A superstitious belief in Vastu Sastra is a

science of Sustainable Architectural

By: Sabina Manandhar
email: smanandh@deakin.edu.au
10 December 2014

Key Words: Indian Vastu-Sastra, Social value, Science, Sustainable, Planning

Research Questions:
1. Air, Water, Fire, Sky and Earth are the parts of human life and nature.
Keeping balance in between all is sustainability is modern architecture. Vastu-
Sastra is not spiritual but a science to connect to nature. How to prove?
2. Orientations established on cosmology doesn’t always means being
superstitious, it has science into it. Feng Shui in Chinese architecture and Vastu
Sastra in Indian architecture need a scientific move towards the global
perspective.

Introduction:
Coming from a social and cultural background and studying is completely different
environment forced me to compare what is the factor that differentiate two places
and how can we connect together. Having heard about Vastu Sastra around often
from superstitious and religious people and now coming to 21st century doing research
on this topic is quite a challenging task.
Personally, I don’t believe in spiritual and superstitious things, but I do believe that
there should exist some kind of value and norms that leads to a positive as well as
negative direction. There is always a reason behind everything. Having said that, I
became interested on the topic Vastu Satra which is similar to Feng Shui in Chinese
Architecture. Looking at from the surface, all traditional theory behind Vastu relates to
modern sustainable architecture. As I started learning about the often pronounced
word “Sustainability” in modern architecture, I started thinking about the traditional
theory of Vastu Sastra. Not all the aspect of this is relevant to the modern architecture,
but it is a pillar of building architecture which will be my main research findings
throughout the unit. I would say Vastu Sastra is an environmental science which
completely relates to architecture, nature and human.

Topic Background:
History behind Vastu Sastra goes back to the period of 1500-1000 BC. To ancient
Indian architectural which have influenced many scholars in a scientific way and
general public in a superstitious way that this theory has been handed over from
generation to generation till now at some stages.
Vastu Sastra finds its origin in Veda (knowledge) which actually means the ancient
science of designing and construction building considering as a part of Sthapatya Veda
(applied knowledge). “Vedas” derived from ancient Sanskrit language, many religious
epics and rituals are associated with it. “Vastu” means materials like bricks, stone,
wood, iron etc and “Sastra” means Theory. Many written texts about ‘Vastu Sastra’
have various terms to define it but overall the meaning relates to ancient architecture.
The Study of the works on Vastu Shastra originated roughly in the period between the
seventh and fifteenth century AD (Banerjee & Goswami, 1994, p.45). Manasara, an
exhaustive treatise on architecture, was written during the Gupta period of Indian
history, i.e. around 450-550 AD (Acharya, 1981, pp.160-198)1

Principles of Vastu Sastra:

This theory denotes about all types of building in the initial stage, secondly, it denotes
to the town planning in a broad sense and thirdly it denotes about the furniture and
garments. It discusses the selection of site, testing of soil, planning, designing, and
finding out cardinal points for orientation of buildings and astronomical and
astrological calculation (Acharya, 1979, p.13)2
Vastu talks about 5 basic elements (Panchabhutas): Fire, Air, Space, Earth and Water.
Balance between all these elements brings health, wealth, happiness and prosperity
and success in life. These 5 basic elements are always influenced by the earth’s
magnetic power, rotation of sun, moon and other planets, puts the view of cosmic
effects on human body. We can say it is a science of astronomy but how can it relate
to building science?
As we start to talk about the 5 different principles of Vastu, it will lead to the theory
of architecture. The principles are:
1. Orientation
2. Site planning
3. Building measuring proportions

1
Reena Patra (2006) A Comparative Study on Vaastu Shastra and Heidegger’s ‘Building, Dwelling and Thinking’, Asian
Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philisophical Traditions of the East, 16:3, retrieved 04 December 2014.
2
Reena Patra (2006) A Comparative Study on Vaastu Shastra and Heidegger’s ‘Building, Dwelling and Thinking’, Asian
Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philisophical Traditions of the East, 16:3, retrieved 04 December 2014.
 4. Aesthetic or character of building
5. Six norms of Vedic architecture
The first research topic is pointing towards the Vastu’s basic elements and the second
topic is move focused on Vastu’s fundamental principles.

