Like the yantras, Vastu-Purusha Mandalas are models of the cosmos. Used as the generating order for both sacred and secular buildings, each is a perfect square, sub-divided into identical squares, creating a series which starts from 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 ….. upto 1024. In temple architecture, the most commonly used mandalas are those of 64 and 81 squares, with the various deities allocated places in accordance with their importance and with the qualities inherent to the diagram. While the temple is an analogue of the cosmos, it is also modelled on Purusha, Cosmic Man, outlined in the mandala at right.

Vastu-Purusha Mandala (VPM) diagramme from Vistara Catalogue, re-used in design justification for Vidhyadharnagar, or New Jaipur design project in 1980s
Vastu-Purusha Mandala (VPM) diagramme from Vistara Catalogue, re-used in design justification for Vidhyadharnagar, or New Jaipur design project in 1980s: Like the yantras, Vastu-Purusha Mandalas are models of the cosmos. Used as the generating order for both sacred and secular buildings, each is a perfect square, sub-divided into identical squares, creating a series which starts from 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 ….. upto 1024. In temple architecture, the most commonly used mandalas are those of 64 and 81 squares, with the various deities allocated places in accordance with their importance and with the qualities inherent to the diagram. While the temple is an analogue of the cosmos, it is also modelled on Purusha, Cosmic Man, outlined in the mandala at right.The mandala is not a plan; it represents an energy field. And, as in the case of the black holes of outer space, at the dead centre of the vortex is Nothing . . . which is Everything. It is both shunya (the Absolute Void) and bindu (the world seed and the source of all energy). In all mandalas, at this centre is located Brahman, the Supreme Principle.

The mandala is not a plan; it represents an energy field. And, as in the case of the black holes of outer space, at the dead centre of the vortex is Nothing . . . which is Everything. It is both shunya (the Absolute Void) and bindu (the world seed and the source of all energy). In all mandalas, at this centre is located Brahman, the Supreme Principle.

Like the yantras, Vastu-Purusha Mandalas are models of the cosmos. Used as the generating order for both sacred and secular buildings, each is a perfect square, sub-divided into identical squares, creating a series which starts from 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 ….. upto 1024. In temple architecture, the most commonly used mandalas are those of 64 and 81 squares, with the various deities allocated places in accordance with their importance and with the qualities inherent to the diagram. While the temple is an analogue of the cosmos, it is also modelled on Purusha, Cosmic Man, outlined in the mandala at right.

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Mandala – Architecture as a model of the cosmos In Vistāra - The Architecture of India, Catalogue of the Exhibition, Edited by Carmen Kagal. The Festival of India, 1986.

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