4.3. Vāstupada-vinyāsa (site-planning)

Vāstupada-vinyāsa or the Vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala is the intellectual foundation of the building, and its projection on earth. The concepts of Vāstu, Puruṣa and maṇḍala are equally important and significant. Vāstu is primarily the planned site of the building; the Vāstupuruṣa, the supernal or cosmic man, is of metaphysical import; maṇḍala denotes any closed polygon. The form of the Vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala is a square.

When a site is selected for constructing a village, town or building a house, etc., the ground is divided into different number of squares. The most sacred partition is that of 64 squares. The Mānasāra distinguishes 32 kinds, according to the number of squares into which the whole area is partitioned out. But, the Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra (SS) however, describes only three such site plans, that is, of 81 squares, 100 squares and 64 squares.

It is to be noted that each of these squares is assigned to its presiding deities, though some deities however, are lords of more than one square. These presiding deities (or) Padadevatās are of two classes viz., internal and external. The main deity occupying the whole plot is the Vāstupuruṣa upon whose limbs the other deities are said to reside. Thus forty five Padadevatās (13 internal + 32 external deities) reside upon the body of the Vāstupuruṣa; they cover his extent, they are his limbs and vital parts and their sum total is the Vāstupuruṣa.

Their number necessarily is the same in the Vāstupuruṣa-maṇḍala of 64 or 81 or any of the other number of squares; only the extent allotted to each differs, but not their relative position in the plan (Aparājitapṛccha, 57. 22cd; SS. XIII. 6):

trayodaśa sthitā madhye dvātriṃśad bāhyatastathā ||
antastrayodaśa dvātriṃśad bāhyataśca ye |
teṣāṃ sthanāni marmāṇi sirā vaṃśāśca teṣu tu ||

The intersections of the lines by which the vāstu-maṇḍala is divided into small squares, is considered as the marma sthānas, vulnerable spots.

It is also to be noted that no pillar, door, or walls, etc. of a building, or part of temple must be placed on these vital points, for such structures would result in adverse effects on the residents of the house depending upon their positions (SS. XIII. 12, 13cd, 14cd):

dvāraivo bhittibhirvāpi marmāṇāṃ paripīḍanāt |
daurgatyaṃ gṛhiṇaḥ prāhuḥ kulahānimathāpi vā ||
snuṣābadhī jayantībhirbandhunāśaśrakaca saṅgrahaiḥ ||
sṛhṛdviśleṣamicchanti sandhipālaiśca tadvidaḥ ||