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THE VASTU-VIDYA OF VARĂHAMIHIRA
Vol XXII, 1998
were believed to be presided over by forty-five deities, thirty-two of them external and thirteen internal 50 Of these two the second one was specially meant for temples As for the first one, Brahma occupies nine squares in the centre of the remaining deities twenty others, known as dvipada, preside over two compartments each, and four deities, called tripada, occupied three squares each This plan was applicable to all kinds of secular structures, towns and villages " Though Varahamıhıra refers to only square plans, they could as well be applied to circular, hexangular and sixteen sided structures which are mentioned by him His commentator Utpala is aware of this omission on the part of our author and supplies necessary information about circular and trangular plans from a work of one Bharatamuni 52 The nine meeting points of the diagonals and the exact middle points of the squares (1/8th of a square) were considered to be the most vulnerable points and these together with Brahma-sthāna, when hurt >y impure articles, nails, pegs, pillars, etc, were believed to bring trouble to the andlord in the corresponding limbs of his body 53
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The building site was believed to constitute the body of the House-God Vastunara) He is a male figure and his image should be carved in the likeness of man He should be represented in such a way as to cover the entire site His lead is turned to the north-east and face hung down Different parts of his >ody are occupied by several gods 54
After the selection of the site and the preparation of the ground plan, the next >peration, known as the stone-laying ceremony, consisting of laying blocks of tones first in the south-east and then in the south, south-west, west, northeast, north, north-east and east in order followed, and it marked the :ommencement of building Columns and doors were also erected in a similar nanner 55
Besides mentioning burnt bricks, wood and stone as building materials, /arähamıhıra describes, in Ch 56 of the Brhatsamhità, four kinds of plaster, viz, wo vajralepas, vajratala and vajrasanghata. Of these vajralepa was composed of he precipitate of unripe tinduka and kapittha fruits, blossoms of silk-cotton tree, eeds of sallaki, skin of dhavana and vaca boiled in a drona of water and reduced o 1/8th of its original volume and finally mixed with resin of a tree (srivatsaka), asa, guggulu, bhallātaka, resin of devadāru, resin of sarja, linseed and bilva fruit.5% Another plaster of the same name was prepared in the above manner from lac, esin of devadāru, guggulu, grhadhuma, kernel of the kapittha and bilva fruits, ruits of naga, numba, tinduka and mädana, resin of sarja and myrobalan fruit 57
