Choosing between two apartments by the classical rules of Vāstu
A guide for apartment buyers. It explains what the classical scriptures of Vāstu, the Indian science of buildings, ask a buyer to check. It also explains which faults a buyer can correct.
Two flats both face east and cost the same. Which is the better buy by the classical scriptures of Vāstu?
Mānasāra requires a buyer to weigh the merits of a dwelling against its defects. No single feature, such as the direction of the main door, decides.
The buyer makes ten checks on the plan. They include the door position, the kitchen, the toilets, the lift, the centre and the corners. The buyer also computes the hidden lines of the plan from a dimensioned drawing.
Fixed faults decide whether to buy. Correctable faults decide what the flat will cost. Faults that gather in one quarter weigh more than their number suggests.
The family propitiates the Vāstu Puruṣa before entry. Pyramids, mirrors and yantras are aids at most.
Why this matters
A buyer in Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Chennai is usually told one thing about a flat. Its main door faces east, so it is auspicious. Builders in these cities often charge more for such a flat.
The statement is true, and it is nearly useless. Two flats can both face east and differ in every other matter that the scriptures weigh. A buyer who relies on the door direction has one fact and no judgement.
This article answers one question: how does a buyer compare two flats as the classical scriptures require? The answer has four parts. They are a principle of judgement, ten checks, a measurement of hidden lines, and a test of which faults a buyer can repair.
Vāstu is the classical Indian discipline of siting, planning and measuring dwellings, with its own scriptures, measures and logic.
- Vāstu Puruṣa
- The being the scriptures describe as lying face down beneath a site, each limb held by a presiding deity.
- Module (pada)
- One square of the 81-square grid, the Paramaśāyika maṇḍala, laid over a plan. It is one ninth of a side’s length.
- The classical scriptures
- Mānasāra, Mayamata, Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra and Viśvakarma Prakāśa are Sanskrit treatises on building. Bṛhat Saṃhitā is the sixth-century work of Varāhamihira, and its Chapter LIII treats Vāstu.
- Merit, defect
- A favourable feature (guṇa) and an unfavourable feature (doṣa). A passed check is one merit; a failed check is one defect.
- Āyādi, Aya, Vyaya
- Āyādi is Mānasāra’s reckoning of a building’s measurements. Aya (increase) and Vyaya (decrease) are two of its results.
- Īśānya, Devamūla
- Names of the north-east quarter, set apart as sacred. Devamūla means “God’s own place”.
- Nābhi, Brahmasthāna
- Nābhi is the centre of the plan, the Vāstu Puruṣa’s navel. The Brahmasthāna is the central nine modules.
- Marma
- A vulnerable point of the plan, where hidden lines cross.
- Koṇasūtra, Nāḍī, Vaṃśa
- Hidden lines across a plan: the Koṇasūtras on the diagonals, the Nāḍī north to south, the Vaṃśa east to west.
- Janma Rāśi
- The lunar sign: the zodiac sign that the Moon occupied at a person’s birth.
- Fixed, correctable
- A fixed fault is set by the building and the owner cannot change it. A correctable fault can be changed during fitting out, the interior work after purchase.
What principle decides whether a flat is good?
This section answers one question: by what principle do the scriptures judge a dwelling? The assessor does not devise it. Mānasāra states it in a verse.
Yatra doṣo guṇādhikyaṃ tatra doṣo na vidyate |
Teṣām adhikaguṇānāṃ vaiṣamyaṃ sarvadoṣakaraṃ bhavet ||
Where the merit is greater than the defect, there is no defect in it; but where the defect is greater than the merit, it is defective throughout.
Mānasāra, as given in Handbook of Vāstu.3,7
Here merit means a favourable feature of a dwelling, and defect an unfavourable one.
The verse is a rule of comparison. The scriptures apply it with arithmetic in the Āyādi reckoning, which turns the length and breadth of a building into remainders.3,7
Multiply the length by eight and divide by twelve. The remainder is the Aya, or increase. Multiply the breadth by nine and divide by ten. The remainder is the Vyaya, or decrease.
