Vastu Dosh (Vastu Dosha): Meaning, Signs and How to Check

A vastu dosh (vastu dosha) is a defect in how a house is placed or built: something straight opposite the main door, a missing corner, a pillar on a vital point of the site, an object buried in the ground, or a house not squared to the directions. That is how the old Vastu texts use the word, and for each defect they state the result they expected. Dosha means a fault, and in Vastu Shastra (also spelt Vaastu) the faults are physical: you find them by looking at the building.

None of it is a reason for fear: among its tests of a site, the Brihat Samhita says any site is auspicious for a person whose heart feels happy there (53.95).

Vastu dosh meaning: what "dosha" means in the old texts

The defects come mainly from the Brihat Samhita, Varahamihira's sixth-century work, whose chapter 53 is on house-building, and from the Matsya Purana (chapters 252-257). Later Vastu treatises add more: the Mayamata, the Manasara, the Vishvakarma Prakasha and the Samarangana Sutradhara (attributed to King Bhoja, eleventh century), which gives a whole chapter (48) to the defects of houses.

Behind most of them is one picture. The site is the body of the Vastu Purusha, a being the devas pinned face down on the ground, his head in the north-east, the Ishanya corner (Brihat Samhita 53.2-3, 53.51). The site is drawn as a grid over his body, the Vastu Purusha mandala, and a house should not wound him: a pillar on a vital point or a part cut away counts as an injury to his body. Other faults, such as something straight in front of the door, are judged on their own.

For each defect the texts state a result, written for a house in a world of kings and granaries: loss of money and corn, trouble from the king, fear of robbers. We give the gentler ones here and leave out the rest.

The defects the texts actually list

• Something opposite the main door. A road, a tree, a corner, a well, a pillar or a water channel in front of the door is a fault; farther away than twice the height, it does no harm (Brihat Samhita 53.76). The Matsya Purana calls this vedha, "piercing" (255.10-14), and the Samarangana Sutradhara dvara-vedha (39.56). A road running straight at the door is marga-vedha in the Vishvakarma Prakasha (7.79-80): the classical root of today's veedhi shoola (vithi shula), a name not found in these texts.
• A hurt vital point (marma). The points where the grid's diagonals cross, and the exact middles of its squares, are marmas; a pillar, nail or peg set on one is a fault, and the text says the owner feels it in the matching part of his body (Brihat Samhita 53.57-58). The marmas are points on the site's grid, so this is a check for whoever plans and builds the house.
• The centre. The middle of the site, the brahmasthan, belongs to Brahma. The Brihat Samhita asks that it be kept clean of dirt and leftover food (53.66). The later texts go further and keep it unbuilt: no main building on it (Mayamata 26.2a), no dwelling (Manasara XXXVI.15), no pillar and no wall (Vishvakarma Prakasha 7.108-110).
• Something buried (shalya). Buried wood brings loss of wealth; bone, disease and harm to cattle; and a heap of husk blocks the coming of wealth (Brihat Samhita 53.60-62, M. Ramakrishna Bhat's translation; the husk line is missing from some editions).
• A cut or missing corner. If the Vastu Purusha lacks his left arm, the text expects loss of money and corn; if he is whole in every limb, honour, wealth and happiness (Brihat Samhita 53.67-68). The verse does not say what "missing" means on the ground; the usual reading is a plot or plan with that part cut away. The Matsya Purana says to avoid a site with parts too small or too large (253.50).
• Not squared to the directions. A house that faces no particular direction, called dinmudha, is a fault in the Brihat Samhita (53.115), the Matsya Purana (256.27-28) and the Samarangana Sutradhara (48.9-12).
• Faults in the door itself. A door that swings open or shut on its own, one too big or too low, a cramped one, or a crooked one (Brihat Samhita 53.79-81). The main door should also be the finest in the house, not outdone by any other (53.82).
• Trees and neighbours. A peepal (ashvattha) on the east of the house, a banyan on the west, an udumbara (cluster fig) on the north or a plaksha on the south is a fault; the same trees on the opposite sides are good (Brihat Samhita 53.85). Thorny trees near the house bring fear of enemies (53.86), and a crossroads next door ill fame (53.89-90).
• An extension on one side. The Matsya Purana advises against extending a house at all; if it must be extended, extend it on every side. It gives a bad result for an extension in each single direction, and for the north-east it is loss of grain (256.28-33). So the popular claim that a north-east extension is lucky is not classical.

