Vastu Shastra

Complete Vastu Shastra Guide: Principles, Rooms, Remedies & Global Adaptations

Vastu Shastra in one place: the directional grid, how to check your own house, every room, what can be corrected without construction, and a link to each detailed guide.

By Mr. Abhijit Maggirwar | Reviewed by Mr. Avinash Maggirwar | Published 26 May 2026 | Updated 21 Oct 2026 | 12 min read

This guide draws together the room and direction guides our family has written from residential and commercial Vastu work in India and overseas.

This is our main Vastu Shastra reference. It sets out how Vastu reads a building, then walks through the house room by room, and links each section to the guide that covers it in depth. Start here, then follow the links for the rooms and questions that matter in your own home.

What Vastu Shastra Is

Vastu Shastra is the Indian tradition of arranging a building by compass direction, the five elements and a grid of zones. It decides where the entrance, kitchen, bedrooms, pooja room, bathrooms, staircase and storage sit, and how open or heavy each part of the plan should be. It is often compared with Feng Shui, the Chinese tradition built on the flow of qi; the two share much advice but place rooms differently, as our guide to Vastu and Feng Shui explains.

Vastu is guidance for arranging a home well. It does not promise any particular outcome, and an honest consultant will not either.

The Grid Every Reading Starts From

Vastu reads a site on the Vastu Purusha Mandala, a square grid laid over the plot or the floor plan. The square is divided into padas, commonly 64 in an eight by eight grid or 81 in a nine by nine grid. The Vastu Purusha is pictured lying with the head to the north-east and the feet to the south-west, and each zone of the grid suits different activities. Our guide to the Vastu Purusha Mandala explains the grid without the mysticism.

Four ideas run through every recommendation that follows:

• Eight directions and a centre. North, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-west, west and north-west, around a central zone called the Brahmasthan.
• Light to the north and east, weight to the south and west. Open space, windows and water belong towards the north and east; mass such as staircases, heavy storage and overhead tanks belongs towards the south and west.
• The centre stays open. The Brahmasthan is kept free of toilets, staircases and heavy furniture.
• The five elements. Earth, water, fire, air and space (the Pancha Mahabhutas). The kitchen sits in the south-east, the fire zone, and water storage in the north and north-east.

How to Check the Vastu of Your Own House

You can read your own home before anyone else does. Take a compass reading away from steel and electrical fittings, mark north on your floor plan and turn the plan so north is at the top. Divide the footprint into a three by three grid, then mark the entrance, kitchen, bedrooms, toilets, water and heavy storage on it and compare each with the positions in this guide. The full method, with the common mistakes, is in how to check the Vastu of your house.

Orientation and the Entrance

The direction a house faces is the first thing most people ask about, and it matters less than they expect. In every orientation, the segment of the wall that holds the main door, and how the interior is zoned, decide more than the bearing itself.

• East facing house: the orientation classical Vastu prefers, chiefly for morning light and its association with beginnings. A genuine advantage, not a guarantee.
• North facing house: favourable for light and association, provided the north-east is kept light and the south-west carries the weight.
• West facing house: acceptable and not a defect. Afternoon sun on the western wall is handled with shading, room allocation and furniture.
• South facing house: not inherently bad. The exact position of the door within the southern wall matters more than the orientation, and many south facing homes assess well.

Before the door comes the approach. Vastu reads the main gate and the approach against the plot boundary, favouring the north, east and north-east portion of the frontage and avoiding the corners where two walls meet. Inside, the entrance itself is kept well lit and unobstructed.

Room by Room

Kitchen

The kitchen belongs in the south-east, the fire zone, with the north-west as the second choice. Inside it, the stove sits in the south-east portion with the cook facing east, and the sink goes towards the north-east, away from the burners. Where the room cannot move, separating the stove and the sink is the most useful single correction. Details in kitchen direction as per Vastu.

Master bedroom and sleeping direction

The master bedroom sits best in the south-west. Whatever the room, sleep with the head to the south or east, never to the north. Where the layout limits the options, the workable bed positions are read against the room's shape, the door and windows, and who uses the room. See which direction to sleep.

Pooja room

The pooja room belongs in the north-east, with the east and north as alternatives, and the person praying faces east or north. In a flat without a usable north-east, an east facing wall in a main room works well, kept clear of toilets and staircases. Read pooja room Vastu for flats and houses.

Bathrooms and toilets

Bathrooms are wet, draining spaces that sit best in the west or north-west. The north-east is avoided above all, and the south-west and the centre are treated carefully. Modern homes have several bathrooms, so a reading ranks them by how heavily each is used and what they adjoin. In a finished flat the position usually cannot change, so the work shifts to how the room is used, kept and separated from the rooms beside it. See Vastu for bathrooms and toilet Vastu.

