Assignment 4: Architectural History Commentary

Vastu Shastra in Present Day Modernism

EVDA 523.01: Premodern Traditions of the World

Name: Sumer Matharu

Student ID: 10047835

Date: 24 November 2015

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I was born in New Delhi, India, and I came to Canada at the age of 17 to attend

University. It has been 13 years since, and now I am back in University following my

passion – design.

Naturally, before I undertake any design related task, I look within before

searching for precedents. A large part of this is searching for answers from my ancestry,

heritage and culture. When I developed an interest in Architecture, I looked to my

heritage for answers and found Vastu Shastra, the science of Architecture from ancient

India.

One thing my parents always taught me was to never mock other people’s

belief’s even if I don’t believe in them. This gave me an open mind to literature from the

past and I researched on the topic of Vastu without any inhibitions. To my surprise, I

found that many well-known and famous architects in history had applied the science of

Vastu, namely Le Corbusier in his design of the city of Chandigarh in India. His idea

was to use Vastu as a form of “adopting” a local culture, but it turned out that he ended

up using it for the entire city. Whether it be for superstitious reasons, or whether it be an

experiment, it worked for Le Corbusier in many aspects – publicity, marketing, design

success and a positive result. For example, the Vastu specialist Harish Saini comments:

“Yes, Chandigarh is bound to flourish. An analysis as per the Vastu Shastra

(manasara shilpa Shastra), reveals that in planning Chandigarh, due consideration

seems to have been given to the various factors elucidated in the shastras in

accordance with which Hindu architectural development has taken place. The

philosophy of Vastu Shastra – an ancient science based on time-tested scriptures and

guidelines, works on the principle that correct placement of various activities in the right

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direction and in the suitable zones/padas under the influence of respective planets, is

bound to bring happiness, prosperity and peace of mind. The philosophy applies to any

kind of architectural development.”1

Vastu Vidya or the ancient Indian knowledge of architecture is as old as the

Vedas that belong to the period 1500-1000BC.2 One of the questions that comes to

mind is why it is not practiced today. On doing some searching I found that Vastu has

always been around, among many other ancient practices such as palmistry, ayurvedic

medicine, astronomy through meditation, yoga, etc. Some of these topics of study have

lost credibility over the centuries. It has a lot to do with Colonialism.

Growing up in India I saw how everyone, including myself, was drawn to anything

that came from Western Media. As soon as we would hear that something is made in

England, or USA or Germany, it would have our attention. Staring at foreigners with

white skin colour was norm. Speaking to one was exciting and parents would often dare

their children to go and say “hi, how do you do?” to a foreigner in a restaurant.

Architecture and design was not detached from this sub-culture India has become. We

longed for the art and design that we saw in Western Media. We wanted to mimic or

emulate what was made in L.A. and did not care much for what was made in India.

Whether the grass is greener on the other side or whether we were taught to despise

our own culture, it did no good in fostering belief in the any ancient sciences our

ancestors worked hard to discover and document. Come to think of it, if you make

1 Saini, Harish, Vaastu Ordains a Full Flowering for Chandigarh, The Tribune: Saturday Plus, Chandigarh, February 24, 19962 Chakrabarti, Vibhuti, Indian Architectural Theory and Practice, Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya, 1998

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people from a culture come to make fun of or ridicule their own culture, it will eventually

lead to the downfall or inevitable decline of the same.

As a child in India, I attended the standard system of education in New Delhi as

regulated by the Government. Although we were made to remember the names of all

the ancient practices and texts, we were never taught to take them seriously. In fact, we

would be told what they were, and then get moved on to learning more ‘serious’ topics

of study such as world wars, dates of battles, Indian revolutionary uprisings before the

partition of India between present day India and Pakistan, etc. Looking back, I almost

despise the fact that as young children and students we were steered away from the

very culture and history we belonged to. For example, we were never taught in India

that the Kohinoor diamond belonged to the last Prince of Punjab before he was taken

hostage by the British as a teenager, taken to England, converted to Christianity, and

never allowed to see his mother or his homeland again. We were never taught in India

that the last standing kingdom in India was the kingdom of Punjab. We were never

taught in India that the division of the country into present day India and Pakistan was a

strategic move by the British to weaken the newly independent nation and to keep it

‘busy’ at quarrelling for the centuries to come. Although the study of Vastu forms a small

part of this frustration, it is nevertheless relevant to me now where I am studying

modern and contemporary architecture, and we look at Vastu as an object or myth of

the past. We are made to believe that it is irrelevant and unnecessary. It is evident by

the fact that we no longer study it even in Universities in India.

