A north-facing house is well regarded in popular Vastu, which ties the north to Kubera and to wealth, and here the classical entrance table is generous too: three of the four padas in the north-facing sector have favourable results in the Brihat Samhita, and only Bhujaga is cautioned. The practical questions are about light and warmth, and the answers depend on where you live. In the southern hemisphere a north-facing house is the sunny one, yet the Vastu directions themselves stay exactly where they are.
Soma, Kubera and the northern quarter
Two names are attached to the north. In the Brihat Samhita’s list of the eight quarter lords, in its chapter on water divining (chapter 54), the north belongs to Soma, the Moon. Most modern books give it to Kubera, the keeper of treasure, hence the popular link between a north door and money. Both belong to the wider tradition, and one of the favourable padas on this side bears Soma’s name.
The classical text does favour the north in two concrete ways. It gives water in the north an increase of wealth (53.119), and it lets the north, with the east, stand slightly higher when a site cannot be made level (53.116). It does not put the treasury there, though: its treasury and granary go to the north-west (53.118), so the familiar advice to keep a safe in the north is a popular teaching that could not be found in the verses read here.
The padas facing north
On the outer ring of the Brihat Samhita’s grid, 32 deities are named (53.43 to 53.45), each with a result for a door in its square (53.72 to 53.75). This site divides the compass into equal sectors of 11.25 degrees, a modern simplification, and four of them fall in the north-facing range, from 337.5 degrees through north to 22.5 degrees. The result beside each name is what the text says of that pada; it is not a forecast for any household.
| Pada | Bearing (degrees) | The text’s result | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mukhya | 337.5 to 348.75 | Gain of wealth and sons | Favourable |
| Bhallata | 348.75 to 360 | All good qualities | Favourable |
| Soma | 0 to 11.25 | Sons and wealth | Favourable |
| Bhujaga | 11.25 to 22.5 | Estrangement from sons | Cautioned |
No other facing sector in the table has as many favourable entries. A door looking due north lies on the line between Bhallata and Soma, and on the nine-square north wall, counted from the north-west corner, the central square is Soma himself. Curiously, the north-east facing that popular manuals rate highest holds no favourable pada under the same convention, a sign that the manuals and the table rest on different principles.
Even so, the text judges squares, not a side, and the ends of the north wall are less kind. Taking the bearing from the heart of the house, a door close to the north-west corner may land in Roga, which the translators render very differently, or Ahi, which is cautioned; near the north-east corner it can fall in Aditi or Diti, mixed and cautioned. The entrance checker works from the centre, the article on the 32 padas shows the whole ring, and the Vastu Purusha Mandala explains how the grid is drawn.
Light, shade and cold
Painters in the northern hemisphere have long liked a north window, because it sees the sky rather than the sun for most of the day, so its light is steady and its shadows soft. A north-facing front shares that quality: the entrance and the rooms behind it stay evenly lit and seldom overheat, which in a hot climate is a real comfort. In summer the sun rises north of east and sets north of west, so the front still catches some early and late sun, and in the parts of India south of the Tropic of Cancer the midday sun also stands in the northern sky for part of the summer.
Further north the picture changes. In Britain, Canada, northern Europe or the northern United States, a north-facing front can stay in shade for much of the winter, with frost lingering on the path, moss on the step and a hall that feels cold and damp, while the south-facing back garden gets the sun. None of this is a Vastu rule. It is the ordinary behaviour of the sun, worth weighing beside the tradition when you choose a home abroad.
The southern hemisphere
In Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina or Chile the sun crosses the northern part of the sky, so a north-facing house is the bright, warm one, and north-facing living rooms are what passive solar design there aims for.
Vastu does not reverse its directions for this. The north remains the quarter of Soma and of the favourable padas above, whichever hemisphere you live in. You may read suggestions that the directions should be swapped below the equator; nothing in the verses read for this site supports that. The Manasara, in Acharya’s summary, finds east and west from the shadow of a gnomon, a method that gives the same east and west in Sydney as in Delhi. A north-facing home in Melbourne thus has both the popular rating and the winter sun, while one in Manchester has the rating and a shadier front.
A practical checklist
- Confirm the bearing: standing in the open doorway and looking out, a reading between 337.5 and 22.5 degrees is north-facing. The guide on finding which way your house faces explains the method.
- Run the entrance checker to see which pada your door occupies, paying attention to whether it sits close to a corner.
- In a cold climate, light the path and step well, keep them clear of moss and ice, check the hall for damp, and consider a porch or an enclosed lobby to hold warmth on the shady side.
- In a hot climate, make use of the even light: a north verandah makes a cool place to sit.
- If the household keeps a place for worship, the north-east corner lies at the front, on your right as you look out, and 53.118 places the gods’ room there.
- Sleep with the head to the south or east whatever the facing. The Brihat Samhita’s sleeping rule (53.124) concerns the bed, not the door; the bedrooms guide has more.
What cannot be changed and what helps
A house cannot be turned round, and a flat’s door cannot be moved onto a different corridor. If your door reads as Bhujaga, or falls near a corner in Roga, Ahi, Aditi or Diti, the verses read here record the pada’s result and go no further. They prescribe no correction, and none is needed.
What helps a north front is warmth and welcome in cold places, shade and air in hot ones: a good lamp by the door on dark afternoons, a clean step and a door that closes snugly. In a flat, the guide to apartments and flats explains which parts of the tradition carry over, and the south-facing house page looks honestly at the opposite case.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Is a north-facing house good in Vastu?
Popular manuals rate it among the best, linking the north with Kubera and wealth. The Brihat Samhita's entrance table agrees more than it does for any other facing, with three favourable padas out of four in the north-facing sector. Bhujaga, just east of north, is the one cautioned square.
↳ Which pada is best for a north-facing main door?
Mukhya, Bhallata and Soma all carry favourable results, so a door looking from somewhat west of north to just east of it sits well in the table. Bhujaga, slightly further east, is cautioned. A door near a corner of the north wall can fall outside these four, so measure from the centre of the home.
↳ Is a north-facing house good in Australia or New Zealand?
In Vastu terms it reads exactly as it does in India, because the directions are not reversed in the southern hemisphere. In practical terms it is often better, since the sun is in the northern sky there and a north front receives it all year.
↳ Why does my north-facing house feel cold in winter?
In high northern latitudes such as Britain or Canada, a north front gets little or no direct winter sun, so frost and damp can linger at the entrance. That is the sun's path, not a Vastu defect. Insulation, draught-proofing, a porch and good lighting at the door address it.
↳ Should I sleep with my head to the north in a north-facing house?
No. In the Brihat Samhita a sleeper's head should point south or east, never north or west. That rule is about the bed and applies whichever way the house faces.
Sources
- The Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira, chapter 53, for the deities of the outer ring (43 to 45), the entrance results (72 to 75), level ground with the east or north allowed slightly higher (116), the gods’ room, kitchen, store, treasury and granary (118), water by direction (119) and sleeping (124); chapter 54 names the lords of the quarters. Compared in the English of N. Chidambaram Iyer (1884) and V. Subrahmanya Sastri (1946).
- Prasanna Kumar Acharya, Summary of the Manasara, for finding directions with a gnomon.
- The popular link between a north door and wealth through Kubera, the safe kept in the north, and the rating of facing directions are commonly taught, not traced to the verses read; the 11.25 degree sectors are this site’s modern convention.