Build temples near water and gardens (by lakes, rivers and lotus tanks, in groves and pleasure gardens), for the gods delight to dwell in such places; where there is none, make a tank beside the temple.
Varāhamihira opens his chapter on temples with a list of the places the gods frequent: water, shade, flowers and the songs of birds. Almost every Indian temple has its tank, used for ritual bathing and for the floating festivals of the god; in the south the tank moved inside the temple walls.
Set a vertical rod at the centre of the levelled site, draw a circle round it, mark where the tip of its shadow crosses the circle before and after noon, and join the two marks: that line runs east–west.
E–W = chord through the morning and afternoon shadow points; N–S ⟂ through its midpoint
The cord stretched along the diagonal of a rectangle produces as much area as the cords along its two sides together; use this to set out right angles and to make squares of any required area.
d² = a² + b²; e.g. cords of 3, 4, 5 or 5, 12, 13 units
Imagine the vāstupuruṣa lying face down on the diagram with his head in the north-east and his feet in the south-west, held down by the gods who occupy the padas; do not place walls, pillars or doors on his vital points.
Place the garbhagriha (the small dark chamber that houses the image) over the Brahmasthana, with its walls on the ring of the gods and its door on the axis, usually to the east.
Provide a path for circumambulation (pradakshina) in the clockwise direction, keeping the sacred object on the right, and enclose it with a railing that separates the sacred ground.
Lay the halls along the east–west axis in front of the sanctum (porch, hall, great hall, vestibule), each larger and more lofty than the one before, so that the roofs rise in a continuous range to the shikhara.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The gods live where there is water”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/brihat-samhita-temple-water. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.