# Choosing between two apartments

*What the texts prescribe, what must be measured before a judgement is possible, and how merit is weighed against defect in the manner Mānasāra requires*

By Bangalore Niranjan Babu, Chief Editor of The Astrological eMagazine. Chief Editor's Column, October 2026. 19 min read.

## In brief

- **The rule.** A dwelling is judged by the balance of its merits against its defects, not by any one feature. Mānasāra states this expressly, and the whole of what follows rests upon it.

- **The measures.** Ten points are assessed, of which two cannot be seen and must be computed from a dimensioned plan. The tolerances are given in the texts as fractions of a module and contract as the dwelling contracts.

- **The judgement.** Merits and defects are counted, the fixed are separated from the correctable, and the distribution across the quarters is read. What remains is then set against the remedies, of which six of the ten points admit one.

- **What is owed.** The Vāstu Puruṣa is propitiated before entry, the deity is set in the north-east or the Brahmasthāna facing east, and the centre is kept clean. Pyramids, mirrors and yantras are aids and no more.

## The rule the ancients laid down

Before any point is examined, the principle of judgement must be settled, and it is not left to the assessor to devise. Mānasāra states it.

> Yatra doṣo guṇādhikyaṃ tatra doṣo na vidyate |  
> Teṣām adhikaguṇānāṃ vaiṣamyaṃ sarvadoṣakaraṃ bhavet ||
>
> Where the merit is greater than the defect, there is no defect in it; but where the defect is greater than the merit, it is defective throughout.
>
> Mānasāra, as given in Handbook of Vāstu.[3,7]

The verse is not a sentiment. It is a rule of comparison, and the texts show it operating with arithmetic, most plainly in the Āyādi reckoning of measurement. There the length multiplied by eight and divided by twelve leaves the Aya, or increase; the breadth multiplied by nine and divided by ten leaves the Vyaya, or decrease. The comparison then proceeds in three branches, and the third is the one that instructs.[3,7]

- **Aya greater than Vyaya.** All-round prosperity is indicated. Merit exceeds defect, and by the verse there is then no defect in it.

- **Aya less than Vyaya.** Not auspicious. Defect exceeds merit, and the verse holds it defective throughout, whatever else may be favourable.

- **Aya equal to Vyaya.** It is said to have no defect. Neither preponderates, and the dwelling is not condemned. This branch is worth dwelling upon, since it shows that the texts do not require perfection but a balance not adverse.

Three things follow, and they govern the whole of the assessment.

The first is that a dwelling is weighed, not inspected for a single fault. The purchaser told his flat is auspicious because its door faces east has been handed one merit and no account of the defects against which it stands to be set. He has been given the Aya and not the Vyaya.

The second is that the weighing requires the merits and defects to be enumerated, which is why the assessment proceeds by counted points. Nor are the counted items of equal standing even within the six-fold reckoning: of the Ṣaḍvarga, it is Aya, Vyaya, Yoni and Nakṣatra that are of the first importance, and where a building conforms to those four its measurements may be taken as broadly proportionate.[3,7] The counting is not a modern convenience. It is what the rule requires.

The third follows from the same chapter, where Mānasāra directs that the knowledgeable architect avoid the imperfect calculation and follow the practice current among the people.[3,7] Text and usage are held together, and both are cited below. These are not untried rules: the structures raised in conformity with the Āyādi measures are standing yet, the Vidyāśaṅkara temple at Sringeri, the Bṛhadīśvara at Tanjore, the Mīnākṣī temple at Madurai among them, some across a thousand years.[7] That is a longer trial than any modern study can command.

## Why a direction alone cannot serve

A purchaser is generally told one thing about a flat: the way its main door faces. The statement is true and it is nearly useless, for a reason the texts make plain.

