The complete checklist
Items marked optional depend on your family and community.
Personal details (व्यक्तिगत जानकारी)
- Full name with surname
- Date of birth (not just age)
- Time and place of birth optional
- Height
- Marital status
- Diet: vegetarian, non-vegetarian or eggetarian
- City where they live now
- One recent, clear photo
Horoscope and community (कुंडली व समाज)
- Community and sub-caste, if your family uses it optional
- Gotra (and the mother’s family gotra in many North Indian families) optional
- Kuldevta or kuldaivat, common in Marathi biodata optional
- Rashi, nakshatra and charan optional
- Manglik: yes, no or partial optional
- Native place
Education and career (शिक्षा व व्यवसाय)
- Highest qualification, with the subject
- Job title, or the family business and their role
- Employer, or the kind of company, and the city
- Annual income in lakhs optional
Family (पारिवारिक जानकारी)
- Father’s name and work
- Mother’s name and work
- Brothers and sisters, elder or younger, married or not
- Joint or nuclear family
- Maternal uncle (mama) and his town, often asked in Marathi families optional
About the person (मेरे बारे में)
- “About me” in three or four sentences (how to write it)
- “About my family” in two or three sentences optional
- Partner expectations in two or three kind lines optional
Contact (संपर्क)
- One contact person, usually a parent
- One mobile number
- Full address, only once families have spoken optional
What not to include
- Anything about dowry or gifts. Asking for dowry is an offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
- Complexion, weight or other comments on looks.
- Bank details, Aadhaar, PAN or other ID numbers.
- The full home address and several phone numbers on the first copy you share.
- Long lists of relatives, achievements or hobbies.
Order matters
Elders read a biodata from top to bottom, so put sections in the order above: personal, horoscope and community, education and career, family, about, contact. If you want a shorter version, see the simple biodata format.