Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c13.5

v1.c13.5

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.