A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: "Vishvakarma Darpan", 1969

Author(s): Vibhuti Sachdev

Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Jul., 2005, Third Series, Vol. 15, No. 2
(Jul., 2005), pp. 165-178
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Great Britain and Ireland

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 A Vastu Text in the Modern Age:

Vishvakarma Darpan, 1969*

VIBHUTI SACHDEV

1969 was a time of some introspection for the architectural profession in India.1 Th
of bold architecture that Nehru had nurtured so personally was now in full bloom.
after all, a decade since he had urged architects to break the shackles of tradition in
of Chandigarh - an experiment to embolden the spirit of New India. There was a
sense of relief from professionally trained architects, because for them this political su
meant that they could now do what they did best. Not out of choice, but training
were freed from the burden of addressing tradition, and they could now address
design. This was also the time when many were 'returning home' after training in E
and American schools, and were putting into practice what they had learnt abroa
'foreign-returned' were the 'real' architects who took upon themselves the task of ed
their clients, and changing the face of India. They were 'real' also because only they
first-hand experience of what was being taught from books in architecture schools a
India. With scholarship schemes set up by the Nehru government facilitating archi
study in America, it was there that many young architects went to complete their edu
Once back they would set their euphoria in concrete and glass. And by 1969 there
already quite a few examples of American-inspired designs in the portfolio of Moder
and its novelty was beginning to wear off.
Meanwhile, away from the mainstream enthusiasm for Modern architectur
publication of the sixteenth edition of an illustrated text called the Asli or 'real' Vish
Darpan in August 1969, although ignored by the 'real' architects, caught up w
popularity of'American' designs. Its publisher, Bhai Buta Singh - Pratap Singh of Am

* The illustrations shown here reflect the poor quality of the original.
1 This article is an outcome of a workshop-based research project (2000-2001) funded by the Arts and Hu
Research Board of the U.K. The project, convened by Partha Mitter and Craig Clunas at the University o
was devoted to considering 'Textual Sources and Value Systems in the Arts of India and China', bringing
scholars engaged in developing an indigenous critical approach to Indian and Chinese art, free from
centred tools and values, to share their techniques and approaches to their material. The issues raised in di
related to professional and textual hierarchies, canons, golden ages, Sinology/Indology and Orientalism, n
the indigenous, dominant texts and mainstream practices, relationship between theory and practice, and instit
patterns of scholarship. My article questions the model - set up by current art historians - of separate insular
of the textual tradition of theory, and its practice; and of the various specialists that participate in the wider in
and practical aspects of architectural design. I question the notion of hierarchy established by identifying mai
and dominant practices, which denies agency and authority to different streams of production. In doing so, I
in detail a modern architectural text conceived in a stream that no longer enjoyed the privilege of institu
political support within the prevailing architectural scenario.
- See: Vikram Bhatt and Peter Scriver for a full account of architectural practice in the 1960S-7OS in,
Masters: contemporary Indian Architecture (Ahmedabad, 1990), pp. 15-23.

JRAS, Series j, 15, 2 (2005), pp. 165-178 ? The Royal Asiatic Society 2005
doi: 10.1017/S13 56186305004979 Printed in the United Kingdom

