The Vastu Purusha Mandala | 45 Pada-Devatas
The 9×9 (81-pada) Paramasayika Mandala is the geometric foundation of Vastu Shastra — a grid representing the cosmic Vastu Purusha, lying head to the North-East and feet to the South-West. 45 of its 81 squares carry an individually named deity: 32 around the outer ring, 12 in an inner ring, and Brahma himself at the centre (the Brahmasthan, spanning 9 central padas).
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Brahma
Centre — the Brahmasthan (9 central padas) · Heart
Occupies the central 9 padas of the 81-pada grid — the Brahmasthan itself, kept open in every school of Vastu.
The 32 Outer (Prakara) Devatas
East side
| Pada | Devata | Etymology (literal meaning) | Attribute | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Agni (Shikhi) | Fire | Head Modern sources sometimes mislabel this pada "Ish" — likely a conflation with the unrelated NE dikpala Ishana. The Brihat Samhita name and its "Head" attribute (matching Agni holding "his head" per BS 53.51) both point to Agni. | medium |
| E2 | Parjanya | Rain-cloud; the Vedic rain deity | Right eye | high |
| E3 | Jayanta | The victorious one | Right ear | high |
| E4 | Indra (Mahendra) | The mighty one; king of the gods | Right breast A second, separate "Indra" also appears in the inner ring (paired with Jaya, SW corner) — do not deduplicate by name string alone. | high |
| E5 | Surya (Ravi) | The sun | Right shoulder | high |
| E6 | Satya | Truth | — | high |
| E7 | Bhrisha (Bhrish) | Excessive, violent, strong | — | high |
| E8 | Antariksha (Akasha) | The atmosphere; the space between heaven and earth | — | high |
South side
| Pada | Devata | Etymology (literal meaning) | Attribute | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Vayu (Anila) | Wind | — | high |
| S2 | Pusha (Pushan) | The nourisher — a Vedic solar deity epithet | — | high |
| S3 | Vitatha | Untrue, false | Right side | high |
| S4 | Brihatkshata (Grihakshata, Gruhakshata) | Ambiguous, tracking the spelling dispute: "Brihat-kshata" reads as "of great dominion/realm"; "Griha-kshata" would instead read as "house-injury." Not resolved. | Right side Spelling varies (Brihatkshata in the 1884 translation vs. Grihakshata/Gruhakshata in modern sources) — likely the same devata, not independently confirmed at primary-text level. | medium |
| S5 | Yama | The restrainer — god of death and dharma | Right thigh | high |
| S6 | Gandharva | A celestial musician/demigod | Right knee | high |
| S7 | Bhringaraja (Bhringraj) | King of bees (also the name of a plant, Eclipta alba) | Right shank | high |
| S8 | Mriga (Mrigah) | Deer; wild animal | Right buttock | high |
West side
| Pada | Devata | Etymology (literal meaning) | Attribute | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W1 | Pitri (Pitragan) | Father; ancestor | Feet | high |
| W2 | Dauvarika (Dauwarik) | Doorkeeper, gatekeeper | — | high |
| W3 | Sugriva | Having a beautiful neck Also the name of the Ramayana's monkey-king — almost certainly coincidental name-reuse rather than a thematic connection to this pada. | — | high |
| W4 | Kusumadanta (Pushpadanta) | Flower-toothed | — "Pushpadanta" is the more common modern form (unanimous across modern sources); "Kusumadanta" is the 1884 translation's rendering. Both mean "flower-toothed." | high |
| W5 | Varuna | The encompasser — god of cosmic order and the ocean | — | high |
| W6 | Asura | Demon, anti-god (in the earliest Vedic layer, simply "lord, mighty one") | — | high |
| W7 | Sesha (Shosha) | Genuinely ambiguous by spelling: "Sesha" means "remainder" (also the name of the cosmic serpent); "Shosha" instead means "drying up, wasting." Different words, not resolved. | — "Son of the Sun," per Samarangana Sutradhara as cited by a secondary academic-adjacent source — not independently verified against that text directly. | medium |
| W8 | Papayakshma (Paapyakshma) | Sinful wasting-disease ("papa" = sin + "yakshma" = a wasting disease, esp. consumption) | — | high |
North side
| Pada | Devata | Etymology (literal meaning) | Attribute | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | Roga | Disease | — | high |
| N2 | Ahi (Naga) | Serpent | — | high |
| N3 | Mukhya | Chief, principal, foremost | — | high |
| N4 | Bhallata (Bhallat) | The marking-nut tree (Semecarpus anacardium) Likely coincidental name-reuse — no thematic connection found between the tree and this pada's auspicious quality. | — | high |
| N5 | Soma | The moon; the sacred Soma plant/nectar of Vedic ritual | — | high |
| N6 | Bhujaga (Bhujanga, Sarpa) | Serpent (literally "moving on the chest") | — Three different serpent-word renderings across sources for this one position, not fully resolved. | medium |
| N7 | Aditi | Boundless, infinite — mother of the Adityas | — | high |
| N8 | Diti | Bound, limited, divided — mother of the Daityas; the conceptual counterpart to Aditi | — Closes the loop back to position 1 (Agni, NE corner of the E side). | high |
The 12 Inner Devatas
Names and membership are well-attested (Brihat Samhita 53.46); the exact corner each pair belongs to is single-sourced (medium confidence) — flagged rather than presented as settled.
