Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c13: Chapter V.

Vāstu-śāstra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c13

Language: English

Chapter V.

This chapter describes the earth with all its dimensions, area, circumference, the length and breadth, etc. together with the relative dimensions of the four oceans, the Bhūtas etc. and the Mahat. Then follow the descriptions of the seven continents—the Dvīpas, Jambū, Sāka, Kuśa, Krauñca, Śālmalī, Gomeda and Puṣkara with their mountains, peoples and countries. The Jambūdvīpa (where India forms one of the countries) has been described in full detail. After this, on the four quarters of the earth, the existence of the four lokācalas is described. Thus a complete picture of the plan of the earth having been described, the chapter closes with the description of the movement of the heavenly bodies with their number and relative distances, especially of the solar circle.

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CHAPTER VI

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Men in the Company of Gods. (Sahadevādhikāra)

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Here in this chapter we find an account of how mankind felt the necessity of dwellings and its first efforts towards the planning of a house. The origin of the first house on earth in the model of a Śālabhavan with the help of branches of trees (cf. the wooden origin of Indian Architecture) is described in a mythological manner: First men and gods, once lived together, in the Kṛtayuga; secondly in the course of time men lost their covetable status (living and enjoying with gods under the renowned Kalpavṛkṣa); and thirdly developing the characteristic traits of mortality and so many corresponding codes of attachments, greed, etc.—all this led to the formation of the couples and thence feeling of shelter both for the privacy of copulation and the warding of the inclemencies of weather as well.

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CHAPTER VII

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The Division of the Society According to Varṇa & Āśrama (Varṇāśrama-Pravibhāga)

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The subject-matter of this chapter, as the very name indicates is the fourfold division of the society. A well-knit social structure needs a well-ordered government established by the Law of the Lord to be promulgated and enforced by the Paramount authority of the first king on earth, the celebrated Pṛthu. The Cāturvargya-system requires the Cāturāśramya also and hence the respective duties and responsibilities of all the Varṇas and the stages of the manhood, the student, the house-holder, the foresteer and the Sannyāsī together with duties and responsibilities of the women-folk, the teacher and the taught all are described. So far all this description is of non-architectural interest, but the community life, the essence of the social structure needs a suitable planning of the towns, villages, and the houses wherein to evolve the means of livelihood and satisfy the wants for the preservation of the society and its good government. Hence the maintenance and safety of mankind is entrusted to the ruler of the land. King Pṛthu did discharge his duties by milking the earth and planning the human habitation on it. Milking the earth may stand here for surveying the vast lands and finding out characteristic wealth of the regions.

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CHAPTER VIII

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Sthapati-Lakṣaṇa—(The Qualification of an Architect).

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A full notice of this Chapter has been taken in the Introductory Part of the Study—vide Ch. III “The Architect & the Architecture”. It suffices to say that the text while laying down the mental and moral as well as practical equipment of an architect prescribes Śāstra, Karma, Prajñā and Śīla, the fourfold primary qualifications of an architect. The details may be seen in the Chapter referred to above.

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CHAPTER IX

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Aṣṭāṅga-Lakṣaṇa—(The Eightfold limbs of the body of the Vāstu-Śāstra i.e. Sthāpatya).

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This chapter elaborates the fourfold Sthāpatya with its eightfold limbs. They are examined in the Introductory Part of this Study (ibid) with the exception of the seventh limb, namely—The Sacrificer’s i.e. Yajamāna’s shed. The Śālā for sacrifice has been very much elaborated together with its proportions and the paraphernalia of the Koṭihoma in the major part of this chapter. This Chapter also elaborates the planning of the Śibira, the Royal Camps, as well as incidently describes briefly the sixfold forts (see for details Pt II—Town Planning).

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CHAPTER X

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The Selection of the Site—(Bhūmiparīkṣā).

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From this chapter the treatment of the purely architectural subjects starts. The first thing in any architectural planning being the surveying of the region (the regional planning) and ascertaining the different points of the region or deśa into which the planning of the towns, capitals, forts, Kheṭas, villages, and other human habitations and establishments is to be done. This survey consisted of the examination of the different soils and soil conditions and their suitability or fitness for the constructions, thereupon, of human dwellings, as the selection of the sites forms the first pre-requisite in any planning. The text distinguishes between three broad divisions of the lands and the soils thereof Jāṅgala, Anūpa, Sādhāraṇa with the sixteen-fold varieties of the different kinds of the lands. After this examination, a vivid and beautiful, simply charming poetical description of the Bhūmis fit to be selected for the planning of the Janapadas, towns, kheṭas, and grāmas, etc. is made. After this, four kinds of lands suited to the building of four varieties of the forts is described. For the planning of the towns the lands of special qualities are again delineated upon (40-47). In ancient India the towns and villages were planned caste-wise (cf. Bāṇas' description of Brāhmṇādhivāsaḥ), the text, therefore, describes the different soils—fit for all castes and fit only for the Brāhmaṇas, Kṣatriyas or Vaiśyas and Śūdras. Thereafter the unfit lands are enumerated. The end of the chapter prescribes certain tests for the examination of the soil for the ascertainment of the suitability of the ground.

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*N.B.*—Chapter XI. The Measurement (Hastalakṣaṇa) and chapters XII to XVI. (on Pāda-Vinyāsa) will be dealt with in a subsequent study—vide the next chapter—The Five Fundamental Canons of Hindu Architecture.

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II. Town-planning