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 166 Vibhuti Sachdev

specialised in text books on subjects ranging from building construction, and drawing, to
electrical guides, and manuals on how to make your own radio set. The Vishvakarma Darpan
adopts the generic title of the divine architect, linking itself to the Vishvakarma School,
which had produced texts since at least the tenth century. Its author, Gyan Singh Mistri,
presents himself as a builder, reminding one of Mandan Sutradhar, a fifteenth-century builder
and writer of several texts on architecture and sculpture.
Let us look briefly at Mandan Sutradhar s text on architecture. Called the Vasturajavallabh3
(also known as Rajavallabh), and written in Sanskrit, this work is composed of 14 chapters
and also belongs to the Vishvakarma School. The topics discussed in the text follow a
layout roughly similar to earlier Vastu Shastras.4 Commencing with the usual invocation of
Vishvakarma among other Gods, it proceeds to discuss site-shape, declivity of site, soil tests,
units of measurement, Vastupurusha Mandala, Ayadi and astrological considerations, and the
construction of forts, palaces and houses. The discussion of these topics, however, benefits
from its writer's expertise as a Sutradhar or a draughtsman/builder. In fact, he devotes a
whole chapter to geometrical construction of various shapes. The typology and building
materials he discusses are what he was probably using, and were prevalent at the time he was
practising in the court of Rana Kumbha of Chitor, his king-patron.5
There was no such royal patron for Gyan Singh Mistri, and how does his work compare
with that of his predecessor? Vishvakarma Darpan is in three colloquial languages: Gurmukhi,
Hindi and Urdu. The textual part of the book is in the form of doha or couplets, chaupai or
verses of four lines, and prose, without any use of Sanskrit. Opening with a long propitiation
of Vishvakarma, his attributes and tools, the author then gives a brief account of the
examination of soil using the standard test involving a pit of one hasta6 in width, length
and depth. The declivity of the site is considered, where its slope towards the northern and
eastern directions are preferred. The land is categorised in terms of the four jatis or castes
according to the colour, smell, and the taste of its soil. The author recommends sites that
match the owner's jati. This is followed by the method of calculating the aya of the house
using the owner's hasta; calculation of the muhurta or the auspicious time for the laying of
the foundation, and rahu vichar for placing the first door of the house; the effect on the
house of the month of its commencement; and the auspicious time for the first entry into
new and old houses. This section of the text, albeit concise, has a strong resonance with
other texts of the Vishvakarma school, such as the Rajavallabh. Next, he tabulates the weight
of materials such as bricks, timber, concrete, plate glass and steel, in the unit of pounds per
square foot; and the compressive and tensile strength of materials. He then explains briefly
the techniques of stone and brick masonry; plastering; flooring of brick, Agra stone and
timber; roofing; and the calculation of rates per volume of mud and concrete. He ends the
text with recipes for the preparation of varnishes and paints.

3 Ramyatna Ojha (ed. and tr.),Vasturajavallahh,11 edn. (Kashi,i934)

See: Vibhuti Chakrabarti (Sachdev) for an overview of Vastu Shastra texts in, Indian Architectural Theory:
Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya (Surrey, 1998).
5 See: Rima Hooja for more on Mandan and his patron in "Of Buildings and Books: The Theory and Practice
of the Architect Mandan" in Stones in the Sand: Tlie Architecture of Rajasthan.Edited by Giles Tillotson, (Mumbai,
2001), pp. 12-27.
6 Hasta or forearm is a standard measurement unit of about eighteen inches.

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 A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: Vishvakarma Darpan, ig6g 167

Fig. i. Tools. Fig. 2. Ganesh Chaal Dordaar.

What follows is the major part of the Vishvakarma Darpan, numerous illustrations, some
competent and some weak. There are thirteen plates of illustrations of tools for building
construction (Fig. i), and how to use them. This is followed by sixty-six plates showing the
geometric construction of motifs (Fig. 2). Each of these plates is divided into three horizontal
sections, with Vishvakarma positioned in the top section with his tools and holding the
Vishvakarma Darpan in one of his four arms. The middle section has the motif in its various
stages of geometric construction, and the lowest section has the generic name of the motif
with the rules of its construction in three languages. For example, the pattern of Ganesh
Chaal Dordaar is explained in a drawing, that shows the various stages of its construction,
and the rules of its subdivision are explained in the text in the lower section of the plate. The
name of the pattern is a standard reference to a particular design also indicating, to those
familiar with the indigenous terminology, a specific way of subdividing space. So this is an
illustration of the method of a pattern, which could respond to the dimensions of any given
space.
Next, are five plates of naag chakras motifs of intertwined serpents (Fig. 3), arranged within
the same format of three sections. The next twelve plates of wooden joinery (Fig. 4) have
no textual explanation, and the various timber joints are in isometric drawing, in the style
of modern building construction books. This is followed by ten plates explaining the design

