Most Vastu advice about timing amounts to picking a good day. Chapter Three of the Vishwakarma Prakash does something considerably stranger.
It reads the planetary chart at the moment construction begins and, from it, states how long the building will stand. Eighty years. A hundred. Two hundred. In one configuration, a thousand.
Whatever you make of the claim, the underlying idea is worth sitting with: that the character of a beginning is carried by whatever it begins.
This is a summary of Chapter Three of The Ancient Science of Vāstu I: The Vishwakarma Prakash Retold.
The five parts
The whole chapter rests on the Panchang — literally “five limbs”: the date, the day, the nakshatra, the yoga (planetary combination) and the karana (motive and action). Every judgement in the chapter is assembled from these five.
The opening instruction is plain enough. Begin construction when the Moon occupies the Mrdu and Dhruv nakshatra groups, or Swati, Pushya, Dhanishta, Shatabhisha, Hasta, Mula or Punarvasu — and on a day ruled by an auspicious planet.
By day: every day except Sunday and Tuesday is suitable. Many scholars add Saturday to the exclusions, as Saturn's day, and the text notes the disagreement rather than settling it.
By tithi: the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th lunar days are favourable. The Rikta tithis are avoided in Vastu work as a matter of course.
And then a table that is unusually blunt about consequences — these are for entering a house, not merely building one:
| Tithi | Result |
|---|---|
| Pratipada (1st) | Penury |
| Chaturthi (4th) | Loss of wealth |
| Ashtami (8th) | Travel — an inability to stay at home |
| Navami (9th) | Injury by weapons |
| Chaturdashi (14th) | Harm to sons and the women of the house |
| Amavasya (new moon) | Trouble from government and litigation |
One further rule stands out for its specificity: do not begin work on columns or pillars during Panchak — the five nakshatras Dhanishta, Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati. Not the whole build. The columns.
The bull
Here the chapter turns to a device attributed to Vyasa, and it is the most vivid thing in it.
Imagine a bull. Place the nakshatra the Sun currently occupies at the start, and lay the following twenty-seven around the animal's body — three at the head, four at the front limbs, four at the hind limbs, three along the back, four at the right belly, three on the tail, four at the left belly, four at the face. Twenty-eight in all, counting Abhijit.
Now find where the Moon falls. Whichever part of the bull it lands on tells you what building at that moment will bring:
| Count from Sun to Moon | Body part | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Head | Fire hazard |
| 4–7 | Front limbs | Migration — leaving the country |
| 8–11 | Hind limbs | Stability |
| 12–14 | Back | Monetary gain |
| 15–18 | Right belly | Gains |
| 19–21 | Tail | The owner's downfall |
| 22–25 | Left belly | Poverty |
| 26–28 | Face | Constant distress |
The arithmetic is simple enough to do on paper. If the Sun sits in Pushya (6th on the list) and the Moon in Uttara Phalguni (10th), the difference is four — the front limbs, and therefore migration.
What the bull really provides is a memory device. A farmer or mason who could not read a chart could hold an animal in mind and count.
The lifespan of a house
And now the passage that makes this chapter unlike anything else in the book.
The text gives a series of planetary configurations, and for each one, a number of years the house will stand.
- A hundred years — Jupiter in the first house, Sun in the sixth, Mercury in the seventh, Venus in the fourth, Saturn in the third. Or: Venus in the first, Mercury in the tenth, Sun in the eleventh, Jupiter in a central house.
- Eighty years — Jupiter in the fourth, Moon in the tenth, Mars and Sun in the eleventh.
- Two hundred years — Venus in the first, Jupiter in the fifth, Mars in the sixth, Sun in the third. Or Jupiter and Venus together in the first, Mars in the sixth, Sun in the eleventh. Or, more generally, auspicious planets exalted and sitting in central houses.
- A thousand years — Venus exalted in Pisces and in the first house; or Jupiter exalted in Cancer in the fourth; or Saturn exalted in Libra in the eleventh.
The inverse also has its verses. An ascendant lord in the company of malefics, with no aspect from Jupiter or Venus, and the house does not pass eighty years. Saturn in the first and Mars in the seventh, unaspected by any benefic, and it struggles past a hundred. A weak Moon in the first with Mars in the eighth, and it does not last long at all.
For prosperity rather than mere endurance, the text is equally particular: the Moon in the first house in Cancer, Jupiter in a central house, other planets exalted or in friendly signs — and Goddess Lakshmi, it says, stays till eternity.
When not to strike the first blow
Alongside the long list of ominous yogas — Yamitra, Vedh, Upgraha, Ekargal, Lata, Krakach and the rest, each defined in the chapter — there are warnings of a much more concrete kind.
Fire. If Mars occupies Magha, Mula, Pushya, Purva Phalguni, Hasta or Revati, construction must not begin: the result is a fire hazard. If Mars sits in Mula, Revati, Krittika, Purva Shada, Purva Phalguni, Hasta or Magha and the day is Tuesday, the text says the house is destroyed by fire and the children suffer. And if both Sun and Moon are in Krittika, the house burns down.
Three separate verses on fire. In a tradition building largely in timber and thatch, that is not superstition talking. It is the most likely way to lose a building, and the text returns to it until you have heard.
Time of day. Do not begin at midday or midnight — both signal loss of wealth for the owner. Avoid dawn and dusk too. The workable hours are the ordinary ones in between.
By ascendant. Capricorn, Scorpio and Cancer signal loss. Aries, Libra and Sagittarius indicate the build will drag on unfinished. Virgo, Pisces and Gemini are promising. Aquarius, Leo and Taurus are held to be axiomatic — reliably fine.
For water bodies the rule differs: begin when the ascendant is a masculine sign, or when Jupiter aspects the ascendant — with Aquarius excluded from the calculation.
Planet by planet, house by house
The chapter closes with a long catalogue: each planet, in each of the twelve houses, at the moment of beginning, and what it brings. A few give its flavour.
Jupiter in the first house fulfils every wish. Venus there bestows a male child. Mercury there means lifelong skill and talent. But the Sun in the first leaves the structure prone to lightning strike, the Moon there diminishes wealth, Mars brings death, Saturn brings penury.
The third house is called beneficial for every planet without exception — the only house of which that is said.
Jupiter in the fourth brings recognition from those above you. Venus in the fourth brings land. But Mars in the fourth reveals a secret, and the Moon there costs a person their senses.
It runs on like this through all twelve. Read as prediction it is overwhelming. Read as a checklist, it is doing something simpler: making the builder examine a single moment from every angle available before committing.
What the chapter is actually for
Strip away the machinery and one instruction remains, stated in the very first verse: only after knowing the auspicious time, go ahead with the construction.
Every rule here has the same effect. It slows you down. It makes you consult a calendar, count nakshatras, look at a chart, ask someone who knows, and wait for a window. In the interval, plans get reconsidered, money gets counted, and the decision gets made twice instead of once.
A tradition that assigns your house a lifespan on the day you start is telling you, in the strongest terms it has, that the beginning is not a formality.
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 the full Vastu Chakra diagram, the yoga definitions, the complete planet-by-house tables and the D9 charts summarised here.
Earlier in this series: Chapter 1 — Before the First Brick, and Chapter 2 in two parts: Your House Has a Horoscope and Sixteen Ways to Lay Out a Home.
Next: Chapter 4, Griha Vah Shayan Vichar — Home and Bedroom Consideration.