For example, a length of 40 gives 320, which divided by 12 leaves 8. The Aya is 8. A breadth of 28 gives 252, which divided by 10 leaves 2. The Vyaya is 2, so here the Aya exceeds the Vyaya.
The scriptures compare the two remainders in three ways. The third instructs most.3,7
The result is all-round prosperity. Merit exceeds defect, and by the verse there is then no defect in it.
Not auspicious. Defect exceeds merit, and the verse holds the building defective throughout, whatever else is favourable.
The scriptures say that the building has no defect. Neither side preponderates, so it is not condemned. The scriptures require not perfection but a balance that is not adverse.
Three consequences follow. First, the scriptures weigh a dwelling. They do not inspect it for a single fault. A buyer told that a flat is auspicious because its door faces east has heard one merit. He knows the Aya and not the Vyaya.
Second, weighing requires a list of merits and defects. This is why the assessment below uses counted checks. Within the six-fold Āyādi reckoning (the Ṣaḍvarga), Aya, Vyaya, Yoni and Nakṣatra are of first importance. Yoni and Nakṣatra (a lunar mansion, one of 27 divisions of the Moon’s path) are two further results of the same reckoning. A building that conforms to those four is broadly proportionate.3,7
Third, Mānasāra directs the knowledgeable architect to avoid the imperfect calculation and follow the practice current among the people.3,7 Buildings raised to the Āyādi measures still stand. Examples are the Vidyāśaṅkara temple at Sringeri, the Bṛhadīśvara temple at Tanjore and the Mīnākṣī temple at Madurai, some across a thousand years.7
Why is the direction of the main door not enough?
This section answers why two east-facing flats can differ so widely. The scriptures divide each wall of the grid into nine modules, each named for a presiding deity. A few modules on each wall are exalted. Exalted means favoured as a position for the main door. Bṛhat Saṃhitā gives the result of each.1
On the east wall, count from the north. The second, third and fourth modules are Parjanya, Jayanta and Indra. They bring the birth of daughters, financial soundness, and royal favour (the favour of those in authority) respectively. On the south wall, the fourth from the east is Bṛhatakṣata. It gives increase of food and children.
On the west wall, count from the south. The fourth and fifth, Kusumadanta and Varuṇa, give the prosperity of sons and the increase of wealth. On the north wall, count from the west. The third, fourth and fifth are Mukhya, Bhallāṭa and Soma. They give, in that order, increase of wealth and birth of sons, possession of all virtues, and the begetting of children and wealth.1 Mayamata and Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra both single out the fourth module of every wall.2,4
Plate 1 shows these positions.
One east-facing flat can open on Jayanta, the third module. Another can open on the middle of the wall, the fifth. A door in the middle of a wall is a grave fault in any building for human use. The scriptures name its result Kulanāśa, the destruction of the family line. Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra adds that middle doors are proper to temples and not to dwellings.4
The rule covers every place of human occupation, including homes, offices and corporate premises. The description “east-facing” does not distinguish the two flats.
No classical work prohibits any cardinal direction, and each carries its own benefit. A buyer who refuses a west-facing flat on principle halves his search for no reason that the scriptures support. In my experience this error is common.
Pūrva dvāre sukhadam | Paścima dvāre puṣṭivardhanam ||
Uttara dvāre dhanadam | Yāmyaṃ dvāre mokṣadam ||
A door on the east gives comfort and happiness; on the west, material growth and prosperity; on the north, wealth; on the south, liberation and self-realisation.
Cited in Handbook of Vāstu.7
The scriptures prescribe the door itself as closely as its position. It is to be the largest door in the house. Mānasāra requires a height of at least twice the width. Bṛhat Saṃhitā and Viśvakarma Prakāśa require three times. Mayamata asks that the door be solid and massive and strengthened with metals.1,2,3,5
The scriptures also reckon what stands before the door. Obstruction of the main door is Dvāra Vedha. A road brings frailty of the master. A tree brings detriment to the youngsters. A corner brings grief and expenditure.
