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Vol XXII, 1998
THE VASTU-VIDYA OF VARAHAMIHIRA
which is missing in other ancient literature Although he is accused of being in the habit of copying his authonties and appropriating their materials he has mentioned distinctly in his treatise seven architectural authorities, viz, Garga, Manu, Vasistha, Bhaskara, Viśvakarman, Nagnajit, and Maya *
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The word 'västu' literally means "a place of residence", or a house-site and a house proper Varāhamıhira uses 'Västu' in the strictly limited sense of a residential building 5 Varahamıhıra first gives overall measurements for five kinds of houses meant for a king, army-chief (senäpati), ministers (saciva), queens (mahisi), crown-prince (yuvaraja) and his younger brothers, feudatory chiefs (sämanta) state officials (rāja-purusa), chamberlain (kafcukin), royal courtesans (vesya) and artistes (kalājña), envoys (dūta), astrologers, priests and physicians, persons belonging to the four primary classes and sub-classes, treasury and pleasure-house (ratı-bhavana) The houses of a king may measure 108, 100, 92, 84, or 76 cubits in breadth, the length being greater than the breadth by a quarter? The houses of an army-chief may measure 64, 58, 52, 46, or 40 cubits broad, their length being one-sixth more than the breadth The house of a minister may measure 60, 56, 52, 48, or 44 cubits broad, the length exceeding the breadth by one-eighth For a crown prince the houses may measure 80, 74, 62 or 56 cubits broad, the length being one-third more than their width The dimensions of the houses of his younger brothers may be half of those of the crown-prince The houses of feudatory chiefs and high state officials are equal to the difference between the houses meant for the king and his minister The best house of this class may measure 48 hastas x 67 hastas and 12 angulas The difference between the houses of a king and his crownprince gives the dimensions for the houses of chamberlains, royal courtesans and artistes, the largest house of this group would thus be 28 h x 28 h 8 a9 Of the houses meant for the royal astrologer, prest and physician, the largest one measured 40 cubits in breadth, the width of the remaining four types for this class decreasing by 4 cubits each in a descending order and their length being greater than the breadth by one-sixth The residences of the officer-incharge of workshops (karmädhyaksa) and of the envoys corresponded to the difference between those prescribed for the crown-prince and the minister The difference between the measures of the residences of a king and his commander gives us the dimensions of treasure-house and pleasure-house as also for the houses meant for superintendents of state departments "The best structure of this class is thus 44 h x 60 h a "