Staircase

Stairs are mass, so they belong towards the south, west or south-west, and the north-east is avoided. In a built house the stairs cannot move; the useful work is what sits under them, how the flight is lit, and rebalancing the rest of the plan. Read staircase Vastu.

Study and home office

A study belongs in the north, east or north-east, with the person facing north or east while working, a solid wall behind the chair and light that does not cast a shadow across the desk. In homes without a study, the same reading applies to the seat at a shared table. See Vastu for the study room and desk and, for working from home, Vastu for a home office.

Water tanks and utilities

Underground water storage, sumps and borewells go in the north and north-east. An overhead tank is load, so it belongs towards the west or south-west rather than the north-east. The same reasoning covers water heaters and utility rooms. Details in Vastu for water tanks and utilities.

Balconies, terraces and outdoor space

Open space stays lighter on the north and east. A north or east balcony reads well if it is kept open, a pool reads best in the north or north-east, and an outdoor kitchen belongs in the south-east. See Vastu for balconies and outdoor space.

The centre of the home

Keep the Brahmasthan open: no toilet, staircase or heavy furniture in the middle of the plan. In a finished home this usually means clearing the central floor area rather than building anything.

Planning, Buying and Moving In

The best time to apply Vastu is before anything is built or bought.

• Choosing land. A plot is read for shape, slope, road position and surroundings, with the north-east corner read most closely. Square and rectangular plots that fall towards the north and east read best, and a cut north-east corner cannot be corrected by anything built later. See Vastu for plot selection.
• Drawing the plan. The entrance in the north, east or north-east, the kitchen in the south-east, the master bedroom in the south-west, the pooja room in the north-east, and the centre kept open. Our house plan as per Vastu goes room by room.
• Buying a flat. The entrance direction, the kitchen position, the sleeping direction and where heavy storage can go can all be assessed before you buy. See Vastu for flats and apartments in Pune, and for the United States, Vastu checks before buying a house in the USA.
• Moving in. The Vastu assessment is easiest while the house is still empty. Common questions about the house warming ceremony are answered in griha pravesh questions and Vastu checks.

What You Can Correct Without Construction

Most homes are already built, and most useful corrections need no construction at all. The changes that make a real difference in a finished house are covered in Vastu tips for home. In short:

• Sleep with the head to the south or east.
• Move heavy storage, such as wardrobes and cabinets, to the south and west walls.
• Keep the entrance lit and unobstructed.
• Separate the stove and the sink in the kitchen.
• Keep the centre of the home open.

Where walls genuinely cannot move, for example in a rented flat or a listed building, Vastu uses non-structural corrections such as Yantras and copper plates. Which ones suit a particular plan is a question for a consultation rather than a general rule.

Offices and Commercial Spaces

The same grid applies at work. The owner's cabin sits in the south-west facing north or east, staff desks face north or east, the entrance and reception are in the north, east or north-east, the pantry is in the south-east, heavy storage runs along the south and south-west walls, and the centre stays open. See Vastu for office layouts, and our commercial and industrial Vastu services.

Vastu Outside India

Vastu follows the same cardinal directions everywhere, including the southern hemisphere. What changes is the building: basements, attached garages, open plans, high-rise flats with a fixed door. Finished basements suit storage, a gym or media use rather than daily bedrooms or the pooja space, and attached garages belong in the north-west or west. Our guides adapt the principles to local homes:

• American home layouts and US suburban homes
• UK Victorian and Edwardian homes
• UAE villas and apartments and a Vastu consultant in Dubai
• Singapore HDB flats
• Australian open-plan homes

Consultations for homes abroad run online, from a scaled floor plan, guided compass readings and a walkthrough video, followed by a video session. How an online Vastu consultation works explains each step. Dowsing for geopathic stress is the exception: it needs an in-person visit.

Vastu and Astrology Together

Two families in identical flats can need different priorities. Astro Vastu reads the home alongside the family's Vedic birth chart to decide which zones matter most for them; see Astro Vastu explained and our guide to the Vedic birth chart.

When to Ask a Consultant

The method above lets you check most of a home yourself. A consultation adds an accurate compass survey, a reading of the whole plan at once, priorities for your family, and corrections that fit a structure you cannot change. If you are choosing someone, our guide on how to choose a Vastu consultant lists the questions to ask first.

Divyam Vaastu was founded in 1992 by Shri Yeshwant Maggirwar Ji and is led today by Mr. Avinash Maggirwar and Mr. Abhijit Maggirwar, with offices in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) and Pune. We offer residential Vastu consultations, a Vastu floor plan review for homes not yet built or bought, and on-site visits across India and online consultations worldwide. Book a Vastu consultation.

On-site visits are arranged across India, including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune; see Vastu across India for the rest.