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 168 Vibhuti Sachdev

si { I / j jJ
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Fig. 3. Naag Chakra. Fig. 4. Wooden Joinery

of borders, twenty-five plates of various flowers, and a lion's head, some indigenous names
are included. Some of these borders and stylised flowers are standard features of traditional
design, and their names represent the technical vocabulary followed by craftsmen of northern
India today. For example, pohchi (Fig. 5), or 'lower border' is used as a plinth marker (Fig. 6);
while a motif called the chugga ka phool (Fig. 7) is a particular flower that marks the centre
of an arch. Then, there are six plates of decorative door surrounds (Fig. 8); ten plates on
the headboards of beds, and chairs and their backs (Fig. 9). The author resumes the earlier
format of three horizontal sections with textual explanation of rules for the next eighteen
plates on pinjara or jaalh (Fig. 10). The next nine plates are on door panels and ventilators
(Fig. 11); followed by twenty-four plates on chairs, tables, bureaux, and 'fancy' furniture
(Fig. 12); one plate on tools for laying floors, and seven plates on flooring patterns; seven
plates on tools for masonry and on brick masonry. All these are arranged in a loose format
with minimal textual explanation.
The next sixteen plates on the construction of arches (Fig. 13), and the thirty-two plates
on building features make use of both text and drawing, and of indigenous names. There are
two plates on fireplaces (Fig. 14), and six plates on staircases and railings. The next section

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A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: Vishvakarma Darpan, ig6g 169

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Fig. 5. Pohchi.

J?cv*^ - "' fill

Fig. 6. Pohchi and Chugga in the Ramachandra Temple, Jaipur.

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 170 Vibhuti Sachdev

Fig. 7. Chugga Flower. Fig. 8. Door Surround.

is largely of text and a few drawings on carpentry (Fig. 15), lathe work and the preparation
of colours, followed by ten plates on the art of drawing (Fig. 16). Next, are eight plates on
building elements such as an angrezi (English) window (Fig. 17), brackets, and a curious clock
tower with a cross, called a bangala. The illustrations culminate in a series of forty-four plates
on 'American' designs in perspective and plan, fulfilling the promise made on the cover of
the book "included in this edition are many new American building designs" (Fig. 18).
The degree of competence with which Gyan Singh Mistri explains the designs seems
directly proportional to his familiarity with the subject, and to some degree captures
the aspirations of local builders 'looking up to' the trained Modern architects. He has
included examples of wooden joinery imitating details in building construction books,
'fancy' furniture, an English hearth, and around four dozen examples of modern American
buildings. In dealing with these less familiar subjects, Mistri adopts an isometric view for
illustration and avoids any discussion of their method of design. It would be near impossible
for any aspiring builder to learn about 'foreign' design from these illustrations, although their
inclusion may provide a touch of Modernity for builders working on the fringes of urban
architectural practice.

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 A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: Vishvakarma Darpan, iq6q 171

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Fig. 9. Chair. Fig. 10. Pinjara.

Books like the Vishvakarma Darpan are still in circulation amongst some carpenters and
masons. Not everyone in India can afford the services of an architect, or feels the necessity
to employ one. Often in the urban fringes, the mason in consultation with the owner of the
house is the designer, which is where such reference manuals are used. For the practitioner
this collection of drawings works both as a catalogue of possibilities, and a portfolio of his
expertise, giving him credibility and association with the Vishvakarma school. The text under
discussion was in use in 1995 by a builder, originally from Rajasthan, constructing a house
in Delhi. His client, who was not familiar with indigenous traditional design terminology,
could, by referring to the book, understand what the builder meant if he said, for example,
that he could make the trellis in Ganesh Chaal Dordaar. Therefore, the purpose of the text is
three fold: dissemination, promotion, and discussion.
This is very similar to what the Bombay architect Claude Batley had imagined the role
of his published album on Indian architecture to be.7 In 1934, he and his students produced
a collection of measured drawings in "an endeavour to meet a need which everyone who
has set out to study the elements of Indian Architecture must have felt". Moreover, the

7 Claude Batley, The Design Development of Indian Architecture, (London, 1973) (1st edn. 1934).

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 172 Vibhuti Sachdev

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Fig. 11. Trellis for light. Fig. 12. 'Fancy' Furniture.

album was to provide inspiration to architects practising in India, by treating the subject not
from an "archaeological", but from the "architectural or constructional viewpoint".8 The
drawings are of a superlative quality, and the plates provide plans, elevations and sections
of various 'Hindu' and 'Mohamedan' buildings drawn to scale in feet and inches. Plate 47
(Fig. 20) is composed of 12 panels of patterns in elevation and plan from the so-called Raja
Birbal's house in Fatehpur Sikri. "The patterns are similar to those used for the pierced
stone jails throughout India by the Mohamedans".9 These are very accurate pictures of the
panels, but for an understanding of the derivation of the patterns the reader will have to
infer and speculate, because the drawings do not explain how these patterns were arrived
at. The emphasis is on accuracy and appearance and not on method of design, so that the
'inspiration' it promises to provide could barely stretch beyond imitation. Incidentally, most
of these designs are included in the Vishvakarma Darpan, with the indigenous names of the
patterns and their derivations. Although not of comparable quality, Gyan Singh Mistri s
drawings succeed in the aim of imparting the method of design, which is what Batley's
compilation falls short of.

