Michael A. CREMO[1]

Phd. (honoris causa),
Center for Vedic Science Research
Los Angeles, California, USA

Vastu is a traditional Hindu system of architecture. One of the earliest mentions of this system of architecture is found in the Mahabharata, the extant version of which dates to the 1^st millienium BCE according to modern scholarly opinion (traditionally it is said to have been composed five thousand years ago). Vastu can be used in the construction in individual structures, but it is also used for urban design. In this paper I will investigate the design of the Harappan city of Lothal, in Gujarat, India, which dates to the 3^rd millennium BCE, to determine whether or not the design conforms to vastu principles. The answer to this question has implications for our understanding of the people who built Lothal.

Here is the Mahabharata verse that mentions vastu:

 

sthapati buddhi sampanno

vastu vidya visharadah

ityobravit sutra dharah

suta paranikastada

 

«Here the suta, who is well versed in Puranic lore and is also expert in architecture [vastu vidya], is referred to as sutradhara because he measures the land with a sutra or string»[2].

 

Although the Mahabharata gives descriptions of the construction of cities (such as Dvaraka and Indraprastha) and houses and palaces, it does not give much information about the actual architectural principles employed in the construction. For that information, we must turn to other works. The principal Sanskrit texts that deal with vastu are Manushyalaya-chandrika, Vishvakarma-vastu-shastra, Maya-vastu, Kashyapa-shilpa, Samarangana-sutradhara, Aparajita-priccha, Manasara, Arthashastra, Vastu-kundali, Yukti-kalpatara, Vastu-tattva, Vastu-yoga-tattva, Manasollasa, Vastu-vidya, Vishvakarma-prakasha, and Sanatkumara-vastu-shastra[3]. Current scholarship places them later than the Mahabharata.

Vastu is a Sanskrit word that means, among other things, extended material form, or residence. One element of vastu is the concept of the vastu purusha, the personal form of vastu. There are various accounts of the origin of the vastu purusha. One goes like this: At the beginning of creation, there was an asura (demon) who opposed the demigods. The demigods led by Brahma pushed the demon down onto the earth’s surface, and the demigods took their places on his form to hold him there. Brahma named the demon vastu purusha. Offering the vastu purusha a kind of redemption, Brahma ordained that anyone building any kind of residence would have to pacify him with sacrifice and worship[4].

The form of the vastu purusha is depicted graphically in the vastu purusha mandala. The mandala, or diagram, is square. The square form represents the divine order whereas the circle represents unordered material reality[5]. The purusha is depicted as a male, lying face down. The head occupies the northeast part of the mandala, and the feet are in the southwest. The right knee and right elbow meet in the southeast corner. The left knee and left elbow meet in the northwest corner. The form of the vastu purusha is thus contorted to fit in the confines of the square. The main square of the mandala is divided into 64 (8 x 8) or 81 (9 x 9) squares. Each square is inhabited by a demigod, each one taking its place on the form of the body of the vastu purusha.

The person who knows the science of vastu is the architect. The original divine architects, among them Vishvakarma, were manifested from the chief demigod, Brahma. All subsequent architects, called sthapatis, are descended from Vishvakarma. Sthapati means «master of what stands or abides»[6]. The first step in the construction of a new town is to level the ground. After the site is leveled, the vastu purusha mandala is drawn upon it, thus converting that plot of land into the extent of the universe[7]. Within the context of the mandala, the architect will give stable form to matter as a residence for God and humans, thus repeating original acts of creation.

 

Vastu and City Design

 

In an article published by the Press Trust of India on September 21, 2005, Y. S. Rawal, director of the Archaeological Survey of India, said, without giving much detail, he could detect signs of vastu at the Harappan site of Dholavira in the Indian state of Gujarat. In February of 2008, I visited Lothal, another Harappan site in Gujarat. The Lothal site was first excavated during the years 1955-1962 by S. R. Rao[8]. I wanted to see if vastu principles were evident in its design. The identification of vastu design elements in Harappan sites, if genuine, contributes to the resolution of questions about cultural continuity and change in northwest India during the second and third millennia BC. Vastu is generally considered part of Vedic culture, so the presence of vastu in Harappan sites would challenge the conventional view that Vedic culture was a post-Harappan import.

