ВАСТУВИДЬЯ И ЕЕ ВОСПРИЯТИЕ В НАШИ ДНИ

Abstract

A new teaching has been formed in our time based on vastuvidya, the ancient Indian teaching on construction. It has become incredibly popular all over the world, including Russia. This teaching is declared to be the primordial knowledge of how to harmonize space, more ancient and effective than even feng-shui. There are a huge number of design workshops, where consultations are given on how to choose a plot of land and build a house according to vastuvidya, how to harmonize the space of an apartment or office; there are vastuvidya schools, where seminars and courses are held; there even exist a brisk trade in so-called Vastu goods. The article compares modern ideas about Vastu with the Indian teaching of vastuvidya, such as t appears in ancient and medieval texts (Puranas). In the modern version of vastuvidya, recommendations for the organization of interiors are given based on the location of 45 gods and mythological creatures on Indian vastu-mandalas, known from ancient and medieval sources. At the same time, it is completely ignored that the creation of the vastu-mandalas related to the rites of consecration, and not with construction. They were created not as building plans, but as a field for performing vastu-puja and other rituals related to construction. Such rites were performed by Brahmins who had been schooled in appropriate knowledge and initiated. The article shows that initially vastuvidya had nothing to do with pop-culture, and its modern version only outwardly follows the ancient Indian tradition. It formed as a result of misunderstanding of an unusual, even alien culture and over time began to serve various kinds of commercial speculation.