Each side of a building carries nine modules on the Paramaśāyika arrangement. The ancients did not treat them alike. On the eastern side the second, third and fourth counted from the north, being Parjanya, Jayanta and Indra, are the exalted openings; Bṛhat Saṃhitā attributes to them the birth of daughters, financial soundness, and royal favour respectively. On the south the fourth from the east, Bṛhatakṣata, gives increase of food and children. On the west the fourth and fifth from the south, Kusumadanta and Varuṇa, give the prosperity of sons and the increase of wealth. On the north the third, fourth and fifth from the west, Mukhya, Bhallāṭa and Soma, give increase of wealth and birth of sons, possession of all virtues, and the begetting of children and wealth.[1] Mayamata and Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra both single out the fourth module of every side.[2,4]

Two flats may therefore both be described as east-facing while one opens on Jayanta and the other on the middle of the wall. Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra holds that a door set in the middle of a building brings adverse effect upon the family, middle doors being proper to temples and not to dwellings.[4] The description under which both were sold does not distinguish them at all.

Nor does any classical work prohibit orientation to a cardinal direction. Each carries its own benefit, and a purchaser who refuses a west-facing flat on principle has halved his search for no reason the texts support. I have seen this often, and it is an expensive error.

> Pūrva dvāre sukhadam | Paścima dvāre puṣṭivardhanam ||  
> Uttara dvāre dhanadam | Yāmyaṃ dvāre mokṣadam ||
>
> A door on the east gives comfort and happiness; on the west, material growth and prosperity; on the north, wealth; on the south, liberation and self-realisation.
>
> Cited in Handbook of Vāstu.[7]

The door itself is prescribed as closely as its position. It is to be the largest in the house: Mānasāra requires a height of not less than twice the width, Bṛhat Saṃhitā and Viśvakarma Prakāśa three times, and Mayamata asks that it be solid and massive and strengthened with metals.[1,2,3,5]

What stands before the door is reckoned as closely. The ancient masters treat obstruction of the main door as Dvāra Vedha and attach a distinct result to each kind: a road, frailty of the master; a tree, detriment to the youngsters; a corner, grief and expenditure; a well, convulsions; an idol of God, ruin of the master; a pillar, weakness of the women of the house. The obstruction is held not to operate where the door stands at a distance greater than twice the height of the object.[7] In an apartment this bears directly upon a column or a service duct standing opposite the entrance, which is common and seldom looked at, and the test is arithmetical rather than a matter of impression.

*[Plate 1. A square plan with each of the four sides divided into nine modules; the exalted door modules are shown solid on each side.]*  
**Plate 1.** The exalted door modules on each of the four sides. Each side is divided into nine; the exalted zones are shown solid. The counting origin differs by side, being taken from the north on the east, from the east on the south, from the south on the west, and from the west on the north.[1,7]

## The measures that cannot be seen

Most of what bears on a dwelling can be settled from a plan and a compass. The energy lines cannot, and they are the reason a dimensioned drawing is asked for.

Across every plan run the Nāḍī from north to south, the Vaṃśa from east to west, and the two Koṇasūtras upon the diagonals, the major Koṇasūtra passing from south-west to north-east through the navel of the Vāstu Puruṣa along the line of the spine. Where these lines cross, and at the middle of the squares, lie the vulnerable points, thirty-six in all, which Mayamata calls marma. Bṛhat Saṃhitā holds that where they are struck by nails, pillars, pegs or heavy objects, the owner is troubled in the corresponding limb of his own body.[1,2]

The ancients did not leave these as vague zones. They gave their breadths.

> Yaśca pādasyāṣṭāṃśastat proktaṃ marmaparimāṇam ||
>
> The measure of a vulnerable point is one-eighth of a module.
>
> Bṛhat Saṃhitā, Chapter LIII, śloka 64.[1,8]

The preceding śloka gives the breadth of the diagonal as many aṅgulas as there are hastas in a module, and the breadth of the transverse lines as one and one half times the diagonal.[1,8] Reduced to fractions of a module, these give the figures below.

