Most people who ask about Vastu today live in a flat. The texts they are reading about were written for something else: a house or a palace on its own plot, in a compound, in a village or a town. The gap between the two is large, and a good deal of modern advice glosses over it. This page is about the gap.
Its conclusion is a calm one. Some of the tradition does carry over, a little of it usefully. Much of it does not, and a flat in which the kitchen, the toilets and the front door are all in the positions the builder put them is not a flat with a defect.
What the classical texts were describing
The Brihat Samhita’s chapter on house-building talks about plots, squares on the ground, the level of the site, trees and wells, the gate of the house and the first foundation stone (53.42 to 53.125). The Manasara, in Acharya’s summary, lays out villages, towns and compounds, and places houses round the central square of a plot. It does have a run of chapters on buildings of different numbers of storeys, but they deal with temples and palaces and set out their own plans.
A flat as we know it, a unit on the seventh floor of a block on a shared plot, with a corridor, a lift and a stack of pipes behind the wall, is not described. That is not a criticism of the texts. It is a fact about what we are asking them.
What carries over
The bearing of the front door. A flat has a door, and it has a bearing you can take. The entrance checker works for a flat’s door the way it does for a house’s, with the caveat that the text’s results were written for a door on the outer wall of a house. A door onto a shared landing is a different thing. Read the result as a curiosity and not a verdict.
The direction you sleep. The one classical rule about sleeping, not with the head to the north or west (Brihat Samhita 53.124), applies to a bed wherever it is. It is one of the few rules that costs nothing in a flat.
A quiet place for worship. The tradition asks that the place of worship be set apart, clean and calm. A shelf or a corner in the north-east of the flat, or simply a quiet corner, satisfies it.
Ordinary good planning. The classical texts care about light, air, dry ground, drainage and not having a road or pit opposite the gate. All of these apply to a flat, and they are what a sensible buyer checks anyway.
What mostly does not
The room chart. The placing of the kitchen, toilets, stairs and bedrooms in particular corners assumes that you designed the house. In a flat you did not. The positions are set by the architect, the plumbing stack and the gas line. The classical source names only four rooms and their directions (53.118), and the rest of the familiar chart is modern convention, as the room-by-room article shows.
The plot and the slope. A flat has no plot of its own and no slope under it. The rules about soil, pits and the lie of the ground (53.92 and 53.115 to 53.117) belong to whoever owns the land and the building, and they are not yours to apply.
The centre of the building. Modern advice applies the mandala to the flat’s own floor plan and asks that the centre of the flat be open and light. The mandala applies to a plot. Whether it applies to a unit on a floor, to the floor, or to the whole building is a question on which practitioners give different answers, and the texts read for this site do not address it.
The building itself. A consultant may tell you that the building’s shape, its entrance road or the position of its lift is a defect. You cannot change those things, and the texts read here do not cover them.
The floor you live on
Popular advice sometimes favours certain floors. We found no classical verse on the subject and treat it as a modern preference. The Brihat Samhita’s rule that one should not sleep at a level higher than grain, cows, elders, fire and the gods (53.124) is about the level of a bed relative to a shrine in the same house, and is not a statement about floors in a block.
What does matter about a floor is ordinary: light, noise, a lift that works, water pressure, and not being under a leaking terrace.
Buying or renting
Flats are sometimes sold as “Vastu compliant”, occasionally at a premium. That is a matter for you and the seller. Three calm points may help. There is no single authority that certifies compliance, and consultants disagree with one another about what it requires. The classical texts read for this site do not address flats. And a flat you like, which is light, dry, well ventilated and affordable, is a better guide than a label.
If you want to be guided by the tradition, the most it reasonably asks is this: a front door that is not obstructed, a place for worship, a bed that points south or east, and a clean and airy home.
If your flat does not follow the chart
It does not, and it does not need to. The one thing we would not do is pay for a fix. The remedies article explains why.
Where the sources differ
- Which plan the mandala applies to. The plot, the building, the floor or the unit. Practitioners differ. The classical texts describe a plot.
- The entrance. Some guides judge the flat’s door, others the building’s gate. The Brihat Samhita’s result is for the gate of a house on its plot.
- Fixed services. No classical text addresses them. Modern writers give conflicting advice.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Does Vastu apply to a flat?
Partly. The classical texts describe a house on its own plot. The bearing of your front door, the direction you sleep and a quiet place for worship carry over. The room chart, the plot rules and the mandala of the whole building largely do not.
↳ My flat's kitchen is in the north-east. Is that a problem?
It is a very common situation and it is fixed by the building's plumbing and gas lines. The classical verse read for this site places the kitchen in the south-east (53.118) but names no consequence for another position. Good ventilation and safe gas handling matter more.
↳ Which floor is best in Vastu?
We found no classical verse about floors, and treat advice on the subject as modern preference. Light, quiet, water pressure and a working lift are better guides.
↳ Should I pay extra for a Vastu-compliant flat?
That is your decision. No authority certifies Vastu compliance, consultants disagree about what it requires, and the classical texts do not address flats. A flat that is light, dry and well ventilated serves you better than a label.
↳ Can I use the entrance checker for a flat?
Yes, for the bearing of your own front door, but read the result as a curiosity. The text's results were written for a gate on the outer wall of a house on its plot, not for a door onto a shared landing.
Sources
- Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita, chapter 53, verses 42 to 125, especially 92, 115 to 117, 118 and 124. English translation by N. Chidambaram Iyer (1884) at wisdomlib.org, compared with the translation by V. Subrahmanya Sastri (1946), scanned at archive.org.
- Prasanna Kumar Acharya, Summary of the Manasara, on villages, towns, compounds and the chapters on storied buildings.
- The observations about buying or renting and about consultants’ disagreements are this site’s own, offered as such.