Set the chief temple at the centre facing east; put Śiva’s temple in the north-east, the quarter of Īśāna; house guardian gods at the gates; and keep the burning ground outside, toward the south, the quarter of Yama.
The directions of the diagram belong to gods: Indra the east, Yama the south, Varuṇa the west, Kubera the north, and in the corners Agni, Nirṛti, Vāyu and Īśāna, a form of Śiva who holds the north-east. The village texts place temples accordingly, and the Arthaśāstra likewise sets the guardian gods of the quarters at the gates of a royal city and the cremation grounds outside it.
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, “Each god in his quarter of the village”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/village-temple-placement. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.