| Devata | Etymology | Corner (medium confidence) | Attribute | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aryaman | A Vedic solar deity, patron of hospitality and marriage contracts; related to "arya" (noble kinsman) | Not directionally specified in the primary text | Right nipple | Member of the inner 12 confirmed (BS 53.46); exact side not stated in the primary text. |
| Vivasvan | The radiant/shining one — an epithet of the sun | Not directionally specified in the primary text | Belly | Member of the inner 12 confirmed (BS 53.46); exact side not stated in the primary text. |
| Mitra | Friend; a Vedic deity of covenants and alliance | Not directionally specified in the primary text | — | Member of the inner 12 confirmed (BS 53.46); exact side not stated in the primary text. |
| Prithvidhara (Mahidhara) | Earth-supporter | Not directionally specified in the primary text | — | Member of the inner 12 confirmed (BS 53.46); exact side not stated in the primary text. |
| Apa (Aapaha) | Water(s) | NE | Face | — |
| Apavatsa (Aapaha-Vatsa) | Having no calf One modern practitioner source (vaastuinternational.com) instead glosses this as "descendant of Aap/Uma" — that reading was checked and does not match the dictionary meaning; treated here as an error in that source, not an alternate valid etymology. | NE | Breast | — |
| Savita | The stimulator, the vivifier — a Vedic epithet of the sun (source of the Gayatri mantra's invocation) | SE | Right hand | — |
| Savitra | Grammatically a derivative of Savita ("belonging to/descended from Savita") | SE | Right hand | — |
| Indra | The mighty one; king of the gods | SW | Genitals | Distinct from outer position 4 ("Indra/Mahendra") despite the identical name — Brihat Samhita 53.53 names Indra and Jaya together as governing this pada. Some modern sources merge these two into a single "Indrajaya" entry; others (and the primary text) keep them separate. Do not deduplicate by name. |
| Jaya | Victory | SW | Genitals | — |
| Rudra | The howler, the fierce one — a proto-Shiva Vedic storm deity | NW | — | — |
| Rajayakshma (Rajyakshma) | The royal wasting-disease ("raja" = king/royal + "yakshma" = wasting disease) — a classical term for consumption/tuberculosis | NW | — | — |
Marmasthan — the Vital Points
Six of the devatas above (Roga, Vayu, Pitri, Agni, Vitatha, Sesha, Mukhya, Bhrisha, Jayanta, Bhringaraja, Aditi, Sugriva) anchor the classical "Vamsha" lines whose intersections mark the mandala's most sensitive points.
View the Marmasthan diagram →Deliberately not included: Two further data layers sometimes bundled with this mandala — "Devata Bhojan" (a favourite food/offering per devata) and "Devata Chinha" (a symbol or iconographic attribute per devata) — were researched and deliberately NOT built into this reference. The classical primary text (Brihat Samhita 53) gives only one collective offering for all 45 devatas together, never itemised per devata; independent modern sources that do publish per-devata food/symbol tables disagree with each other when cross-checked (e.g. three sources give three different foods for the same devata, Vitatha) — a pattern consistent with independently improvised modern content, not a stable transmitted tradition. Presenting a confident 45-row table here would mean silently picking one of several disagreeing sources and passing it off as settled classical fact.
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