Somewhere in Chapter Seven of the Vishwakarma Prakash, between the astronomy and the proportions, sits a rule I have never seen quoted anywhere else.
Rahu occupies a different direction each day of the week. And if your main door faces the direction Rahu occupies that day, the text says: do not set out on a journey.
Rahu sits in the southwest on Sunday, the north on Monday, the southeast on Tuesday, the west on Wednesday, the northeast on Thursday, the south on Friday, the northwest on Saturday.
So a north-facing door means Monday is not your day to travel. Nothing to install, nothing to buy. Just a note about which morning to leave later.
This is a summary of Chapter Seven of The Ancient Science of Vāstu I: The Vishwakarma Prakash Retold.
Fifteen methods, and an honest admission
The chapter gives fifteen separate configurations for determining where a door belongs — by month, by the Sun's sign, by lunar date, by nakshatra, by the pad it falls on, by its relationship to the plot gate, by Rahu.
And then it says something scriptures rarely say: following the complete set is probably impossible, and one should strive to follow as many as one can.
That single admission tells you how to read the whole chapter. It is not a checklist to pass. It is a set of lenses, and the more you look through, the better your chances.
The three Vastu Purush
Before any of the methods make sense, one thing has to be clear — and most popular Vastu never mentions it.
The Vastu Purush is applied in three modes:
- Sthir — fixed. His head is perpetually in the northeast. This is the one everybody knows.
- Char — movable. He rotates every three months, beginning from the east.
- Nitya — daily. The circle completes every twenty-four hours.
So when the text says a door should face the direction of the Vastu Purush's face, it is talking about the moving one, not the fixed one. Which gives the seasonal table:
| Period | Indian months | Face, and door |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug – 15 Nov | Bhadrapada, Ashwin, Kartik | East |
| 16 Nov – 12 Feb | Margshirsh, Posh, Magh | South |
| 13 Feb – 14 May | Phalgun, Chaitra, Vaishakh | West |
| 15 May – 16 Aug | Jyeshta, Ashadha, Shravan | North |
Much of the confusion in popular Vastu comes from applying one mode's rule while quoting another's. The three are not alternatives; they answer different questions.
Thirty-two doors, each with a name
This is the heart of the chapter. Under Padavinyasa the perimeter divides among thirty-two deities, and your door sits on one of them. Each has a stated result.
The favourable ones:
| Pad | Result |
|---|---|
| Jayant | Windfall profits |
| Mahendra | Blessing and patronage of the king |
| Grihakshat | Many children |
| Pushpdant | Progress |
| Mukhya | Wealth and progeny |
| Bhallat | Immense wealth |
| Soma | A religious and spiritual life |
| Parjanya | Abounding women |
And the ones to avoid:
| Pad | Result |
|---|---|
| Shikhi | Fire hazard |
| Surya | The owner becomes irate |
| Satya | Untruthfulness and deceit |
| Antriksh | Repeated theft |
| Vayu | Calamity to sons |
| Yama | Loss of calm |
| Gandharva | The man of the house may lose his life |
| Bhringraj | Loss of wealth |
| Mrigya | Loss of progeny |
| Varuna | Anger and prodigality |
| Rog | Health problems and disease |
| Naga | Constant fear of enemies |
| Bhujang | Innumerable rivals |
Two notes the text adds. A door straddling two pads gives mixed results. And a four-sided fortress with doors on all sides has no door defect at all, whatever pad they fall on — which is a sensible exemption for a building whose purpose is access from every side.
It also says that for a house with many doors, this calculation governs the main one, and for a verandah door there are no fixed rules.
What must not stand in front of a door
Dvar Vedh is obstruction, and the chapter's list is specific about what causes it.
- A road running directly to the door. The text says a person of means will not build a main door with a passage leading straight at it — easy road access is named as a defect bringing misery and disease.
- A tree at the entrance — Taru vedh, associated with loss of a young son and numerous illnesses.
- A well in front, which the Matsya Purana links to epilepsy.
- Water flowing beneath the door — called disastrous.
- A temple facing the door. Teenagers and young children suffer. And if it is a temple of Lord Shiva or Lord Brahma whose door faces the house door, the text says it destroys the entire lineage.
Then two placement rules that contradict each other in the best way. A door at the centre of a home destroys prosperity — it blocks the flow of air, causes disputes and grief. A home's door should sit to the left of the central line, seen from inside out.
For a temple, it is the opposite. The door belongs at the centre.
A house and a temple are not the same kind of building, and the text refuses to treat them as though they were.
Do not cut a door through a wall
One verse stands out for having a purely structural explanation attached:
One who seeks prosperity shall not demolish or carve out a door through a wall.
And the reasoning given is exactly what a structural engineer would say — breaking a wall to insert a door weakens the wall and puts additional load on the frame. If you must, reinforce it.
No planetary machinery. Just: that wall is holding something up.
Energising the threshold
For renovations, the instruction is short and practical: insert a swastika at the base of the main entrance. The Vedic Vastu texts agree that the door's foundation should be energised with a kalash and a gold swastika.
And on ornament, the chapter draws a distinction worth keeping:
- The main door should be decorated and pleasing, and larger than the others. The name of Pramatha — a gana of Lord Shiva — is invoked there.
- Back doors, especially south and west, should carry no ornamentation at all. But they should be spacious and easy to use.
Decorate what people arrive through. Make functional what people pass through.
When to lay the door
Briefly, since the chapter gives a great deal:
Good nakshatras for laying the door's foundation: Ashwini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Shada, Uttara Bhadrapada, Vishakha, Shravan, Mrigashira, Swati, Revati, Rohini.
Good tithis: Panchami grows wealth; Saptami, Nanda and Ashtami are auspicious. Avoid Pratipada (misery), Dwitiya (loss of cash, livestock, progeny), Tritiya (disease), Chaturthi (destroys well-being), Shashti (destroys generations), Dashami (loss of wealth), Amavasya (friction).
Avoid Panchak, Tripushkar Yog, and Monday with the Moon in Krittika.
And one small warning with a practical edge: do not stock timber for the door, or do drilling work, in Magha or with the Sun in Leo. The stated risk is fire.
Why this chapter matters most
Of the thirteen chapters, this is the one a person living in a finished house can actually use.
You cannot re-choose your land or re-time your construction. But you can find which pad your door sits on. You can clear the pole, the bin and the overgrown tree standing in front of it. You can put a proper threshold treatment at the base. You can decorate the door you arrive through, and stop treating it as the place shoes accumulate.
And on a Monday, if your door faces north, you can leave a little later.
Read the full text
The Ancient Science of Vāstu I: The Vishwakarma Prakash Retold carries all 13 chapters and 1,400+ verses in English — including all fifteen door-position methods, the Dwar Chakra, the complete 32-pad table and the door proportion rules summarised here.
For the entrance itself, the Astamangal and the Kirtimukha Nazar Battu are the traditional treatments described in this text.
Related: Is the Northeast Entrance Really the Best? takes up the padas in detail, and Why Ganesha Is Worshipped First looks at the threshold he guarded.
Earlier in this series: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 Part 1, Part 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.
Next: Chapter 8, Jalashay Vichar — Reservoir Contemplation.