The old texts do not agree on everything: the Brihat Samhita and the Matsya Purana praise different door positions on the south wall (see south facing house Vastu), and the Mayamata puts the Vastu Purusha's head to the east (7.49).

Signs of vastu dosh: how to check your home

These are what the old texts ask you to look at, and what a purohit or a Vastu practitioner seeing the house would look at too.

1. Stand at the main door and look straight out. Note anything directly in line with it: a road ending at it, a tree, a pole, a well, a drain, the corner of another building. Beyond twice the height it does no harm (Brihat Samhita 53.76); the Vishvakarma Prakasha says twice the height of the house (7.97-98). The Vishvakarma Prakasha also clears an obstruction that is far away, standing at an angle rather than straight ahead, or behind a wall, water or hills (14.49-54).
2. Check the walls against a compass. The texts want them to run roughly north-south and east-west, and give no allowed number of degrees. Many city buildings follow the line of the road instead; the texts give no remedy for a turned building, and it is not a reason for alarm.
3. Look at the shape of the plot or floor plan. Is a corner cut away? The Vastu Purusha's head lies in the north-east, his feet in the south-west and his hands in the south-east and north-west (Garuda Purana 1.46.2), so the missing part tells you which limb the old reading would call missing.
4. Find the centre. Is it clean, and is it kept clear of a pillar or a wall?
5. Look around. Was the house extended on one side only? Which trees stand near it, and on which side?

A buried object is the one defect you cannot see. The Brihat Samhita finds it by signs during the rites (53.59), and the Vishvakarma Prakasha also by signs in a household already living there, such as constant quarrels (12.27-32). Apart from buried objects and bad omens, the texts start from the building, not from a household's money worries or illness. These checks assume a house on its own plot, as the texts do; for an apartment, see Vastu for flats and rented homes.

What the old texts do not call a dosh

Much of what is called vastu dosh today is in none of the texts above, nor in the Agni and Garuda Puranas or the dharma texts, which we also checked.

Called a dosh today	What the old texts say
Toilet in the north-east	No text discusses an attached toilet as we build them now. The dharma texts send a person far from the dwelling (Apastamba Dharma Sutra 1.11.31.2); two later Vastu texts give the latrine a place on the south-west side, the Mayamata in an outer building (26.214), the Vishvakarma Prakasha between the south and the south-west (2.96).
Wall colours for each direction	Not found. The only colour rule for a house site is the colour of its soil (Brihat Samhita 53.96).
Mirrors facing the bed or the door	Not found.
Staircase in the south-west, odd number of steps	Not found. The Samarangana Sutradhara does say doors and stairs should turn clockwise (39.46).
Heavy furniture in the south-west	Not found. The Brihat Samhita keeps household goods in the south-west (53.118): a store, not a rule about weight.
Master bedroom in the south-west	Not found. The Agni Purana puts the bed-chamber in the south (106.18).

Modern lists also disagree. Two large property sites say a toilet must never be in the north-east; a paint company's home-design site says the north-east "can also be considered".

If your house has a dosh

The remedies the texts give are few: take out a buried object, plant good trees among trees the texts warn against when those cannot be cut, keep obstructions at a distance, rites for a damaged part, and the vastu puja. No text we checked fixes a door or room that is simply in the "wrong" place. Each remedy, and where pyramids and salt bowls come from, is in our guide to vastu dosh remedies. When a household wants the house pacified after a change or a worry, the rite purohits perform is the Vastu Shanti havan.