At Lothal, I looked at the site and the site plan for Period A, which goes from 2,400 to 1,900 BC[9]. The plan shows that Lothal was laid out in square form, with sides oriented to the cardinal directions. This corresponds one of the standard vastu grids. K. V. R. Rao says, «The most important shape used in the initial concept of towns and cities, as per the Samarangana-sutradhara, is towards square shape, as it denotes limits to expanding life and also a perfection sans life and ultimately, sans death»[10]. According to vastu principles , an ideal site for a town is higher in the west and south than in the north and east[11]. At Lothal, there is a definite elevation in the south, sloping down to the north and east. S. K. Ramachandra Rao, citing a vastu text called Yukti-kalapataru, says that «houses facing the four main directions are beneficient, while those facing the corner points forebode evil»[12]. At Lothal, all the buildings face the main directions. Roads are oriented north to south, and east to west[13], another feature of vastu town design[14]. According to vastu texts, waste water should drain to the north or east[15]. I found that the main water drainage system at Lothal, in the area of the citadel, did drain to the east, as also noted in the site report[16].

According to vastu principles, the four social classes (workers, merchants, rulers, and priests) should occupy the western, southern, eastern, and northern sides of a town respectively[17]. Workshops are found primarily on the western side of Lothal. The southeastern corner, Lothal’s center of trade, is occupied by a structure identified as a warehouse. The site plan shows the acropolis, identified as the residence of the town’s rulers (kshatriyas), extending from the central part of the site to the site’s eastern boundary. In the middle of the northern boundary of Lothal is a structure identified as a public fire altar, which would likely have been attended by priests (brahmanas). The principal deity of the northern side of the vastu purusha mandala is Soma, the moon, and the quarter over which the moon rules is known as the «quarter of men»[18]. The Lower Town of Lothal, which includes most of the residences is in the northern half of the site, whereas the southern half of the town is occupied by the warehouse trade area, acropolis government area, and the workshop areas.

The Lothal site plan shows a cemetery outside the northwestern boundary wall, and S. R. Rao comments, «Considering the large population of Lothal which is estimated at 15,000 the number of skeletons (17) found is very small. It is likely that cremation was also practiced here»[19]. The deity of the northwest corner of the 81-square vastu purusha mandala is Roga, disease; just below Roga is Papayakshman, consumption; and just below Papayakshman is Shosha, emaciation[20]. A possibility that deserves consideration is that the northwest cemetery burials could represent cases of special burial for persons who suffered from diseases considered particularly inauspicious. Such persons might have been judged not fit for cremation. Based on the vastu purusha mandala, one might venture an archeological prediction, namely that a cremation ground might be found outside the southwest corner of the Lothal settlement walls, near the bank of the now dry river that once ran there. The southern side of the vastu purusha mandala is ruled by Yama, the lord of death. The southwest corner specifically is occupied by Pitarah, the lord of the ancestors, or Nirritih, the lord of dying, exiting from life[21]. This would make sense because the river flowed from north to south, and typically in Hindu towns, the riverside cremation grounds are usually located so that the river carries water away from the inhabited areas of the town.

Just as the city or town can be seen as the humanlike form of the vastu purusha, the biological human form can been seen as a city. The Bhagavad-gita, which is part of the Mahabharata, refers to the body as the city of nine gates[22]. This metaphor is more completely explained in the Bhagavata Purana[23]. Chapters 25 through 29 of the Fourth Canto present an extensive allegory in which the body is depicted as a city of nine gates (the nine gates being the two eye holes, two nostrils, ear holes, mouth, anus, and genital opening).

 

Conclusion

 

In examining Lothal, a Harappan city in India, we see that it is laid out in a manner consistent with vastu principles. These cities are from the 3^rd millinenium BCE. Vastu, which is mentioned in the Mahabharata, is considered a part of Vedic culture. So this would indicate that the cities were part of the Vedic culture. It also suggests that the Mahabharata may be traced back to the same period of time.