**Table 1.** The prescribed breadths, as fractions of a module and for two common dwelling sizes. The right-hand column is the worked example given in Vāstu: Relevance to Modern Times.[8]

| Element | Fraction of a module | Flat, 36 ft side | House, 72 ft side |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koṇasūtra, the diagonals | 1 / 24 | 2.0 in | 4.0 in |
| Nāḍī and Vaṃśa, the transverse lines | 1 / 16 | 3.0 in | 6.0 in |
| Marma and Mahāmarma nodes | 1 / 8 | 6.0 in | 12.0 in |

Because the breadths are fractions, the tolerance contracts with the dwelling. In a flat of thirty-six feet the clearance upon a diagonal is two inches where in a house of seventy-two it is four, so that a fault of a given size is twice as grave in the smaller home. A builder setting out a partition has no cause to know that nine feet of it will run along the Vaṃśa, and no drawing given to a purchaser will disclose it.

*[Plate 2. The Paramasayika mandala of eighty-one modules with the Brahmasthana shaded, the Konasutras solid, the Nadi and Vamsa broken, and the vulnerable points marked.]*  
**Plate 2.** The Paramaśāyika maṇḍala of eighty-one modules, with the Brahmasthāna shaded, the Koṇasūtras solid, the Nāḍī and Vaṃśa broken, and the vulnerable points marked. The enumeration of thirty-six points follows the plate in Vāstu: Relevance to Modern Times.[8]

Of the Brahmasthāna itself Bṛhat Saṃhitā is direct: the householder who seeks happiness should guard the central nine squares carefully, and affliction of that area by refuse harms him.[1] Mānasāra permits the temple of the family deity to stand there.[3]

## The points on which a dwelling is assessed

The following are the points long assessed in practice, each with the text or the transmitted usage from which it comes, and each with the result the sources attribute to it. They are set down here in one place so that a reader may hold them together, which is what the rule of merit and defect requires of him.

**Table 2.** The ten points, the condition for a merit, and the result attributed.

| № | Point | Condition | Attributed result | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Module of the main door | An exalted module of its side | Parjanya, birth of daughters; Jayanta, financial soundness; Indra, royal favour; Bṛhatakṣata, increase of food and children; Kusumadanta, prosperity of sons and increase of wealth; Varuṇa, increase of wealth; Mukhya, increase of wealth and birth of sons; Bhallāṭa, possession of all virtues; Soma, begetting of children and wealth | Bṛhat Saṃhitā LIII[1] |
| 2 | Proportion of the main door | Height not less than twice the width | No separate result is attributed. The prescription is dimensional: the largest door in the house, and Mayamata asks it be strengthened with metals | Mānasāra; Bṛhat Saṃhitā; Viśvakarma Prakāśa[1,3,5] |
| 3 | Master bedroom | South-west, or south | The south-west takes the weight of the dwelling and is given to the householder; within any room, heavy provisions belong in its south-west | Handbook of Vāstu[7] |
| 4 | Kitchen and range | South-east; north-west as second option; range to the east | Āgneya is the quarter of fire; oil, butter and milk are kept in the south-east of the room. Where pūjā must be done in a kitchen, the deity is set in its north-east facing west | Handbook of Vāstu[7] |
| 5 | Toilet placement | Not north-east, not south-west | Toilets and washing are avoided in the north-east, which is Devamūla, and in the south-west, which bears the weight; divinity is permitted anywhere but in and over places of pollution | Directional Influences[9] |
| 6 | Children’s rooms | South, south-east, south-west for sons; west, north-west for daughters | Newly married couples take north-west rooms. The north-east room suits elders, meditation and a study for children, and is not given to newlyweds | Handbook of Vāstu[7] |
| 7 | Condition of the Nābhi | Central modules unbuilt, unloaded, undefiled | The householder who seeks happiness guards the central nine squares; affliction by leftovers and dirty things harms him. Heaviness at the centre of the living room is likewise avoided | Bṛhat Saṃhitā LIII.66; Mānasāra[1,3] |
| 8 | Lift and shaft position | Not operating to the north-east of the unit | No result is attributed in the texts. The usage is to avoid a flat whose lift operates to its north-east | Transmitted usage[7] |
| 9 | Direction of approach | Entry carrying the household clockwise | Staircase and lift are set to the south-east so that people enter the block clockwise | Transmitted usage[7] |
| 10 | Integrity of the corners | No corner truncated, the north-east in particular | A north chopped in both east and west amounts to the Vāstu Puruṣa’s head and left arm being clipped, and such construction disturbs general happiness and prosperity | Handbook of Vāstu[7] |

Points 8 and 9 rest upon transmitted usage rather than an explicit śloka and are marked so. A reader should know which of his authorities is a verse and which the settled practice of consultants; I do not care to blur the two.

