Chapter 4 - The Selection of Site (bhūmi-saṃgraha)

1. I shall now describe the selection of site [viz., bhūmi-saṃgraha] briefly in this science (of architecture).

2-3. The quadrangular ground which is elevated towards the south and towards the west is suitable (for the buildings of) the gods and the men respectively.

4. (Associated) with horses, elephants, bamboos, reeds, and water-snakes.

5. Associated also with cows and reptile species.

6-7. Associated with lotus-seeds and trumpet-flower-fragrances, conducive to the growth of all (other) seeds, and possessing one colour.

8. Attended with dense softness and being (lit. should be) of pleasant touch.

9-10. Associated with the sacred fig tree, the nimb-tree (Azadirachta Indica), the aśoka (Jonesia asoka Roxb), the saptaparṇaka (Alstonia scholaris), the mango tree, and the poison-tree (upas tree), and level.

11-12. White, red, golden, black or grey in colour, and hexagonal (in shape): such a ground brings forth all prosperity.

13-14. The (other) features: having a pond surrounding the south (and) a southern aspect, looking green to the sight and attractive to the mind (when) tested by (holding in the hollow of) a man’s palms.

15-16. Free from worms, white-ants, rats, skulls, bones, shells, sand and holes: (such a ground) brings prosperity.

17. The land (being) held up by various kinds of pikes and pillars.

18. The soil should be clayey, scratchy and crusty.

19. Without husks, ashes and gravels.

20. Such a ground brings prosperity to the people of the Brahmin and the other castes.

21-22. Bearing the smell of honey, oil and clarified butter, and that (ground) which bears the bad smell of burnt things, (and also that) bearing the smell of bird, fish and dead body: (all these kinds of land) should be avoided.

23. Associated with royal palaces, adjacent ṭo (public) meeting-places and tombs.

24. Associated with thorny trees, and abounding in śāla trees (Vatica robusta).

25. Uneven (lit. high) like a tortoise, circular, triangular, and resembling the club.

26. Clouded (with the smoke) from the dye-factories, surrounded by the workṣops of blacksmiths.

27. At the junction of four paths, three paths, two paths, or the city-path (i.e., trade route).

28. Looking like the mṛdaṅga (small drum), and resembling a cavity and a bird’s beak.

29. Resembling the jhasa (large) fish and everywhere possessing lightning (prabhā) trees.

30. Having the śāla trees (Shorea robusta) at the four corners, and abounding in tomb-trees.

31. Infested with poisonous (lit. great) snakes, and being a garden of śāla trees (Vatica robusta).

32. Frequented by boars and monkeys, and being the abode of jackals (or demigods of roaring wind, rudra).

33-35. (The ground) containing the abodes of owls, lions^[1] and snakes, species of fish, kinds of birds, cats, and of bird-like (beings), and also the abodes of buffalo-like (large animals) and goat-like small animals.

36. (The grounds) of these (descriptions) should be avoided: this is the injunction of the professors of the science of architecture.

37. The ground accessible from many directions (lit. doors) and holed by worms should (also) be avoided.

38-39. Such being the case (i.e., instruction) concerning this first object of building, he who commits any blunder out of ignorance will be the sea (source) of (all) evils; therefore, the first (lit. root) object, the ground, should receive more consideration (than the other objects).

40-12. Should the ground with other features be of various colours, of various tastes, productive of seeds (i.e., fertile), redolent like musk by black-bees, it, containing (as it does) all the (good) features, should be purified (i.e., selected, for the purpose of erecting buildings on it) by all the leading architects.

Thus in the Mānasāra, the science of architecture, the fourth chapter, entitled: “The selection of site.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This is a translation of pañcānana which seems to have been implied by pañcākṛti.