Pooja Room Vastu: Direction, Facing, a Shelf in a Flat

The Vastu texts put the room for the gods in the north-east: Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita, from the sixth century, says "the apartment for the Devas shall be built in the north-east" (53.118), and the Matsya Purana, the Agni Purana and most later Vastu texts agree. In an older layer of the tradition, the dharma texts, the household makes a daily food offering (bali) to Brahma and to Vastoshpati, the deity of the dwelling, at the centre of the home (Manusmriti 3.89). This guide covers both, which way to face for each kind of prayer, the modern rules that have no old source, and how to set up a shelf in a flat.

North-east: where the Vastu texts put the shrine

• Brihat Samhita (53.118): the room for the gods in the north-east, the kitchen in the south-east, household goods in the south-west, the treasury and granary in the north-west.
• Matsya Purana (256.33): the shrine in the north-east, together with a room for shanti, the rites of peace.
• Agni Purana (106.19): "the chamber for the deities in the north-east". An earlier chapter calls the north-east "the excellent place for initiation" (105.30).
• Mayamata, a South Indian treatise on building: the shrine of one house type is on Shiva's square in the north-east (27.114-119), and in the ring of annexes round a house the room for worship is on the square of Isha, the north-east corner (26.216).
• Vishvakarma Prakasha (2.94): ishanyam devata-geham, the house of the gods in the north-east.
• A jyotisha text, the Kashyapa Samhita, gives the same in its room plan (38.73-74). The Manasara is the exception: it gives several positions for a worship hall, the north-east among them (XXXVI.29-30).

The north-east is also where the Vastu Purusha, the being who lies under every site, has his head (Brihat Samhita 53.51). The texts do not say the shrine goes there because of the head, but the two share the same corner. The rule names a corner of the house, not the way the house faces: in an east, north, west or south facing home alike, the shrine's corner is the north-east. For what the texts assign to every direction, see Vastu directions.

The older layer: the centre of the house

The Manusmriti sets the household's offering to Brahma and Vastoshpati, the lord of the dwelling, in the middle of the home: "in the centre of the house let him place a Bali for Brahman and for Vastoshpati (the lord of the dwelling) conjointly" (3.89, Georg Buhler's translation). The Gautama Dharma Sutra (5.12-14) and the Vishnu Purana (3.11) also make the offering to Brahma in the centre.

The north-east "god's corner" enters this layer in two ways. The Apastamba Dharma Sutra places offerings "in the north-eastern part of the house" (2.2.3.23). And Manu's medieval commentators (Govindaraja, Kulluka and Raghavananda, as Buhler reports them) read the same verse's offering to Sri "near the head (of the bed)" as the north-east of the house, where the Vastu Purusha's head lies. Manu's own verse does not say north-east.

The later Vastu texts keep the centre open and clean rather than building on it. The Mayamata places no main building on Brahma's square (26.2) and describes an altar to Brahma that may stand in the open central court of a courtyard house, where offerings are made three times a day (27.24). The Manasara allows dwellings on every plot except Brahma's (XXXVI.15). The Vishvakarma Prakasha forbids a pillar or a wall at the centre (7.108-110), and the Brihat Samhita asks that Brahma's place be kept clean (53.66). So a shrine in the north-east follows the Vastu texts, and a place of daily offering at the centre follows the older dharma texts. Both have a basis.

Which way to face when you pray

The old texts set the direction by the kind of prayer and the time of day:

When	Face	Source
Morning sandhya	East, standing until the sun appears	Ashvalayana Grihya Sutra 3.7; Shankhayana Grihya Sutra 2.9; Yajnavalkya Smriti 1.24-25
Evening sandhya	North-west, until the stars appear (west in Yajnavalkya, seated)	Ashvalayana 3.7; Shankhayana 2.9; Yajnavalkya 1.24-25
Worship at night; Shiva worship	North	Shiva Purana, Vidyeshvara Samhita 21.53-54
Meditating on the god and the goddess	East or north	Shiva Purana 7.2.21.39 (Vayaviya Samhita)
Achamana, sipping water before a rite	East or north	Manusmriti 2.61; Yajnavalkya Smriti 1.18
Offerings to the ancestors	South	Padma Purana, Srishti Khanda 49.47

The Kurma Purana puts it simply for sandhya: always face east (2.18.27). The two grihya sutras quoted here face north-west in the evening, and Yajnavalkya faces west; sandhya is done by the rule of one's own Veda and tradition, so if you were taught a different direction, keep to it. Facing north for worship at night comes from the Shiva Purana: "Divine rites shall always be performed facing the north in the night. Similarly Śiva's worship shall always be performed facing the north, not the east."

Which direction the god should face, and pooja room size

Popular pooja room guides add rules the old Vastu texts do not have. Read them as modern practice:

• "The images should face west": modern. We found no old rule for which way the images in a home shrine face. Images facing west mean you face east as you pray, which does fit the morning direction above.
• A maximum size: modern. Limits such as "should not exceed 9x9 feet" are today's advice; the texts give no size for a home shrine.

Keeping the shrine clean and apart from waste does have a basis. The texts ask for purity throughout: the Shiva Purana calls the house a place of worship when it is pure (Vidyeshvara Samhita 15.1), and the Manusmriti sends urine, used water and leftover food far from the dwelling (4.151). Keeping the shrine away from the toilet follows from that; see our guide to toilet and bathroom Vastu.

A shelf in a flat

A shelf is enough. In M. Ramakrishna Bhat's translation the Brihat Samhita's room for the gods belongs to a four-winged house built around a courtyard, and nothing in the texts says a home without such a room should not keep a shrine.

The Shiva Purana, after ranking the places where worship gives more merit, adds: "The place where the mind is quite at home is the most excellent of all places" (Vidyeshvara Samhita 15.6). It also allows japa "in a stipulated place in one's own house" (13.33-34), that is, a fixed spot. The Vishnu Purana describes household worship as "presenting to his tutelary deity water, flowers, and incense" (3.11), with no mention of a dedicated room.

• Where: the north-east of the flat if you can, or the north-east of a room. Otherwise, wherever the shelf can stay clean and undisturbed. For how to read directions in an apartment, see Vastu in flats and rented homes.
• Which way you face: east or north is the easy fit with the table above.
• In a bedroom: if your household's custom is to keep the gods out of the bedroom, keep to it. We found no text that forbids it, and where a bedroom is the only place, the Brihat Samhita says not to sleep above the gods (53.124) - in a home, their images - so mount the shelf above the height of the bed rather than below it. The Apastamba Dharma Sutra asks you not to stretch your feet toward images of the gods (1.11.30.22), so avoid the wall at the foot of the bed.
• Keep it fixed and clean. A fixed place is what the Shiva Purana asks for; cleanliness is what every text asks for.

If you are setting up a new home, our Vastu Shanti guide covers the havan for a new or renovated house.

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