## An illustration from practice

Two flats upon one landing of a tower in south-east Bengaluru, each of 1,296 square feet upon a governing side of thirty-six feet, bought in the same month from the same developer at the same consideration, both with main doors upon the eastern side. The module is four feet, so the prescribed breadths are those of the third column of Table 1.

**Table 3.** The ten points applied. Points 1, 2, 8, 9 and 10 are fixed at purchase; points 3 to 6 may be corrected at fitting out.

| № | Point | Flat A | Flat B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Module of the main door | 5th, the middle | 3rd, Jayanta |
| 2 | Proportion of the main door | 1.9 × width | 2.2 × width |
| 3 | Master bedroom | North-east | South-west |
| 4 | Kitchen and range | North-east, range north | South-east, range east |
| 5 | Toilet placement | North-east | South-east |
| 6 | Children’s rooms | South-east | South |
| 7 | Condition of the Nābhi | Clear | Clear |
| 8 | Lift and shaft position | North-east of the unit | South-east of the unit |
| 9 | Direction of approach | Anti-clockwise | Clockwise |
| 10 | Integrity of the corners | Intact | North-east truncated by a duct |
|  | Merits | 3 of 10 | 9 of 10 |
|  | Fixed at purchase | 1 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
|  | Correctable at fitting out | 1 of 4 | 4 of 4 |
|  | Defects in the north-east | 5 of 7 | 1 of 1 |

Computation of the energy lines disclosed two further defects in Flat A that no inspection would have found. The soil stack serving the north-east toilet stood upon the major Koṇasūtra, within the two-inch breadth. A partition wall ran along the Vaṃśa for nine feet, against a permitted three inches. In Flat B the walls stood clear of all thirty-six points.

## Weighing merit against defect

Mānasāra requires the weighing, not merely the counting, and long practice has settled how the weighing is done. Three readings are taken from the same ten points.

- **The fixed points.** Flat A holds one of five, Flat B four of five. This is the figure upon which a purchase turns, since nothing done afterwards will alter it. A dwelling failing three or more of these five is not improved by any expenditure upon its interior.

- **The correctable points.** Flat A holds one of four, Flat B four of four. This figure is a cost and not a verdict. It states what will have to be spent, and the section on remedies states upon what.

- **The distribution.** Five of Flat A’s seven defects fall in the north-east, which is Īśānya, Devamūla, the quarter the ancients set apart as sanctified and required to be kept unburdened.[7] A kitchen, a toilet, a heavy sleeping room and a lift shaft are each, alone, a matter to be managed. Gathered in that one quarter they are not four matters of that order. A count of three from ten conceals this; the distribution declares it.

One reading lies outside the ten and must not be omitted. A dwelling is judged twice, once as a building and once against the household that will occupy it. The direction of entry is assessed for its compatibility with the lunar sign of the householder, and a movement of habitation towards the north-east of the former dwelling is approved.[7,9] Here the eastern entry agreed with the lunar sign of the family in Flat B and did not agree with that of the family in Flat A, and the two households had moved north-east and south-west respectively.

Vāstu operates within the framework a householder brings with him, his prārabdha karma as read in the horoscope and particularly in the fourth bhāva, and in the daśās during which that bhava is aroused. This is how the discipline works, and it accounts for the swiftness with which a correction takes effect in one household and its gradualness in another. Maya, to whom the Mayamata is ascribed, is the author of the Sūrya Siddhānta also. The ancients never separated the two disciplines, and they are not separated here.

