Each term carries the text and chapter it is defined in. Transliteration follows IAST.
Vāstu
वास्तु
The built site together with its occupation — ground, dwelling and the act of dwelling in it.
Mānasāra 1
Śāstra
शास्त्र
A disciplined body of transmitted knowledge, with its own rules of proof and lineage of teachers.
General
Vāstu Puruṣa Maṇḍala
वास्तुपुरुषमण्डल
The square grid laid over a site, from which room boundaries and the module are derived.
Mayamata 7
Pada
पद
One cell of the maṇḍala; the unit in which position and extent are stated.
Mayamata 7
Brahmasthāna
ब्रह्मस्थान
The central cells of the grid, kept free of load and of use — in practice the courtyard or light-well.
Mayamata 7
Dik / Diśā
दिक् / दिशा
Direction, quarter. The eight quarters to which the texts assign quality and function.
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 52
Pañca Mahābhūta
पञ्चमहाभूत
The five great elements — earth, water, fire, air, space — used as categories of material behaviour.
Taittirīya Upaniṣad
Ayādi
आयादि
The six remainder formulae applied to a proposed dimension as a final check, not as a way of generating it.
Mānasāra 9
Aṅgula / Tāla
अङ्गुल / ताल
Anthropometric units of measure: the finger-breadth and the span, from which all dimension is built up.
Mānasāra 5
Bhūmi Parīkṣā
भूमिपरीक्षा
Site examination — the tests of soil, slope, water and vegetation performed before any plan is drawn.
Mayamata 4
Śaṅku
शङ्कु
The gnomon set in the ground, whose shadow gives the true east–west line on which the plan is set out.
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 53
Sthapati
स्थपति
The master architect: responsible for the whole work, its measure and its crew.
Mānasāra 2
Sūtradhāra
सूत्रधार
The holder of the measuring cord — the one who sets out the lines on the ground.
Mānasāra 2
Garbhagṛha
गर्भगृह
The sanctum: the innermost cell of a temple, dimensioned first in the sequence.
Mayamata 18
Adhiṣṭhāna
अधिष्ठान
The moulded plinth on which a structure stands; its profile carries much of the building's character.
Aparājitapṛcchā
Śikhara
शिखर
The curvilinear superstructure over the sanctum in the northern (Nāgara) idiom.
Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra
Vimāna
विमान
The body and superstructure of the southern (Drāviḍa) temple, reckoned by storeys.
Mayamata 18
Maṇḍapa
मण्डप
A pillared hall, freestanding or attached, whose bay grid is derived from the same module.
Mayamata 25
Nakṣatra
नक्षत्र
A lunar mansion; the twenty-seven divisions of the ecliptic enumerated with their presiding deities.
Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa III.1
Vṛkṣāyurveda
वृक्षायुर्वेद
The science of plant life — propagation, soil, irrigation and plant disorders.
Surapāla, Vṛkṣāyurveda
Editions and translations first, scholarship second. Where a text has no complete English translation we say so rather than substitute a summary.
TRANSLATION
Mayamatam
Bruno Dagens, 2 vols., 1994
Facing-page Sanskrit and English. The best entry point: the sequence of the text is intact and the technical vocabulary is glossed.
TRANSLATION
Architecture of Mānasāra
Prasanna Kumar Acharya, 1934
Still the standard English Mānasāra. Dated in its English, indispensable for the chapters on measure and ayadi.
TRANSLATION
Varāhamihira’s Bṛhat Saṁhitā
M. Ramakrishna Bhat, 2 vols., 1981
Complete with commentary. Read chapters 52–56 for building, water-divining and timber.
EDITION
Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra
ed. T. Ganapati Sastri / rev. Shukla
Sanskrit edition; no complete English translation. Consult with a reading knowledge or alongside secondary studies.
EDITION
Aparājitapṛcchā
ed. Popatbhai Mankad, 1950
Critical Sanskrit edition of the dialogue text; the fullest source on mouldings and wall articulation.
TRANSLATION
The Śulbasūtras
S. N. Sen & A. K. Bag, 1983
Text, translation and commentary on the altar geometry that underlies setting-out practice.
SCHOLARSHIP
The Hindu Temple
Stella Kramrisch, 2 vols., 1946
The classic synthesis of temple symbolism and the maṇḍala. Interpretive — read against the primary texts.
SCHOLARSHIP
Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture
M. A. Dhaky, M. W. Meister et al., 1983–
The reference work for regional form and chronology; use for dating and typology.
SCHOLARSHIP
Indian Architectural Theory
Vibhuti Chakrabarti, 1998
A critical account of how the vāstu texts have been read, misread and revived in modern practice.
SCHOLARSHIP
Manuṣyālayacandrikā
with Kerala commentary tradition
The regional gloss that shaped domestic practice in the southwest; a useful control on the pan-Indian treatises.
Printable sheets, free to use with attribution. Each carries the source reference for the material it sets out.
The eight directions
Reference chart with the quarters, their presiding qualities and the functions assigned in Bṛhat Saṁhitā 52.
PDF · A3 · 1 sheet 下载Vāstu Puruṣa Maṇḍala grids
The 8×8 (manduka) and 9×9 (paramaśāyika) grids with pada numbering, printable at scale.
PDF · A3 · 2 sheets 下载Suggested reading order
A staged path through the treatises, with which chapters to read first and which to leave until later.
PDF · A4 · 2 pp 下载Glossary with citations
The full term list on this page, with Devanagari, transliteration and source reference.
PDF · A4 · 6 pp 下载Nakṣatra–vṛkṣa table
All 27 pairings with English, Sanskrit, Hindi and accepted botanical names, plus family.
PDF + CSV 下载Site examination checklist
The bhūmi parīkṣā tests set out as a field sheet, with space for readings and notes.
PDF · A4 · 1 p 下载