The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s9.3

v1.c5.s9.3

¹⁰⁵ The building site, apart from the possibility of a conversion of its square surface into a circular one of equal area, is yet in another way connected with the circle. A great serpent (nāga) moves encircling every site by its movement in the course of a year. Whatever the name of the Pannaga, it is a manifestation of Ananta or Śeṣa, the Endless (=Ananta), the Remainder (=Śeṣa), which encircles in the perpetuity of its movement, and also supports on its head, the earth and the entire manifest world. On its coils Viṣṇu sleeps, in the intervals between the Kalpas, when every thing else has withdrawn and no other form exists. Uncoiled and proceeding in a circle, it moves from the East, to the South, West and North in the course of a year. When its head is in the East, its tail is in the South, its body covers the North-East, North, West and South. Head and tail do not touch. The head of the Nāga moves one degree day. (‘Vāstuvidyā’ VII. 2-6). The Vāstupuruṣa also is said to move. His feet lie in that Rāśi (Zodiacal sign) where the sun stands and his head is on the seventh Zodiacal sign from the Rāśi. (‘Vāstuvidyā’ VII. 6). Following the sun, as the months advance the Vāstupuruṣa moves. According to Jyotiṣa Śāstra, he lies with his head in the East during three months, in Virgo, Libra and Scorpion and then moves to the South, etc. The solar Zodiac however is not inscribed in the Vāstupuruṣamandala as given on p. 32. The Vāstupuruṣa who is one, thus appears in several positions of which the main are the 8 yonis; they are the Vāstupuruṣa at the 8 directions, or the 8 Vāstupuruṣas (Utpala's comm., Br. Samh., ch. LII, 73). The spatial order of the 8 directions simultaneously denotes a temporal order; the Vāstu is the time piece for determining the proper building season. This rotating Vāstu is called