Research Problem:
People have various perceptions towards this theory. As many have been misguiding
this theory and history covers moreover about the religious aspects, which could be the
main reason behind this being not known to the 21st century architecture. In Modern
architecture, we talk about different types of energies: Solar energy, Wind Energy,
Rain energy, Geothermal energy and sound energy.
Vastu Purusha Mandala in Vastu is associated to Site, building dwellings that
incorporate the surrounding environment. The concept of mandala talks about one of
the creation of god are we human being and every human made products relates to
God. So if any disturbances created to the god will destroy the house and bring
adverse conditions. To make god happy, sacred ceremonies has to be done. The
orientations of particular room have to be placed in particular direction and so on.
This type of spiritual texts on many of the theories in Vastu Sastra will definitely won’t
be the believed my 21st century architecture. Today, we believe in science and proof
of instant effects. The main challenge of proving that this theory is a part of science is
the main problem that could be faced during the research.
 Fig.1 Vastu Purusha Mandala

Justification of relevance:

Solar Energy Wind Energy Rain Energy

Fire Air Water

Elements of Vastu

Earth Space

Geothermal Sound Energy

Energy
Fig.2 Elements of Vastu in relation to Modern architecture
In fact, I would assume, the proper planning of the site of the building with proper
orientation along with the surrounding amenities is the secret of Vastu Mandala. The
above mention picture (Fig.1) should be specific to time, place and function of the
building. This has to be modified according to existing condition, site, social need and
planning purpose of the city or town.
Many of the ancient Temples and houses in Asia followed the pattern of Mandala and
following the principles of Vastu which was formed more than 5000 years before
(Stein 1985; Begde,1978; Schlingloff, 1967,1969). Only the reason is because it is
scientific, practical and natural.
Today, we started to worry about the environment. Air, water pollution, lack of space
have created nuisance in our lives. This had been mentioned in Vastu Sastra as
unbalance in the 5 elements will create disorder.
As a case study, the Jaipur city in India is planned as per the principles of Vastu-
Purusha-Mandala. Many villages were planned according to the direction. Correct
orientation within the cosmic square is important both for human body and settlement,
for the sake of health and well-being.3 Much rural landscape has the imprint of
cosmological thought.4

Conclusion:
Further research on the topic will be covered in the final research proposal in order to
relate ancient architecture to the sustainable architecture.

3
Amita Sinha, Landscape Research, Social and spatial order in villages in India (online published in 24 Feb 2007)journal
4
Amita Sinha, Landscape Research, Social and spatial order in villages in India (online published in 24 Feb 2007)
References:
Environmental Vaastu By Dr. Bhojran Dwivedi (2005) New Delhi, Publisher: Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd.

Architect’s Guide to Feng Shui: Exploding the Myth By Cate Brambie (2003), Burlington, Publisher: Architectural Press

Reena Patra (2006) A Comparative Study on Vaastu Shastra and Heidegger’s ‘Building, Dwelling and Thinking’, Asian
Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philisophical Traditions of the East, 16:3, retrieved 04 December 2014.

Heidegger, M.(1977a) Building, dwelling and thinking. In David Farrell krell (Ed.), Basic Writings New York: Harper &
Row (original work published 1954).

Bedge, P.V. (1978). Ancient and medieval town planning in India. New Delhi: Sagar Publishing house

Stein, O. (1972). Arthashastra and Silpasastra. In Kleine Schriften. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag.

Amita Sinha, Landscape Research, Social and spatial order in villages in India (online published in 24 Feb 2007)journal
(retrieved 7 Dec 2014)