A well brings convulsions. An idol of God brings ruin of the master. A pillar brings weakness of the women of the house.7
The obstruction does not operate when the door stands more than twice the height of the object away. A pillar 3 metres high, for example, does not obstruct a door more than 6 metres from it. In an apartment, a column or service duct opposite the entrance is common and rarely noticed.
What do the scriptures measure that a buyer cannot see?
This section answers what lies beneath a plan that no inspection reveals. Across every plan run the Nāḍī from north to south and the Vaṃśa from east to west. Two Koṇasūtras run along the diagonals. The major Koṇasūtra passes from south-west to north-east through the navel of the Vāstu Puruṣa, along the line of his spine.
Where these lines cross, and at the middle of the squares, lie thirty-six vulnerable points, which Mayamata calls marma. Bṛhat Saṃhitā holds that nails, pillars, pegs or heavy objects can strike these points. The owner then has trouble in the matching limb of his own body.1,2 The ancients gave their breadths.
Yaśca pādasyāṣṭāṃśastat proktaṃ marmaparimāṇam ||
The measure of a vulnerable point is one-eighth of a module.
Bṛhat Saṃhitā, Chapter LIII, śloka 64.1,8
The preceding śloka sets the breadth of the diagonal at as many aṅgulas as there are hastas in a module. An aṅgula is a finger-breadth, and a hasta is a cubit of 24 aṅgulas, so the diagonal is one twenty-fourth of a module wide. The same śloka sets the transverse lines (the Nāḍī and Vaṃśa) at one and a half times the diagonal, which is one sixteenth.1,8
Table 1 shows the three breadths. Each row gives an element, its width as a fraction of a module, and that width in inches for two dwelling sizes. The flat has a 36 foot side, so its module is 48 inches. The house has a 72 foot side, so its module is 96 inches. For example, one twenty-fourth of 48 inches is 2 inches.
| Element | Fraction of a module | Flat, 36 ft side | House, 72 ft side |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koṇasūtra, the diagonals | 1 / 24 | 2.0 in | 4.0 in |
| Nāḍī and Vaṃśa, the transverse lines | 1 / 16 | 3.0 in | 6.0 in |
| Marma and Mahāmarma, the vulnerable points and the major ones | 1 / 8 | 6.0 in | 12.0 in |
Because the breadths are fractions, the tolerance shrinks with the dwelling. On a diagonal the clearance is 2 inches in a 36 foot flat and 4 inches in a 72 foot house. A fault of a given size is therefore twice as grave in the smaller home. A builder setting out a partition has no cause to know that nine feet of it will run along the Vaṃśa. No buyer’s drawing discloses it.
Plate 2 shows where the lines and points lie. The solid blue lines are the Koṇasūtras. The broken dark lines are the Nāḍī and Vaṃśa. Dots mark vulnerable points, and the four ringed dots at the corners of the shaded Brahmasthāna mark the major ones.
Bṛhat Saṃhitā is direct about the Brahmasthāna: the householder who seeks happiness must guard its nine squares carefully.1 Check 7 in the list of ten checks gives the detail.
What are the ten checks?
This section answers what a buyer checks in a flat, and on whose authority. Table 2 lists the ten checks. Each row gives the check as a question, the result the sources attribute to a pass, and the source.