## The remedies

A defect is not a verdict until it has been set against what may be done. This is the part of the teaching most often withheld, and withholding it does the reader no service.

**Table 4.** Remedies by point, ordered from least to most amendable.

| № | Defect | Remedy | Class of work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Direction of approach | None within the unit. A condition of the building | Not correctable |
| 8 | Lift to the north-east | None. A condition of the building | Not correctable |
| 1 | Door on an unexalted module | Seldom. Where wall and corridor permit, the opening may be reset; failing that the approach within the unit is ordered so far as it can be | Structural |
| 10 | Truncated corner | Yes. Where the plan cannot be extended, the maṇḍala is restored by a rectification foundation carried to the missing corner[7] | Structural, external |
| 5 | Toilet in the north-east | In part. Relocation where the stack permits; otherwise the quarter is kept dry, lit and unburdened and the use reduced | Services |
| 4 | Kitchen in the north-east | In part. Full relocation where gas and drainage permit; failing that the range is turned to face the east, which answers part of the condition | Services, or joinery |
| 2 | Door of insufficient proportion | Yes. Shutter and frame replaced, lintel raised where the opening allows. Mayamata further asks that it be solid and strengthened with metals[2] | Joinery |
| 7 | Nābhi burdened | Yes. The load removed and the centre kept clean. Mānasāra permits the family deity to stand there[3,7] | Rearrangement |
| 3, 6 | Rooms in unsuitable quarters | Yes. Reallocation of occupants among the existing rooms | No work |
| · | Wall or stack upon an energy line | Yes where the element is not structural. A partition is reset outside the prescribed breadth; a column or a slab beam is not | Partition, or none |

Set against Table 3, the position resolves. Flat A carries four defects that no work will answer, two more requiring services to be moved, and a stack standing upon the major Koṇasūtra. Flat B carries one defect, and that one admits a rectification foundation. The greater part of the difference between the two lay in the class of the defects and not in their number, which is precisely what the rule of merit and defect is for.

### What is owed to the Vāstu Puruṣa

A word first on proportion, since this is the part of the subject upon which most is sold and least is warranted. Pyramids, mirrors and yantras are not an integral part of Vāstu. They may aid its purpose; they do not accomplish it, and they are no substitute whatever for correcting the fabric of a dwelling.[7] What follows is the short list I hold to be necessary. I do not extend it, and a reader who is offered a longer one should ask on whose authority it rests.

**The propitiation of the Vāstu Puruṣa.** This is not an optional refinement but the ground of the whole practice. Bṛhat Saṃhitā relates that the Being who obstructed earth and sky was laid face down and held by the gods, each limb taking as its presiding deity the god who held it, and that Brahmā ordained that offerings be made to him.[1] In return the Vāstu Puruṣa is said to care for the inmates of the house. Offerings are made before entry, and again after any structural correction has disturbed the fabric. A dwelling assessed and corrected but never propitiated is a work half done.

**The place of the deity.** The prayer room belongs in the north-east, which the ancient writers named Īśānya or Devamūla, God’s own place; or, where the plot is large, in the Brahmasthāna itself. The deity stands on the east wall so that the household faces the rising sun, with a window above it to admit the morning rays; cupboards go on the south and west walls; and the colours are white or soft shades of blue. A pyramidal roof is recommended, spiritual energy being said to flow from the tip of the shikhara into the room, and an unwell person may sit there half an hour daily facing east or north.[7,9] In a flat where no room can be spared, a niche in the north-east answers and the orientation is unchanged. A prayer room already in the north-east is not to be moved to the north-west on the argument that the deity should face east: the north-west is the Vāyu zone of guest rooms, granary and toilets, and in a human habitation it is the mortals who must face the right direction, not divinity.[7]

**Where the centre is burdened and cannot be cleared.** Mānasāra permits the temple of the family deity to be built in the Brahmasthāna, and this is the remedy where the centre carries what cannot be moved.[3] Where even that is not possible the centre is kept scrupulously clean and unencumbered, and a shikhara-shaped skylight above it will serve.[7]

