Chapter Eight of the Vishwakarma Prakash contains one of the plainest rules in the whole book.
Begin a water body on a Sunday, and the reservoir dries up. On a Tuesday, the water drains out. On a Saturday, the water gets polluted.
Every other day is suitable.
Three days, three failures — and each one a real way that wells and tanks actually fail. Water that disappears, water that leaks away, water that turns foul. The text names the three things anyone who has dug a well fears most, and ties each to a day.
This is a summary of Chapter Eight of The Ancient Science of Vāstu I: The Vishwakarma Prakash Retold.
Water is treated like a building
The chapter opens by insisting that a water body — lake, pond, reservoir, cistern, well, underground or overhead tank — be planned with the same care as a house or a temple.
That means calculating aay and rinh, the same dimensional values used for a home in Chapter Two. The translation glosses them neatly as income and expenditure. A water body, like a household, has what comes in and what goes out, and both are to be accounted for before construction begins.
It also means choosing the month.
| Month begun | Result |
|---|---|
| Chaitra | Treasury |
| Vaishakh | Grains |
| Jyeshta | Fear |
| Ashadha | Grief and disaster |
| Shravan | Gratification |
| Bhadrapada | Fear |
| Ashwin | Disease |
| Kartik | Sorrow |
| Aghan | Popularity |
| Posha | Material wealth |
| Magha | Fear of fire |
| Falgun | Glory |
And the nakshatra: Rohini, all three Uttaras, Pushya, Anuradha, Shatabhisha, Magha, Dhanishta and Shravan are named as auspicious for beginning.
Shape matters
Water takes the form of whatever holds it, so the vessel's form is not incidental.
- Supreme — triangular, square, round
- Medium — bow, vase, pitcher
- Undesirable — snake, serpent, flag
The undesirable shapes share something: they are long and narrow, or irregular. Water held in such a form stagnates at the ends, is hard to clean, and cannot be drawn evenly. The favoured shapes are compact, and every part of them is reachable.
Where water belongs
The direction rule is clear.
East, North, Northeast and West are favourable. A water body placed there is said to bring happiness to the household.
Southwest, South, Southeast and Northwest are excluded.
And one rule stands above the rest: never make a water body in the middle of the house. The centre is the Brahmasthan — in the body-map of Chapter Five, it is the heart. Water there is water sitting on the heart.
The chapter adds a small detail that is easy to miss: if there is less water, it indicates a paucity of wealth. A reservoir that is chronically half-empty is read as a sign about the household it serves.
For the practical question most people are actually asking — where the overhead tank on a modern house should go, and why the southwest rule everybody follows has no scriptural source — see Where Does the Overhead Water Tank Go?
When the chart forbids it
Chapter Eight's astrological warnings are the starkest in the book, and they are worth reading for how directly they speak.
- Malefic planets in the fourth or eighth house, the ascendant debilitated, the Moon in the eighth — the death of the owner within a month.
- Malefics in the central, eighth, ninth or twelfth houses — the water dries up and the reservoir becomes barren in a few days.
- Saturn, Sun and Mars in central houses with the Moon in the eighth — the well may not last beyond a year.
- A malefic in the eighth, Rahu in the fourth, Mars in the ninth — the water stored is compared to poison.
And the favourable configurations are equally vivid. The Moon in the ascendant or in a water sign, with Jupiter, Venus or Mercury in the ascendant — a reservoir with pure and fragrant water, said to last forever. Mars in the third, Venus in the seventh, Sun in the sixth, Saturn in the eleventh — water like nectar.
Among ascendants, all are acceptable except Leo, Scorpio and Sagittarius. The commentary gives the general principle: begin when the ascendant is a water sign — Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces — and avoid beginning in a fire sign.
Laying the foundation
A water body receives its own Shilanyas, and it differs from a house in two telling ways.
It begins from the northeast, after paying homage to Nanda and the other foundation stones and to all the directions.
And the first deity honoured is Lord Varuna, the lord of the waters. The Purna stone is placed at the centre top of a holy urn, and the chants begin with Varuna before any other deity or planet is addressed. Only then does the ordinary Vastu Puja follow.
For a house, the Vastu Purush comes first. For water, the lord of water does.
Opening it
The inauguration, called Punha Muhurat, has its own conditions: the Sun in Uttarayan, the Sun sign Scorpio, any month except Chaitra, a full moon night, any date other than a Rikta tithi, and the day of an auspicious planet.
The Moon should be full and in a water sign. Jupiter in a central house, Venus in the first or seventh. And if Moon, Venus, Jupiter or Mercury is in its own sign or exalted, and placed in a trine or central house, the water is said to remain pure and long-lasting.
The last verse
After thirty-three verses of timing, direction, shape and planetary warning, the chapter closes on something different.
Any saintly person who constructs a public water reservoir will be blessed. He will have the pleasure of Lord Vishnu's company, till there is water on the earth.
Not a private tank. A public one.
The whole chapter has been about your water — your well, your tank, your household's supply. And it ends by pointing past the boundary wall, to water that anyone can drink, and naming that as the act with the longest reward of all.
In a country where a village well was once the difference between staying and leaving, that is not a sentimental ending. It is the most practical verse in the chapter.
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 reservoir dimensional method, the complete planetary configurations and the Shilanyas procedure summarised here.
The practical remedies for water placement in an existing home are in Vāstu Remedies: Manifest Your Dreams.
Earlier in this series: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 Part 1, Part 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.
Next: Chapter 9, Vriksh Chedan Vidhi — Wood Selection Method.
