Vāstu — the science of dwelling · door 2 of 10
Vāstu Puruṣa — the being in the ground
The story every site begins with
Match the sky
0 of 6 matchedTap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
Three questions to seal this door
1. Where does Vāstu Puruṣa's head lie?
2. How does he lie?
3. How many devatas hold the site in the mandala tradition?
The rishi's scroll — read more, if you wish
The Purāṇas and Varāhamihira tell it: a vast being arose and covered the earth. The devas pressed him down and sat upon him, each where they held him, and he lay face down, his head to the north-east and his feet to the south-west. Brahmā granted that he be honoured before anything is built upon him. He is Vāstu Puruṣa, and every site is his body.
That is why the old order of building begins with vāstu pūjā: before the first stone, the being of the place is acknowledged. The devas who held him down became the 45 devatas of the site, and that is why each part of a plot has its own presiding power.
Read as teaching, the story says what a builder's eye also sees: a site is not empty ground. It has a head (the north-east, kept light, open and clean), a heart (the centre, kept open) and feet (the south-west, which can bear weight). Respect the body, and the house is at ease.
The tables on this page are drawn from the same data VEDAUM reads charts with.