Vastu Shastra

Vastu Shastra is a traditional Hindu system of design based on directional alignments. In Indian architecture, the dwelling is itself a shrine. The concept behind house design is the same as for temple design, so sacred and spiritual are the two spaces.Vastu Shastra prescribes desirable characteristics for sites and buildings based on flow of energy (prana in Sanskrit). Many of the rules are attributed to cosmological considerations – the sun’s path, the rotation of the earth, magnetic field, etc. The morning sun is considered especially beneficial and purifying and hence the east is a treasured direction. The body is considered a magnet with the head, the heaviest and most important part, being considered the North Pole and the feet the South pole. Hence sleeping with one’s head in the north is believed to cause a repulsive force with the Earth’s magnetic north and thus considered harmful. Bedrooms are therefore designed keeping this in mind. This is a wide spread practice in India even today.

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