Divide the square site into a grid of equal squares (padas), most often 8 × 8 = 64 or 9 × 9 = 81, and place every part of the building according to the grid.
64 padas (maṇḍūka) or 81 padas (paramaśāyika)
Concentric zones of sanctity
Read the diagram from the centre outward: Brahmā at the heart, then a ring of the gods, a ring of human concerns, and on the outside the lesser spirits; the holiest function goes at the centre and the most worldly at the edge.
81 padas = 9 (Brahmā) + 16 + 24 + 32
In the 81-square diagram the central nine squares form the Brahmasthana; around them lie rings of sixteen, twenty-four and thirty-two squares. In a house the centre is left open as a court; in a temple it is the sanctum; in a town it holds the principal temple. The same logic of concentric sanctity governs the great temple towns of South India, where enclosure after enclosure surrounds the shrine, and Angkor Wat, whose galleries rise in rings towards the central tower.
Related rules
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.
Break each face of the square sanctum into projections (rathas), three, five, seven or more, that step forward towards the central one, and carry them up unbroken through the wall and the tower.
tri-ratha 3 · pancha-ratha 5 · sapta-ratha 7 projections per face
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, “Concentric zones of sanctity”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/mandala-zones. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.