The reason why I brought up the topic of Vastu in our EVDA 523 class during the

lecture on Indian civilizations was completely out of the fact that it is a science, however

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forgotten, that we need to be aware of as architects. Yes, I am biased because it comes

from my heritage. At the same time, I see architecture as becoming more and more

international with nationalities and cultural aesthetics being exchanged in the form of

structures around the world. Keeping this in mind, it is beneficial to us as students to

know the origin of architecture no matter what part of the world it comes from.

In reading more about Vastu, I was most intrigued by how the house, dwelling or

city would be personified by the Vastu Purusha. From my reading, “Here the Vastu

Purusha Mandala is perceived as a pattern of squares in which the central squares are

ruled by Brahma. These central squares form the courtyard around which are built the

rooms opening inwards, inhaling cooled air.”3 Also, “Apart from working as a lung for the

house, the courtyard is a semi-private open space that is used extensively for various

household activities. This control is dictated by the Vastu Purusha Mandala.”4 If one

observes an example of this Vastu Purusha, it is seen as a man in a yogi style posture

confined within the boundaries of the home. See Figure 1 as an example. Without

getting into the technicalities of the image, the land which is divided into grids, which are

further designated as different spaces is part of a reasoning that can be tied into simple

meanings. For example, the lungs can be designated as the central open courtyard that

lets the air in and permits the structure to breathe. There is a reasoning, and a science

behind this and just a small snippet is intriguing. There is no chance that in modern

architectural study we would be taught to see things this way. It is almost poetic,

scientific, and logical all at the same time.

3 Chakrabarti, Vibhuti, Indian Architectural Theory and Practice, Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya, 19984 Chakrabarti, Vibhuti, Indian Architectural Theory and Practice, Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya, 1998

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Figure 1 - Vastu Purusha Mandala of 91 squares

Life and occurences within are cyclical in nature. There was an age of grandeur

for the Architects that practiced Vastu. The Ajanta and Ellora caves are an everlasting

example of the skill and ambition of those that practiced the ancient art in its glory days.

Then like the sands of time, it faded away and was replaced by more Western schools

of through. But Vastu is now making a comeback in the form of modernism, namely in in

a superstitious country like India. Those rare architects that practice it are seen as

mythical sages who dare to mix the ancient with the new. A prime example is the

architectural firm in called Studio Mumbai. Run by American trained architect Bijoy Jain,

the studio aims to blend modern and old, mason and engineer, architect and artist.

Figure 2 shows an inner courtyard that seems to blend the contemporary, zen and vastu

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aesthetics. Figure 3 shows a term described by Jain as “the bellybutton of the house” 5

To pay for a house designed by Studio Mumbai is to purchase a Rolls Royce over a

Suzuki. Meaning, it comes with a hefty price tag. If this is how Vastu is to make a

comeback, then so be it.

Figure 2 - Inner Courtyard by Studio Mumbai

Figure 3 - The ‘belly button’ of the Tara House, designed by Studio Mumbai, is a stone-lined chamber built around a tidally influenced pool, with rings of light from air holes to the garden above

5 http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/10/bijoy-jain-studio-mumbai-architecture-design-local-nature

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List of Figures

1. Vastu Purusha Mandala of 91 squares, Page 7, Chakrabarti, Vibhuti, Indian

Architectural Theory and Practice, Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya, 1998; Page

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2. Inner Courtyard by Studio Mumbai,

http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5017/d3cc/28ba/0d49/f500/09bf/

medium_jpg/stringio.jpg?1414047653; Page 7

3. The ‘belly button’ of the Tara House, designed by Studio Mumbai, is a stone-lined

chamber built around a tidally influenced pool, with rings of light from air holes to the

garden above,

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/9/9/14103027

13896/37edd58a-ccae-4c81-bec5-fd9203cde3bd-620x372.jpeg?

w=620&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=55e3ec4d9ff10a590f393672b1136639;

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Bibliography

Saini, Harish, Vaastu Ordains a Full Flowering for Chandigarh, The Tribune:

Saturday Plus, Chandigarh, February 24, 1996

Chakrabarti, Vibhuti, Indian Architectural Theory and Practice, Contemporary

Uses of Vastu Vidya, 1998

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/10/bijoy-jain-studio-

mumbai-architecture-design-local-nature

http://www.archdaily.com/225365/copper-house-ii-studio-mumbai