The Navratna gemstone of Brihaspati, the Jupiter
Pukhraj is the gemstone of Brihaspati, or Jupiter, and the most widely recommended stone in Vedic astrology. It is a yellow variety of corundum, the same mineral family as ruby and blue sapphire, which is why it shares their hardness of 9 and their durability in daily wear.
In Vedic tradition Pukhraj is worn to support Jupiter, and is associated with wisdom, learning and good fortune.
Written by Kamal Kishore Agarwal, founder and gemmologist, who holds a Gem-A Diploma in Gemmology with Merit and has selected stones in Johari Bazaar since 2008.
Heat treatment is standard and disclosed heat is not a problem for most buyers. Beryllium diffusion is a different matter, since it alters colour at depth and materially changes value, so the report should rule it out. Watch for citrine and yellow topaz sold as Pukhraj: both are far cheaper and neither is corundum.
Yellow sapphire is corundum coloured by iron, running from a pale straw through lemon to a deep golden. Sri Lanka is the traditional source and Ratnapura the traditional district. The trade rewards an even, unzoned colour and a bright, glassy transparency; a stone that looks slightly milky is described as sleepy and prices accordingly.
Citrine is the substitution you will meet most often, usually under the trade name golden topaz, which is doubly misleading because it is neither topaz nor sapphire but quartz. Genuine yellow topaz and yellow beryl are also sold as Pukhraj. All three are visibly softer than corundum and none of them carries its price. The more expensive problem is corundum that is not what it claims: beryllium diffused sapphire, where colour is driven into pale or near colourless material at high temperature, produces a strong yellow to orange that is indistinguishable by eye and worth a small fraction of natural colour. Synthetic yellow sapphire is also cheap and abundant. Because Pukhraj is the most widely recommended stone in Vedic astrology, it attracts more of all of this than any other stone on this list.
Heating is common and accepted. Beryllium diffusion, which can turn pale or near colourless corundum a strong yellow or orange, is not the same treatment and must be named separately on the report, so ask specifically rather than accepting the word treated. Look through the table for colour concentrated in bands or at the girdle rather than spread evenly through the stone, and check that the weight on the report matches the stone you are being shown.
Pukhraj is the stone most often prescribed to a specific weight, which makes the ratti conversion problem sharpest here. The two conventions in common use differ by roughly a third, so an eight ratti prescription can mean anything from about five carats to about seven and a half depending on whose arithmetic you use. At Ceylon yellow sapphire prices that gap is substantial. Settle it in writing with your astrologer before you shop, and be aware that unheated material carries a large premium over heated at every weight, so the honest way to reach a number cheaply is to accept disclosed heat rather than to accept a vague certificate.
Corundum is 9 on the Mohs scale, second only to diamond, so it takes daily wear better than almost anything else you could set. It is still brittle along a hard knock, and a stone with a reaching fissure should stay out of an ultrasonic cleaner. Warm water, mild soap and a soft brush are enough.
As practised in Vedic tradition. Your astrologer’s instruction takes precedence over any general rule.
One stone in the shop today, with the weight and treatment of each stated below and the laboratory named wherever a report is held.
