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Page 43
Vastu Purusha and the Mandala
On the vastu purusha mandala, the image of the vastu purusha assumes the likeness of a man who is in a comfortable squatted position with his arms and legs reflecting a state of animation. Many new books on vastu show the deity with his face in the northeast. But the ancient texts of Manasara and Mayamata clearly indicate that the spirit's face is in the east. This direction is filled with good omens: enlightenment and truth, and the east receives the power of the sun.
Mayamata says:
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It should be known that the Spirit of the building has six bones (or lines), a single heart, four vulnerable points and four vessels (or diagonals) and that he lies upon the ground, his head in the east.12
Manasara further explains that the diagram shows the captured vastu purusha, face down, with his head in the east and tilted to the northeast, out of respect for Isa, the powerful deity who oversees the northeast quadrantthe gateway to the gods.13 Lord Brahma is said to have faced this same sacred direction when he created the universe. And a man-made structure should strive for the perfection exhibited in Brahma's grand creation. To keep the spirit working in our best interests, Vastu Living uses the vastu purusha mandala with the spirit's head in the east.
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12 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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13 Prasanna Kumar Acharya, ed. and trans. Architecture of Manasara, Manasara Series: Vol. IV (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1994).

 
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