| № | Question asked | Attributed result of a pass | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Does the main door stand on an exalted module of its wall, as in Plate 1? | A separate result for each module, as listed in the section on the main door. A door in the middle module of a wall brings Kulanāśa, the destruction of the family line | Bṛhat Saṃhitā LIII1 |
| 2 | Is the main door the largest in the flat, and at least twice as high as it is wide? | No separate result is attributed. The prescription concerns size, with metal strengthening (Mayamata) | Mānasāra; Bṛhat Saṃhitā; Viśvakarma Prakāśa1,3,5 |
| 3 | Is the master bedroom in the south-west or the south? | The south-west takes the weight of the dwelling and is given to the householder. Within any room, heavy provisions belong in its south-west | Handbook of Vāstu7 |
| 4 | Is the kitchen in the south-east (the north-west is the second option), with the range on the east side? | Āgneya, the south-east, is the quarter of fire. Oil, butter and milk are kept in the south-east of the room. A kitchen deity is set in its north-east facing west | Handbook of Vāstu7 |
| 5 | Are toilets kept out of the north-east and the south-west? | Toilets and washing are avoided in the north-east, which is Devamūla, and in the south-west, which bears the weight | Directional Influences9 |
| 6 | Do sons sleep in the south, south-east or south-west, and daughters in the west or north-west? | Newly married couples take north-west rooms. The north-east room suits elders, meditation and children’s study, not newlyweds | Handbook of Vāstu7 |
| 7 | Is the Nābhi, the centre of the flat, free of building, load and dirt? | The householder who seeks happiness guards the central nine squares. Affliction by leftovers and dirty things harms him. Heaviness at the centre of the living room is likewise avoided | Bṛhat Saṃhitā LIII.66; Mānasāra1,3 |
| 8 | Does the lift or shaft avoid the north-east side of the flat? | No result is attributed in the scriptures. The usage is to avoid a flat whose lift sits to its north-east | Transmitted usage7 |
| 9 | Does the route from the building entrance to the flat carry the household clockwise? | Staircase and lift are set to the south-east of the block, so that people enter the block clockwise | Transmitted usage7 |
| 10 | Is every corner of the flat complete, the north-east above all? | A north cut off in both east and west amounts to the Vāstu Puruṣa’s head and left arm being clipped. Such construction disturbs general happiness and prosperity | Handbook of Vāstu7 |
Checks 8 and 9 rest on transmitted usage, not on an explicit śloka, and the table marks them so. I do not care to blur a verse with settled practice.
How do two east-facing flats compare in practice?
This section answers what the ten checks reveal in two flats that look alike on paper. They stand on one landing of a tower in south-east Bengaluru. Each has 1,296 square feet (about 120 square metres) on a 36 foot side. One developer sold both, in one month, at one price. Both main doors open on the east wall. The module is 4 feet, so the breadths are those of the flat column in Table 1.
This article calls them the middle-door flat and the favoured-door flat, after the position of each main door. Table 3 applies the ten checks to both, numbered as in Table 2. Each cell shows what the buyer found. A ✓ marks a pass and a ✗ marks a fail.
| № | Question asked | Middle-door flat | Favoured-door flat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Main door on an exalted module? | 5th, the middle | 3rd, Jayanta |
| 2 | Door at least twice as high as wide? | 1.9 × width | 2.2 × width |
| 3 | Master bedroom south-west or south? | North-east | South-west |
| 4 | Kitchen south-east, range east? | North-east, range north | South-east, range east |
| 5 | Toilets out of north-east and south-west? | North-east | South-east |
| 6 | Children in assigned quarters? | South-east | South |
| 7 | Centre clear? | Clear | Clear |
| 8 | Lift away from north-east side? | Lift north-east of the flat | Lift south-east of the flat |
| 9 | Approach clockwise? | Anti-clockwise | Clockwise |
| 10 | Every corner complete? | Intact | North-east cut off by a duct |
| Merits (passes) out of 10 | 3 of 10 | 9 of 10 | |
| Fixed checks passed (1, 8, 9, 10) | 1 of 4 | 3 of 4 | |
| Correctable checks passed (2 to 7) | 2 of 6 | 6 of 6 | |
| Defects lying in the north-east (checks 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10) | 4 of 7 | 1 of 1 |
Computation of the hidden lines showed two further defects in the middle-door flat. No inspection finds them. The soil stack of the north-east toilet stood on the major Koṇasūtra, within its two-inch breadth. A partition wall ran along the Vaṃśa for nine feet, where Table 1 allows a breadth of three inches. In the favoured-door flat the walls stood clear of all thirty-six points.
How are good features weighed against faults?
This section answers how the counted results of Table 3 become a judgement. Three summaries follow.
Fixed checks are 1, 8, 9 and 10. The middle-door flat passes one of the four and the favoured-door flat three. A purchase turns on this figure, because nothing done afterwards changes it. In my judgement, a flat that fails three or more of the four is not improved by any spending on its interior.
