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Space organised — the directions, the maṇḍala and the elements of a dwelling, lit on the same map as the body and the sky.
This lens lights 9 points on the shared cross-section rather than replacing it. Every record below names its source, and carries one of three tags: classical where a named text can be cited, later addition where an idea is modern and is said to be modern, and sources differ where the tradition itself disagrees.
The Brahmasthāna is the centre of the site — the one part vāstu says to leave empty. It is assigned ether, the element that is space itself, and the instruction is not to build on it.
In the maṇḍala the centre is the navel of the figure, and the classical texts reserve it, keeping it unbuilt and often open to the sky. It is the structural expression of the same principle the map's centre carries: the point that organises everything around it is not itself a thing.
Source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā; vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala; cf. Śrīcakra bindu, Sāṃkhya puruṣa
East is the direction of sunrise, regented by Indra in the vāstu scheme, and connected with entrances, light and beginnings. It is the cardinal direction the classical texts treat as most consequential.
The eight compass points each carry a regent — the aṣṭa-dikpālas — with Indra in the east, Yama south, Varuṇa west, Kubera north, and the four intermediate regents giving the corners their names. The scheme is older than vāstu itself and appears across the Purāṇic and ritual literature.
Source: Purāṇic and ritual dikpāla literature; Bṛhat Saṃhitā (vāstu application)
Nairṛtya is the south-western quarter, named for Nirṛti, a goddess of dissolution. Vāstu assigns it earth and holds it as the quarter of weight — the corner conventionally kept heaviest, highest and most enclosed.
It corresponds to the feet of the figure in the maṇḍala, diagonally opposite Īśānya's head, and the recommendations mirror it exactly: where the north-east is kept light and open, the south-west is kept solid and closed. The classical texts connect it with storage, with the master of the house, and with what is settled rather than begun.
Source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā; Vedic Nirṛti; śilpa literature on the maṇḍala
North is regented by Kubera, keeper of wealth, and is connected in the vāstu scheme with prosperity and with water. Along with the east it is one of the two directions the texts treat most favourably.
The north-facing orientation is recommended for openings and for water, and the north-east corner — where north meets east — receives the strongest of all the scheme's positive treatments. The associations follow from Kubera's regency rather than from any stated observation.
Source: Purāṇic dikpāla literature (Kubera); Bṛhat Saṃhitā
South is regented by Yama and is the direction the vāstu scheme holds with most caution — connected with what ends, with ancestors and with the settled dead. It is conventionally kept heavy and closed.
Its recommendations are the inverse of the north's: weight rather than openness, enclosure rather than aperture. The south-west corner, where south meets west, receives the scheme's strongest instruction toward solidity, consistent with its position at the feet of the maṇḍala figure.
Source: Purāṇic dikpāla literature (Yama); Bṛhat Saṃhitā; the 'inauspicious' rendering: modern
Vāyavya is the north-western quarter, named for Vāyu. Vāstu assigns it air and connects it with movement, with what does not stay — guests, storage of things in transit, and anything that passes through.
Completing the four corners, it sits opposite Āgneya as Nairṛtya sits opposite Īśānya, so the scheme pairs its elements diagonally: fire against earth, water against air. The classical recommendations concern circulation and impermanence rather than construction weight.
Source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā; Mayamata; Mānasāra — differing assignments
West is regented by Varuṇa and connected in the vāstu scheme with settling, with the later part of the day and with what is concluded rather than begun. It sits opposite the east and is treated as its counterweight.
Varuṇa is a Vedic deity of waters and of cosmic order, and his regency of the west is stable across the dikpāla literature. Vāstu's recommendations for the western portion concern weight and enclosure, consistent with its treatment of the south-west corner.
Source: Vedic Varuṇa (ṛta, later waters); dikpāla literature; Bṛhat Saṃhitā
Āgneya is the south-eastern quarter, named for Agni. Vāstu assigns it fire and connects it with the kitchen, with heat and with whatever in a building transforms one thing into another.
The quarter takes its name and its element from its regent directly, and this is the most consistent of the four corner assignments across the classical sources. Its conventional use for cooking is the single vāstu recommendation most widely followed in practice, and the one most often cited as evidence that the system encodes practical observation.
Source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā; śilpa literature; the practical reading: modern reconstruction
Īśānya is the north-eastern quarter, named for Īśāna, a form of Śiva. Vāstu assigns it water and holds it as the quarter of beginnings — the corner conventionally kept lightest, most open and least built upon.
In the vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala, the diagram of a figure laid across a site, this corner corresponds to the head. The classical texts assign it to the deity Īśāna and connect it with water sources and with study. Its recommended treatment is negative rather than positive: keep it low, open and uncluttered.
Source: Bṛhat Saṃhitā (vāstu chapters); Mayamata and Mānasāra (śilpa literature); vāstu-puruṣa-maṇḍala
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