The Hindu Temple v1.c6.s5.2

v1.c6.s5.2

⁷⁵ In Śaiva tradition, Vāstoṣpati is Īśāna ('Paurāṇikavāstusāntiprayoga', fol. 24) sunk into the ground, he is Vāstudeva who dwells at Pātāla (the nether worlds), the upholder of the earth (fol. 25). The Vāstu-deva is the Vāstu-nāga, the support of all architecture ('Nāgara'; see Part VII); he is worshipped as a golden serpent. His double nature, one with the Godhead, unmanifest, is ophidian; manifest he is the God of gods, Īśāna, Śiva, whose image is the bull (vṛṣa). The 'Vāstumuktāvalī', pp. 146-47, therefore prescribes the installation of the golden serpent; and north of it the Vṛṣa-Vāstu, made of gold, (also: 'Vāstu-śāntiprayoga', fol. 10). The golden images of bull and serpent represent the twofold nature of the golden image of the Puruṣa. (Re. the bull and the serpent, cf. the Greek god Zeus). As an 'anthropomorphic' image, the Vāstupuruṣa shines like gold, has 4 faces and 4 hands, holds rosary and water vessel, is Vāstubrahmā (cf. the 'dhyāna' of Brahmā, 'Mānasāra', VII. 155-162); in his 'rājasika' aspect he is beheld as ferocious, holding a mace, trident, axe and skull-staff; he is red as the rising sun, and like the god of death to his enemies ('Mahānirvāṇatantra', XIII, 63-66). Other images of the Vāstupuruṣa (for inst. 'Prayoga-Pārijāta', pp. 94-96, śl. 35) are two armed.