Correctable checks are 2 to 7. The middle-door flat passes two of the six and the favoured-door flat all six. This figure is a cost, not a verdict. The section on remedies states what is to be spent.
Four of the middle-door flat’s seven defects fall in the north-east. That quarter is Īśānya, or Devamūla. The ancients set it apart as sanctified and required the owner to keep it unburdened.7 A kitchen, a toilet, a heavy sleeping room or a lift shaft alone is a matter to manage. Gathered in one quarter, they are graver together. A count of three merits from ten conceals this.
One comparison lies outside the ten checks. The scriptures judge a dwelling twice: once as a building and once against its household.
The scriptures assess the direction of entry for compatibility with the lunar sign (Janma Rāśi) of the household. They approve a move towards the north-east of the former dwelling.7,9 Here the east entry suited the lunar sign of the favoured-door family but not that of the middle-door family. The first household moved north-east of its former home. The second moved south-west.
Vāstu operates within the framework a householder brings with him. That framework is his prārabdha karma, the share of past action ripening in this life. The horoscope shows it. The reading looks to the fourth bhāva, the house governing the home. It also uses the daśās, the planetary periods in which that bhāva is active.
This explains why a correction acts swiftly in one household and gradually in another. Maya, the author of the Mayamata, also wrote the Sūrya Siddhānta, a classical text of astronomy. The ancients never separated the two disciplines.
Which faults can be put right?
This section answers what a buyer can do about each defect. A defect is not a verdict until the buyer sets it against its remedy. Table 4 lists each defect with its remedy and the kind of work involved. The first column gives the check number from Table 2. Rows run from least to most correctable, and a final row covers the hidden lines described earlier.
| № | Defect | Can it be remedied? | Kind of work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Approach runs anti-clockwise | No. Nothing within the flat helps. It is a condition of the building | Not correctable |
| 8 | Lift to the north-east | No. It is a condition of the building | Not correctable |
| 1 | Door not on an exalted module | Seldom. Where wall and corridor permit, the opening may be reset. Failing that, the approach within the flat is ordered as well as it can be | Structural |
| 10 | Corner cut off | Not by the owner of a flat. A rectification foundation carried to the missing corner restores the maṇḍala, but in a tower this work lies with the developer7 | Structural, external |
| 5 | Toilet in the north-east | In part. The toilet is relocated where the stack permits. Otherwise the quarter is kept dry, lit and unburdened and the use reduced | Services |
| 4 | Kitchen in the north-east | In part. The kitchen is relocated where gas and drainage permit. Failing that, the range is turned to face east, which answers part of the condition | Services, or joinery |
| 2 | Door of insufficient proportion | Yes. Shutter and frame are replaced, and the lintel is raised where the opening allows. Mayamata further asks that the door be solid and strengthened with metals2 | Joinery |
| 7 | Nābhi burdened | Yes. The load is removed and the centre kept clean. Mānasāra permits the family deity to stand there3,7 | Rearrangement |
| 3, 6 | Rooms in unsuitable quarters | Yes. Occupants are reallocated among the existing rooms | No work |
| · | Wall or stack on a hidden line | Yes where the element is not structural. A partition is reset outside the prescribed breadth. A column or a slab beam is not | Partition, or none |
Table 4 resolves the comparison made in Table 3. The middle-door flat has three defects that no work inside it will answer: the door position, the lift and the approach. Its kitchen and toilet need services moved, and its bedroom needs rooms reallocated. Its door needs new joinery, and its soil stack stands on the major Koṇasūtra.
The favoured-door flat has one defect, a cut corner. Most of the difference between the flats lay in the class of defects, not their number. That is what the verse at the start is for.
What is owed to the Vāstu Puruṣa?
This part answers what the tradition requires beyond correcting the plan. Proportion comes first, because buyers meet most sales claims here and the scriptures warrant the least. Pyramids, mirrors and yantras (geometric diagrams used in worship) are not an integral part of Vāstu. They can aid its purpose, but they do not accomplish it. They are no substitute for correcting the fabric of a dwelling.7
What follows is the short list I hold necessary, and I do not extend it. A reader who receives a longer list must ask on whose authority it rests.
