Also known aszoningdegree determinationpadvinyasmarmaati marma
A plot or factory map is divided into pishach, manushya, dev and brahma bhoomi. An important machine started on pishach bhoomi never runs properly, while shifting it slightly onto manushya bhoomi makes it work.
Factory floor and plot divisions
Every plot is divided into pads (sections) according to its use: 81 pads for a residence, 64 pads for a temple or religious place, and a separate layout for a town. Directions are further divided into 16 and 32 parts, down to 11.25 degrees, on which the 45 Vastu devtas are marked.
Any land, plot, flat or large project, whatever its carpet area, is divided into four concentric parts: the outer pishach bhoomi (pishach veethi), then the manushya bhoomi, then the dev bhoomi, and the brahm bhoomi at the centre. Each part has its own nature and decides what may be built or kept there.
Whole plot, from the boundary inward to the centre
The brahm bhoomi at the centre suits a courtyard (aangan), tulsi worship, an area open to the sky, a living area and a place for yoga or meditation.
Brahm bhoomi (centre of the plot)
The dev bhoomi, the third band inward, can take everything the household needs, from the main door, windows and kitchen to bedrooms, dining, puja room and stairs. It is the best place for the puja room, the safe, a study room, a meditation room and all important documents, because this land is covered with divine qualities and makes work succeed.
Dev bhoomi
The manushya bhoomi, the second band inward, takes the main door, windows, kitchen, bedrooms, dining room, puja room and stairs. No shilanyas, boring or pit should be made in it, and above all not at the corners of its transition with the pishach bhoomi, where the shishu pishach and pishacha points lie.
Manushya bhoomi, and the corners where it meets the pishach bhoomi
Stairs, the main door, a locker, a pit, boring or dug well, a basement confined to the centre, a store room, a garage or a kitchen must not be built in the Brahmasthan. Each causes serious harm, from illness in the family to quarrels and ruin.
Brahmasthan (the nine central squares) and the brahm bindu (exact centre)
Nothing valuable or sacred should sit on the pishach bhoomi: never a tijori, court case or other important papers, a child's study table, a bed set directly against the wall, or a deity and home temple. Leaving even a 2 to 3 inch gap from the wall keeps an item off the pishach band.
The band along the walls of every zone, including the North-East
The outermost band of a plot, the pishach bhoomi, is the seat of the 32 lokpals and bears the noise of the road. It is where the boundary wall and its gate, servant quarters, guards and pets belong, where flags are hoisted and where shilanyas (foundation stone laying) is done.
Outermost band (pishach veethi) of the plot, along the boundary
On plots of up to about 1000 sq ft (60 to 90 gaj), simply building the wall on the outer band ends the pishach dosh, because the pishach devtas are content with a little space. On plots of up to about 1500 sq ft, leaving the pishach portion open or walling it also satisfies them.
Outer band of small plots
If a regular plot is almost fully used, with only small strips left, zone the complete plot. If a small building stands on a large plot with parking, a garden and open land, zone the constructed area for the house, and also zone the complete area to place the boundary gate, boring, dug well, servant room, security cabin, temple, garden and swimming pool.
Whole plot and constructed area
Pad vinyas divides a plot into equal squares (padas) occupied by the vastu devtas, and the number of padas depends on what is being built: 49 for reconstruction, 64 for towns and certain temples, 81 for houses and cowsheds, 100 for all temples, and up to 1000 for a fort.
In the 81 pad grid the exact cardinal points fall on the fifth pad of each side: North on Soma (N5), East on Surya (E5), South on Yama (S5) and West on Varun (W5). In the 64 pad temple grid they fall between the fourth and fifth padas, so using it for a house shifts every door position.
Main door and room locations of a house
The 81 pad grid, used for any house, factory, business or office, has 32 devtas (the 32 digpal) seated around its outer ring in the pishach bhoomi. One round covers 360 degrees, so each outer pad covers 360 divided by 32, that is 11.25 degrees, and half a pad 5.625 degrees.
The outer pishach bhoomi of a plot is always left open on all sides, and on a North-facing plot the building is placed in the South and West part, leaving open space for energy to enter.
Building in the South and West part of a North-facing plot; open land on all sides
Directions fall at every 90 degrees, the corner directions (vidisha) at 45 degrees and the zones at every 22.5 degrees, giving 16 zones. Each corner has three parts with different properties, for example Nairitya splits into dakshini nairitya (SSW), nairitya (SW) and paschimi nairitya (WSW).
