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Issue 9 Vol I, February 15, 2006culture VASTU SHASTRA: Architectural Lyricism
The Vastu Sastra deals with both secular and religious architecture of unbelievable variety in great depth. The secular architecture comprises palaces, which were of 32 types. Besides, there were pleasure palaces and gardens. The Vastu Sastra has an elaborate section on pleasure machines. Wooden dolls opened palace gates, dancing wooden dolls poured oil in lamps, wooden lion roared to scare away elephants, wooden birds danced to the tune of music, wooden male dolls worked as servants and female dolls as maid servants. Besides, there was large number of machines for amusement. The concept of Robots is quite clear. Pleasure palaces provided comforts. The beds were shaped like bodies of snakes, which moved with slightest touch like a heaving snake. Leather fans rotated on wooden pedestals. Besides palaces, the Vastu Sastra deals with State buildings, concert halls, theatre buildings, libraries and other public utilities. Architectural details of State Guest Houses with basement halls with 32 steps going down have been given.
Religious architectures comprising various categories of temples in the North and the South have been dealt with elaborately. Detailed mathematical calculations are given for the designs of the temples, based on Surya Siddhant (Mathematical treatise of Varamihar). An elaborate system of measurement figures for which they had the required engineering instruments. The common measurement was in the form of Anguls and Hastas. Apart from the various sections of temples and shapes, even on components like pillars are dealt with at length. A pillar was divided into five parts with the precise measurements and shapes for each. The Vastu Sastra contains a section on joinery going to the extent of advising on driving a nail into a pillar. The emphasis in Vastu-Sastra is on architectural lyricism. The defence architecture forms an important place in Vastu Sastra. It deals with numerous categories of forts. These also find a mention in Kautilya’s Arthasastra dated back to 4th Century B.C. A fort was a self-contained unit. The Vastu Sastra contains architectural details about Arsenals, stores, water reservoirs (Vapis step-wells) and other aspects. Iconography and painting occupy a prominent place in Vastu Sastra. The moorti-kala was practised as per the concept of the Panchayatan, namely, Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, Ganpati and Surya. Jainism and Buddhism as well as the Shakti cult added their own iconography. Every aspect of the moorti-kala receives a detailed treatment in respect to iconometery, metal casting and installation. There is elaborate handling of postures and mudras. The Hast-Mudra, for example, had 64 hand positions. Materials used were stones, wood, metal, clay and even flowers. It was laid down that an idol is not fit for deification unless it is made according to prescribed iconometric proportions and specifications. The painting (Chitrakala) was a subject of central interest in Vastu Sastra. Palaces, people’s houses and the temples had Chitras – images based on popular themes. The Vastu Sastra deals with technical details of the surface ranging from canvas to plaster, preparation of paints and other materials. It deals with themes, execution and other technical aspects. Intricacies of measurements in portraits with details of plumb lines and horizontal lines are of great interest. Buddhism added enormously to the chitrakala as practised under Vastu Sastra of which paintings of Ajanta with Buddhist themes are a living testimony of some 2000 years old art. Orientation of religious, secular and official buildings were prescribed. The Raj Margs were both from North to South and East to West, temples were to face East or North. Likewise orientation was suggested for other buildings but there were plans described as Sarvato – bhadra that were good from all sides. Besides, there was no unanimity on the basic principles as a numerous Samhitas on Vastu Sastra by the Rishis over the centuries have expressed their different views. There appears to be a great deal of flexibility in the concepts, plans and designing. Some self-proclaimed votaries of Vastu Sastra seem to be doing great injustice to the great ancient science of Indian architecture, art and engineering by promoting superstitions to the gullible by suggesting plans for modern day houses in terms of location of bath-room, staircases and other modern features. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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ANCIENT
Indian texts are deep and abiding source of knowledge. Be it polity,
mathematics, medicine, yoga town planning and architecture, astronomy they offer
knowledge and help develop our critical faculties. But over the past many
decades, we have burying such fund of knowledge in deep down by letting
charlatans and opportunists take over. Totally illiterate persons, masquerading
as scholars and pundits, though earning easy and fast buck, have been spreading
superstition, thus endangering our comprehension of the world around us. This
way the very foundations of knowledge based civil society have been badly
shaken. Former
Nagaland Governor O.P.Sharma, a keen observer has delved into
these texts and feels deeply concerned about too many charlatans fooling people
by spreading superstition. “I very much suspect their intentions,” he
writes. “They are recommending inane things for bringing happiness and good
luck. In the name of Vastu Sastra they have even been recommending the location
of TV loungers, lobbies and numerous other things, not found in these texts. It
amount denigrating the great intellectual effort of our hoary past.”
Two early classics dealing in Vastu Sastra are Mansara and Maymata and later
Raja Bhoja of Dhar wrote the famous Samaragana Sutradhara in the 11th century.
There is another rich text dealing with planning, architecture and r aspects
of design in the 15th century by Mandan’s Rajavallabha written for
Rana Kumbha of Mewar. Here he touches broad contours of 11th century
classic text that deals with genre of Vastu Sastra.
Vastu Sastra is the
science of architecture, iconography and painting as practised in ancient India
in relation to astronomy, cosmology, geology and geography. Its antiquity goes
to pre-Aryan days. There were a large number of Rishis and experts whose
names figure in relation to Vastu Sastra who compiled their own treatises.
Forerunner among them is the legendary builder ‘Viswakarma’ who passed on
the science of architecture to his four sons. Raj Bhoja, who was a man of
great learning, made the most famous compilation and himself wrote 34 books on
various scientific disciplines. His compilation of the Vastu Sastra is
known as Samaragana Sutradhar (SS). Bhoja draws heavily from prevailing
and ancient knowledge and comes up with a comprehensive Samhita on Vastu Sastra.
The science of town
planning was quite advanced and is dealt with in great details. The
residential quarters were planned according to the status and the needs of the
people. Designs of houses are described in details. The houses varied from
one-room accommodation (Ek Shala) to ten-room accommodation (Dash Shala).
Rich men’s houses had arrangements for locating the altar, stables for horses
(Ashwashala) and elephants (Gaj Shala). Accommodation was reserved for the
priest. Houses of the middle class and lower class were more functional.
Construction materials in ancient times mostly comprised wood. Stones were
reserved for religious architecture. Rich persons used timber and bricks.
Poor people built mud houses. Each category of the house had large number
of variations, say, about a dozen for the simplest houses and a million for
complex houses. Towns were of several categories; royal capital, cities,
standard towns, medium towns and small towns. Likewise villages were also
of several categories. Elaborate tests of ground and soil were carried out
before locating the places. Search for right type of timber in the forest
was made. There were very elaborate guidelines on the subject.