The propitiation of the Vāstu Puruṣa. To propitiate is to honour with offerings. It is not an optional refinement but the ground of the whole practice. Bṛhat Saṃhitā relates that the gods laid face down the Being who obstructed earth and sky, and held him there. Each limb took as its presiding deity the god who held it. Brahmā, the creator, ordained offerings to him.1
In return, the scriptures say, the Vāstu Puruṣa cares for the inmates of the house. The family makes offerings before entry. It makes them again after any structural correction disturbs the fabric. A dwelling corrected but never propitiated is a work half done.
The place of the deity. The prayer room belongs in the north-east, which the ancient writers named Īśānya or Devamūla. Where the plot is large, it can stand in the Brahmasthāna itself. The deity stands on the east wall, so that the household faces the rising sun, with a window above to admit the morning rays. Cupboards go on the south and west walls, and the colours are white or soft blue.
The scriptures recommend a pyramidal roof. They say that spiritual energy flows from the tip of the shikhara, a temple tower’s crest, into the room. An unwell person can sit there for half an hour each day and face east or north.7,9
In a flat with no spare room, a niche in the north-east serves. Do not move a prayer room in the north-east to the north-west because the deity must face east. The north-west is the Vāyu zone, the quarter of the wind deity Vāyu, given to guest rooms, granary and toilets. In a human habitation the mortals must face the right direction, not divinity.7
Where the centre is burdened and cannot be cleared. Mānasāra permits the temple of the family deity to stand in the Brahmasthāna.3 Where even that is impossible, keep the centre scrupulously clean. A shikhara-shaped skylight above it serves.7
At the threshold. A small herbal garden opposite the main door is worth keeping. Keep generators and transformers away from the entrance. Moving a transformer from the north-east to the south-east of the site can relieve health matters.7
Three cautions belong with these. Three things in the prayer room need daily worship: a Śrīchakra, a śālagrāma and old temple idols. A householder who cannot perform pūjā in proper order must not keep them. A Śrīchakra is a sacred diagram of the goddess, and a śālagrāma is a sacred stone worshipped as Viṣṇu.
Never place the prayer room in a bedroom. Do not set photographs of the departed beside the deity.7 Keep the room absolutely clean. Owners neglect this more often than any other requirement.
What will a plan not settle?
This section answers where the assessment ends. Four matters lie beyond any drawing.
- The ten checks are not of equal weight, and the scriptures assign no weights to them. The separation of fixed from correctable faults, made in the section on weighing good features against faults, does the necessary work. It is the nearest thing to a weighting that the sources warrant.
- The vertical is not addressed by the classical prescriptions, which contemplate a dwelling on the ground. Extend the rules with caution to judge floor level, the flats above and below, and the stacking of services.
- The reading of the household sits alongside the assessment and not within it. The compatibility of entry with the lunar sign, and the direction of the move, require the birth particulars. For a married couple, the reading considers both lunar signs, and the wife’s sign is primary.
- The Āyādi Ṣaḍvarga is not worked in full here. This article uses only the rule of comparison from the opening section. The six formulae govern a structure’s dimensions. They matter most where a house is to be built. A purchaser who did not set the dimensions can rarely act on them. A later article takes up the full reckoning, including the ambiguity in the Nakṣatra formula that Mānasāra leaves open.
The teaching in summary
The article asked how to compare two flats as the classical scriptures require. The buyer weighs a flat and never inspects it for a single fault. Mānasāra is the authority: where merit exceeds defect there is no defect, and where defect exceeds merit the dwelling is defective throughout. A direction names a wall of nine modules and settles little. The module of the door settles a great deal.
The buyer reads ten checks from a plan and computes the hidden lines. The fixed faults decide whether to buy, and the correctable faults decide what the flat will cost. Defects that gather in one quarter are graver than their number suggests.
Seven of the ten checks admit a remedy in whole or in part, and checks 3 and 6 need no building work. The family propitiates the Vāstu Puruṣa before entry. Pyramids, mirrors and yantras are aids at most. The ancients enumerated, measured and weighed.