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Page 56
excavated site. These offerings included an array of soilseven the soil from an anthill. There were gifts of specific grains and roots. A copper container was placed in the pit and filled with silver, copper, or gold icons of important deities, precious stonesa ruby, a diamond, a sapphire, an emeraldand many semi-precious stones from a tiger's eye to a piece of coral.18
There was nothing random about this list of offerings. The offerings connected the site and the act of construction to the philosophy of the Vedic texts and vastu. Earth is offered back to the siteearth of a very particular variety that signifies the five elements that are used to create the universe. The seeds and roots also represent germination and the birth of a new building that will take shape on this site. The gifts of flawless gems and stones are wealth from the earth given back to the earth, wealth that is suitable for the deities who are honored during this important occasion along with the sacred laws that they representlaws of order and harmony and rhythm and balance.
Today, most of these rituals are only practiced for the construction of a temple. Just a few of the ancient rituals are followed during the construction of secular buildings. The original methods for testing the quality of the soil and water have also been modernized. But their original importance in vastu reinforced the sophisticated and inseparable mix of spirituality and science that define vastu, the Vedic texts, and Hinduism. Their comingling acknowledges the important relationship that exists between the cosmic forces and the five elements and their role in creating harmony or discord within us and within our surroundings.
The performance of the rituals accentuated the connection that exists between the architect and the Supreme Creator, and the connection that exists between the former occupants of the land, known or unknown, and the new occupants of the land. Use and reuse of land or a habitatcreation, destruction, and recreationreflect the rhythmic continuum that goes on and on as part of the perfect grand plan of the Supreme Creator that is defined not only in vastu but in all the sacred Vedic texts.
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18 Kapila Vatsyayan, general ed. and Bruno Dagens, trans., Mayamata Vol. 1 (Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in association with Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1994).

 
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