8 Ibid., p. 7
9 Ibid., p. is

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 A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: Vishvakarma Darpan, ig6g 173

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Fig. 13. Arches. Fig. 14. 'Angrezi' Angithi.

Before Batley, Swinton Jacob had compiled a portfolio of building details from the region
of Jaipur, the famous Jeypore Portfolio (1890?1913). The aim ? which the Vishvakarma Darpan
achieves without a conscious assertion ? was that of educating the craftsman, and presenting
drawings of parts of old buildings that could be used in new design. Jacob s portfolio is
invaluable as an accurate documentation of building details in the units of feet and inches,
but lacks any engagement with the design method and theory that produced the wonderful
examples of buildings he so admired.
Through their drawings, Batley and Jacob engaged with Indian architecture from within
the prevailing mainstream - and that is clearly visible from their tools of documentation.
Their level of engagement with traditional architecture, in so far as it tells us anything about
the method of design, is similar to Mistri's engagement with modern design. Like Batley
who hoped to inspire architects through images that evoke surprise and amazement, Mistri
too hoped to astonish and amaze his colleagues with American design. Each worked within
their individual streams of Modern architecture and Vastu Vidya respectively.
If the mainstream is to be determined by the institutional and the political support
that a professional practice enjoys, then Gyan Singh Mistri's work is easily ignored. The
information on Modern architecture that he projects in his book is ill-digested, useless as

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 174 Vihhuti Sachdev

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Fig. 15. Carpentry. Fig. 16. Art of drawing.

a tool for training in Modern design. But the work is mainstream if what is considered is
the stream of Vastu Vidya. The chosen format with a clear echo of Rajavallabh and other
texts of the Vishvakarma school indicates Mistri's bid to place himself in the centre of that
mainstream - and to include the latest developments and trends of Modernism around him.
It is a measure of Mistri's training in Vastu Vidya as the prevailing mainstream that he can
make a space within it for new fashions of design. There are many masons in India who are
not trained as architects, many who have learnt their skills from master craftsmen, trained
within the world-view of Vastu Vidya, who are hopeless at pouring concrete but remarkably
dexterous at carving intricate panels, who are successful in satisfying their near-rich clients
catering to their architectural fantasies, who are not a threat to architects' monopoly over the
profession, but who have the potential to flower if allowed to work on their own ground. It
is the needs of such fellow builders that this book addresses.
So, what kind of buildings do these fellow builders build? The architect and writer
K.T. Ravindran eloquently sums up their architecture as "a monster baby of the popular
paradigms of the main city and a fractured version of the traditional sensibilities with its own
characteristic vocabulary drawn from the immediate historic and cultural contexts. It ranges

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 A Vastu Text in the Modern Age: Vishvakarma Darpan, ig6g 175

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Fig. 17. 'Angrezi' three sided window. Fig. 18. American Design with 'plan'.

from the most boring, drab nondescript box to a celebration of kitsch and bizarre . . ."1() But
that is not how their clients would describe them, who after all have commissioned these
designs. To them it is an extension of their hopes and aspirations. These buildings respond
to the images of Modern design, disengaged from its language ? images that are collated by
them in their trips to the city, from architectural journals, and locally from the written and
professional works of fellow builders. Their practice of modern design is no more bizarre
than the cultivated responses to traditional architecture that their city-counterparts exercise.
But, just as not all Modern design is about sticking jharokhas and chhajjas over a clean concrete
box, so not all of Mistri s works are about rendering a cacophony in a modern manner. With
the guild system collapsed, and the demand for old style low, work is hard to come by. Once
in a while, in the context of a conservation project, one can witness the talents of a Mistri
shine. One can see them slake lime so fine that it takes over six months to prepare. And, when
a lack-lustre dado panel is revived to its former glory and polished with coconut oil, the
result is a finish that competes in brightness with the glitter of hope. In two closely studied
conservation projects in Amber and Jaipur in the 1990s, I found that the craftsmen involved
in restoring the buildings used terminologies and processes, some of which are elaborated