**At the threshold.** A small herbal garden opposite the main door is worth the trouble of keeping, and electrical generators and transformers are kept away from the entrance. Where the supply to a dwelling is drawn from its north-east, relocating the transformer to the south-east of the site may give relief in matters of health.[7]

Three cautions belong with these, and they are not incidental. Unless a householder has the discipline to perform pūjā daily and in proper order, he should not keep Śrīchakra, śālagrāma or idols brought from ancient temples in his prayer room; the obligation they carry is real. The prayer room is never placed in a bedroom. And photographs of the departed are not set beside the deity.[7] The room is kept absolutely clean, which is the whole of the requirement and is more often neglected than any of the rest.

## What a plan will not settle

Four matters lie beyond what any drawing will yield, and a reader should know where the assessment ends.

1. **The ten points are not of equal weight,** and the texts do not assign weights to them. The separation of the fixed from the correctable does the necessary work and should not be omitted, for it is the nearest thing to a weighting that the sources warrant.

2. **The vertical is not addressed by the classical prescriptions,** which contemplate a dwelling upon the ground. Floor level, the units above and below, and the stacking of services must be judged by extension and with caution.

3. **The householder’s own reading is taken alongside and not within.** Compatibility of entry with the lunar sign, and the direction of the move, require his birth particulars and cannot be had from a plan.

4. **The Āyādi Ṣaḍvarga is not worked here,** only the rule of comparison drawn from it in the opening section. The six formulae govern the dimensions of a structure, and where a house is to be built they are of the first importance; a purchaser who did not set his own dimensions can seldom act upon them. The full reckoning, with the results attributed to each remainder and the ambiguity in the Nakṣatra formula that Mānasāra leaves open, is taken up in a later article.

## The teaching in summary

A dwelling is weighed, never inspected for a single fault, and Mānasāra is the authority for it: where Aya exceeds Vyaya there is prosperity, where Vyaya exceeds Aya the dwelling is defective throughout, and where the two are equal it is said to have no defect at all. A cardinal direction names a wall of nine modules and settles little; the module settles a great deal, and each module has its own attributed result. Two of the ten points cannot be seen and must be computed, their tolerances contracting as the dwelling contracts, which makes a dimensioned plan more necessary in a flat than in a house. The fixed points decide whether to buy and the correctable points decide only what it will cost. Where defects gather in one quarter they are graver than their number suggests. And six of the ten points admit a remedy, two of them requiring no work at all, so that a defect is a question to be answered before it is a reason to withdraw. To all of which is added what is owed to the Vāstu Puruṣa, who is propitiated before entry and cares in return for those who dwell there; but pyramids, mirrors and yantras are aids at most, and no quantity of them will correct a plan.

The reduction of all this to the direction of a door is not a simplification of the classical position but a departure from it. The ancients enumerated, measured, and weighed.

## Sources

[1] Bṛhat Saṃhitā of Varāhamihira, Chapter LIII (Vāstuvidyā), ślokas 2 and 3 on the Vāstu Puruṣa, and 58, 64, 65, 66.

[2] Mayamata, on the vulnerable points, the doorway, and the strengthening of the main door.

[3] Mānasāra, on the balance of merit and defect (Ch. LXIV, 85 to 87), on door proportion, and on the Brahmasthāna.

[4] Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra, on the door set in the middle of a building, and on the fourth module of each side.

[5] Viśvakarma Prakāśa, on the proportion of the main door.

[6] Matsya Purāṇa, Chapters 252 to 257, on the Vāstu Puruṣa and the eighteen preceptors of Vāstuvidyā.

[7] Niranjan Babu B. *Handbook of Vāstu: Vāstu Solutions for Sites, Homes and Offices.*

[8] Niranjan Babu B. *Vāstu: Relevance to Modern Times.*

[9] Niranjan Babu B. *Directional Influences on Human Affairs.*

[10] Raman B. V. *Muhurtha, or Electional Astrology.*

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