The brahmasthan is the central part of a plot or home, the squares that belong to Brahma in the Vastu Purusha Mandala. On a rectangle its centre is where the diagonals cross. On an L-shaped, cut or uneven plot there are no clean diagonals, and this tool finds the centre the way our brahmasthan guide describes for an irregular outline: the balance point of the shape, the point a card cut to the outline would hang level from. You walk round the boundary side by side, or give the corners from a drawing, and the tool draws the outline, marks the centre and sets Brahma’s block around it, with the arithmetic shown.
How it works
The outline. Start at any corner and go round. For each side, choose the direction you walk along it, one of the eight, and type its length. A corner cut at an angle is simply a side walked north-east, south-east, south-west or north-west. If your tape and the walk do not quite meet where they began, a gap of up to 2 per cent of the boundary is shared out along the sides in proportion to their length, which is the compass rule surveyors use, and the result says how big the gap was. A larger gap means a side needs measuring again. You can also type the corners as distances east and north from any fixed point, taken off a scale drawing.
The centre. The outline is split into triangles that fan out from the first corner. Each triangle has an area and a centre. The areas are counted in the direction the outline runs, so the total is positive whichever way round you walk, and a triangle that reaches over a notch has a negative area, so it takes away what the notch removes. The balance point is the average of the triangle centres, weighted by area. This is exact for any outline that does not cross itself, and it is the same point the plumb-line method in our guide finds with a card.
The block. In the 81 square grid Brahma holds the nine central squares, a block a third of the plot’s width and a third of its depth (Brihat Samhita 53.46, Iyer’s translation). In the 64 square grid he holds the four central squares, a quarter of each. The tool sizes the block from the rectangle that encloses your outline and centres it on the balance point. That rectangle runs north-south and east-west, unless the outline is a rectangle set at an angle, when its own sides are used, or every side runs north-east, south-east, south-west or north-west, as on a plot set diagonally to north, when the rectangle and the block are turned to match.
Reading the result
Take a plot 40 feet east to west and 30 feet north to south, with a piece 20 feet by 15 feet missing from the north-east corner. The tool gives an area of 900 square feet and puts the centre 16.7 feet from the west edge and 12.5 feet from the south edge: the missing corner pulls the centre south-west of the middle of the enclosing rectangle, by 4.2 feet. The block of the 81 square grid is 13.3 by 10.0 feet, and 94 per cent of it lies inside the plot.
A U or C shaped outline can have its balance point on the open ground between its arms. The tool says so rather than marking a point in the air. For such a plot our plot shape analyser page suggests planning the house in the largest regular rectangle that fits inside, and the centre of that rectangle is then the one to use for the house.
The sketch has north at the top. The dot is the balance point, the cross is the middle of the enclosing rectangle and the dashed block is the brahmasthan.
Where traditions differ
The texts set the centre apart and differ in what they ask of it. The Brihat Samhita asks the householder to take care of Brahma’s portion and keep it clean (53.66). Acharya’s summary of the Manasara says the central square is unfit for a dwelling in a large compound, where it is the place of the family’s temple. Neither says how to find the centre of an irregular plot, because the grid they describe is laid on a regular one.
So the method for an odd shape is a choice. Our guide gives the balance point. The middle of the enclosing rectangle is the other obvious choice, and on a plot with a large cut the two can be some distance apart, which is why the tool shows both. Centring Brahma’s block on the balance point and sizing it from the enclosing rectangle is this tool’s own convention, and it says so in the result. What matters most, as our guide puts it, is to pick one method, say whether balconies were counted, and use the same centre every time.
Keeping the centre of a modern flat free of toilets, kitchens, stairs and pillars, or entirely empty, is a later extension, stricter than any verse read for this site. The brahmasthan in a modern house page goes through it.
What it does not do
It is only as good as your tape. It is not a survey, and boundaries, setbacks and title are matters for a licensed surveyor and the deed. It does not ask for anything at the centre to be moved or emptied, and it does not judge a plot as good or bad. Nothing here is a forecast. If something at the centre of your home cannot move, remedies without demolition explains why nothing needs breaking.
Frequently asked questions
↳ How do I find the brahmasthan of an L-shaped plot?
Walk round it side by side in this tool. It finds the balance point of the L, which lies towards the larger arm, and sets Brahma's block around it. For a plot 40 by 30 feet with a 20 by 15 foot corner missing, the centre is 16.7 feet from the west edge and 12.5 feet from the south edge.
↳ How big is the brahmasthan?
In the 81 square grid, the nine central squares: a third of the width and a third of the depth, one ninth of a rectangular plot. In the 64 square grid, the four central squares, a quarter of the width and depth.
↳ Should balconies be counted?
Our guide leaves it to you, since practitioners differ. Run the tool both ways if you are unsure. If the centre moves a lot, the reading should not decide anything.
↳ What if my plot is turned away from north?
Name the sides as if the plot were square to the compass. The centre of a shape does not depend on which way it is turned, so the answer comes out the same. A plot set at about 45 degrees to north can also be walked with the diagonal directions, north-east, south-east, south-west and north-west, and the block is then drawn along its own sides.
↳ Why does the tool say my walk did not close?
The sides you entered end more than 2 per cent of the boundary away from where they began. Check each side's length and direction, and that every side is there, then try again.
↳ Is the centre the same as the centre of the 16 zones?
Yes, in our tools. The floor plan zone overlay draws its zones from the same balance point, so the two tools always agree.