10 K. T. Ravindran, "Indigenous India", The Architectural Review, CLXXXII. 1086 (London, 1987), pp. 63-64.

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 176 Vihhuti Sachdev

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Fig. 19. American Design with 'plan'.

in the Vishvakarma Darpan. It is not as if they were referring to the text on

themselves of the vocabulary, but it indicates that the text shares the same k
that they had internalised through their training. It does not make the text
enhances our chances of understanding those buildings. For us, it adds ano
learning that complements the buildings themselves and the practitioners. Fo
of the more remote past, it is not possible to speak to their creators, and in
makes the role of the available texts even more valuable, if not fundamental,
pre-modern design.
Apart from the role of such texts today, Vishvakarma Darpan sheds light o
Vastu Shastras in general. The inclusion of drawing as a part of the text, thou
genre, is facilitated by the ease of printing, and compensates for the growing la
visual language. It questions the model that Vastu Shastras are written by B
secret code of Sanskrit to be shared with other Brahmins. Of course, Brah
been the writers of some of the Vastu Vidya texts, but Mandan Sutradhar, l
Mistri, was first and foremost a builder. Texts on the ritual ceremonies con
various stages of building are as much a part of the corpus of Vastu Vidya as

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 ST ?
I S* CO I < ft 3t

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Fig. 20. Plate 47 (Batley, 1973).

MOHAMECfcN PANCUUNG

* I

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 178 Vibhuti Sachdev

construction of houses. Their authors may not have understood each other, or may not even
have read each other's work, but they are both equally valuable as writers on architecture.
After all, how many building contractors understand the nuances of a post-modern design
even if they are involved in building one? Equally, how many architects would be able to
install electrical fittings into the buildings that they, themselves, design? Each has a different
role in the profession, and if they are also writers, may write different types of texts. A text
by a Sutradhar is not more important than a text by a Brahmin scholar, but may emphasise
different aspects of the practice. Therefore, a hierarchical view of a body of texts on a shared
system of architecture misreads the nature of the profession, and misjudges the relationship
between theory and practice.
This is not to suggest that one can project the use of a text like the Vishvakarma Darpan11
onto the uses of the texts of the past. But, if what links the theory and practice is the
knowledge base of their expressions as texts and buildings, then there remains little ground
for dismissing the role of one or the other in our understanding of architecture - of any
period. And if against all odds of political and institutional marginalisation, a text like the
Vishvakarma Darpan is, with whatever degree of success, able to carve a niche for itself, then
the chances are that in a climate of a shared world view and under a strong patronage, the
role of theoretical texts in the past will have been no less important.

References

Bhatt, Vikram and Peter Scriver, After the Masters: Contemporary Indian Architecture (Ahmedabad, 1990).
Batley, Claude, The Design Development of Indian Architecture (London, 1973), III edn., 1st edn. (1934).
Chakrabarti Sachdev, Vibhuti, Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya (Surrey,
1998).
Hooja, Rima, 'Of Buildings and Books: The Theory and Practice of the Architect Mandan', in Stones
in the Sand: The Architecture of Rajasthan, ed. Giles Tillotson (Mumbai, 2001).
Jacob, Samuel Swinton, Thefeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details (London, 1890?93).
Ojha, Ramyatna (ed. and tr.), Vasturajavallabh, Kashi (1934), II edn.
Ravindran, K.T., 'Indigenous India', Tlie Architectural Review, CLXXXII. 1086 (London, 1987).
Sachdev, Vibhuti, 'In a Maze of Lines: the theory of design of Jaalis', South Asian Studies, Vol. 19,
(2003).
Singh, Mistri Gyan, Vishvakarma Darpan (Amritsar, 1969).

11 For a study of three other indigenous texts on Jaali patterns (Jaal Kaumudi, 1891; Geometrical Patterns, 1893;^/
Vigyan, 1953), see Sachdev, 2003, pp. 141-155.

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