On large plots such as villas, kothis and farmhouses, the whole plot inside the boundary wall is zoned for the gate and outbuildings, while the house itself is zoned on its constructed area alone.
Whole plot for the boundary gate, parking, servant quarters, pet shelter, guard room and goshala; constructed area for the main door and rooms
Everything taught for map marking applies to a flat except bhoomi vibhajan, because the open margins left around the building already form its Pishach bhoomi. Zoning, directions, devta marking and the ati marma are still done inside the flat.
Inside the flat, taking the area the residents can enter and use as the flat
The centre, zoning, devtas and marma are taken on every area the residents can access and use, such as parking, a small garden, terraces and balconies. Only when a large part of the land lies unused is the constructed area zoned on its own.
Whole plot, house or flat
Both grids hold the same 45 vastu devtas, but the 81-pada mandala is used for homes and business premises while the 64-pada mandala is used for temples, villages, palaces (raj mandir), towns and city gates.
Homes and businesses (81 pada); temples, villages, palaces, towns and city gates (64 pada)
When only part of a plot is built and land is left open around it, the 45 devtas are allocated on the whole plot from its centre. The open land becomes a large pishach bhoomi where the 32 outer devtas spread out happily, and the inner devtas get cross ventilation from all sides.
Whole plot, including open land and gardens
For a new building the boundary gate is placed using the grid of the whole plot, while the main door and the devta pads of the house are marked on the grid of the constructed area, for example at E3 or E4.
Boundary gate and house main door
On the exact diagonal where the head of Shikhi devta falls in the NE, no underground water tank or pit should be dug. Vedic vastu marks these Shishu Pishach points, where neither the shilanyas pit nor any water pit is made.
Diagonal points of the plot, especially in the North-East
Into four: the outer pishach bhoomi (pishach veethi), then the manushya bhoomi, the dev bhoomi and, at the centre, the brahm bhoomi. This is not the division into padas; it is the first division of any land, plot or flat.
Zone the complete plot. Almost the whole plot is in use and even the small strips are being used, so the full plot is taken for zoning and for the degree.
Tilt means tedha or tirchha: how far the true North is turned from where it is assumed to be. People who do not know vastu simply say their house is North facing, but a careful degree reading may show that it is turned, say, 5 degrees.
Compare it with the nearest cardinal direction. South is at 180, so 216 minus 180 gives 36 degrees: the South has moved 36 degrees to the left. Do not measure it from West (270), which would give 54 degrees and shift the whole zoning.
To the left. The drawn line reads 2.4 and North is at 0, so North lies 2.4 degrees back toward the left.
Google Earth with the ruler works only on a laptop or PC. On a phone you can use a photo editing app instead: take the chakra image in PNG form, ask the client for a photo of the map and overlay the chakra on it, which needs some photo editing skill.
Draw a straight line upward from the centre. With a Shakti chakra, which has degrees printed on it, place it so that 2 falls on that line; North then lies two marks behind automatically. With a plain protractor, place it at the centre, count 2 degrees back and mark that line as North.
Not necessarily. A magnetic compass shows North directly, so its reading can be stated straight away, for example North 30 degrees toward East. Google Earth and the mobile app only show the heading of the line you draw, and North has to be worked out from it; a heading of 2.39 means North lies 2.39 degrees to the left.
Open the location in Google Earth with North set at the top and compare. If the plan looks identical, it is drawn at zero degrees and is zoned without rotating the chakra; about 90 percent of such tilted maps are drawn that way. If in doubt, rotate the map until one straight side is straight and take the tilt from that side.
Ask the engineer who draws the basic plan to show the surrounding roads, straighten the road in your map and take the road's degree. You can also use any parallel neighbouring building, since parallel buildings always read the same, ask the engineer which line the house will follow, or visit the spot.
If the plan came tilted and was not drawn to zero degrees, rotate the paper until one straight side of the plan is exactly straight, checking it against a straight line. Do the full zoning in that position, and only then turn the page back as it was.
A pad is one of the equal sections into which a plot is divided. For 81 pad vastu a house, for example 90 by 90 ft, is divided into 9 by 9 equal sections and each section is one pad; the larger grids, such as the 1000 pad grid, divide the plot into many more equal sections. Some areas such as the Brahmasthan cover several padas together even if the drawing does not show their inner divisions.