Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c51.s2.2.2

v1.c51.s2.2.2

The import of all these directions regarding the selection of the ground for town-planning is that impurity, insanitation, sterility or barrenness, hollowness, irregularity of sites and plots must be avoided at all cost, so that laying out of the buildings and the planning of the roads are not affected and the stability of the structures erected on them is ensured. All this is possible when well-planned soil tests and geological surveys are carried out. Again this shows that not only the fertility and the solidity of the ground are ascertained, but also the mineral resources were tapped and the building materials explored. Again this is also necessary from the point of view of the stability of a town, situated on the bank of a river, in order to ward off any possible flood or erosion. This brings us to another point of consideration in the selection of the site, namely, the *proclivity* of the ground. The S. S. (8.66) directs that the ground should have its *proclivity* either to the North or to the North-East or to the East proper and it should resemble a mirror (in its elevation in the middle). The S. S. in two other places also takes this topic of *proclivity* and *declivity* of the ground. In its chapter entitled “Gṛhadoṣa” (the 48th) it opens with the direction that the ground slanting towards the direction presided over by Varuṇa, Yama, Marut, Fire or if depressed in the middle, is unfit and brings poverty, disease and death.