded. Spend an hour on the structure once and every version after that is a five-minute update. For what to write in each section, rather than where it goes, read our guide to making a marriage biodata.

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Frequently asked questions

How long should a marriage biodata be?

One page for most people, two pages if your family circulates a full family tree. Anything longer stops getting read. If a section is spilling over, cut the partner expectations first - that is almost always the part carrying extra words.

Is a photograph compulsory?

Not compulsory, but a biodata without one gets far fewer responses, because families cannot picture the match. If you are uncomfortable sharing a photo widely, a common middle path is to circulate the biodata without it and send the photograph once a family shows genuine interest.

Should I include gotra and devak if my family does not follow them?

No. Leave the fields out rather than filling them with a guess. Families who care will ask, and an honest "we do not follow it" is a perfectly normal answer in Maharashtra today. What you should never do is put in an approximate nakshatra or charan, because a jyotishi will use it and reach a wrong conclusion.

Should the biodata be in Marathi or English?

Keep both. Marathi reads better to older relatives and to vadhu var suchak kendras; English travels better among cousins, colleagues and NRI networks. Making both versions costs almost nothing once the content is settled. Check that both say exactly the same thing.

Is devak compulsory on a Marathi biodata?

No. Devak matters most in Maratha, Kunbi and some other communities, and families who check it will look for it. If your family does not follow devak, leave the line out.

Can I make the biodata in Word?

Yes. Word, Google Docs or any word processor works. Type in Marathi with the Marathi keyboard on your phone or computer, then save or export as a PDF before sharing, so the Devanagari and the layout look the same on every phone.

Can the same biodata be used for a second marriage?

The format stays the same, with one addition: state your marital status clearly near the personal details, and mention whether you have children and their custody arrangement. Being upfront filters out mismatches at the very first step instead of at the meeting. Our second marriage biodata guide covers the wording, and the divorcee Marathi matrimony section is built around exactly this.

Do I need to mention complexion?

Many older templates carry a complexion field. You are under no obligation to keep it. Plenty of families now drop it entirely, and a biodata is not weaker for it.

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Read next

• How to Make a Marriage Biodata That Stands Out
• Writing a Good About Me for Your Matrimony Profile
• The Kande Pohe Meeting - A Practical Guide
• Kundli Matching and Guna Milan Explained

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