Combust

Astakavarga aside, the Sun is the chart's brightest object — and brightness has a cost. A planet that wanders too close to the Sun disappears from the sky, swallowed by daylight. Tradition calls this combustion, astangata ("struck by the eight limbs", a reference to the body's fire) in Sanskrit, and reads it as the planet's significations dimmed by the Sun's overwhelming presence.

The mechanics are observational: a combust planet cannot be seen. Venus a few degrees from the Sun is invisible at dusk; Mercury within its combustion range is a rare naked-eye catch. The symbolism follows the sight — a planet the Sun's light drowns is one whose voice the chart struggles to hear.

Each planet has a combustion radius, and Mercury and Venus — the inner planets, always near the Sun — have the most nuanced rules: Mercury combusts within 14 degrees (12 if retrograde), Venus within 10 (8 if retrograde). Moon 12, Mars 17, Jupiter 11, Saturn 15. Degrees measured, the closer the planet to the Sun, the deeper the combustion.

Worked example: a chart shows Jupiter at 5° Gemini and the Sun at 8° Gemini. Separation: 3 degrees — well inside Jupiter's 11-degree limit, so Jupiter is deeply combust. The reading shifts from placement to quality: wisdom, teaching and optimism (Jupiter's portfolio) still exist, but express through the Sun's agenda — the person's philosophy fuses with their ego's projects, or the good guru arrives only after self-reliance is learned. When the same Jupiter's dasha runs, tradition predicts its results arrive in a thinner, Sun-flavoured form.

Two corrections matter. Combustion is not destruction — the planet remains in its sign, house and aspects, and a dignified combust planet (say, exalted-but-combust) still carries weight, arguing the case case by case. And not every tradition weighs it equally: South Indian practice takes combustion very seriously, while some modern astrologers discount it almost entirely. The honest middle: note it, weigh it among dignity, aspects and lordships, and never let one technicality become the headline of a chart.