Vāstuśāstra The Divine Tragedy

Product Description There are several regional Vastusastra texts in the country, as Anka- sastra, Aparajita Vastusastra, Vastu-tattva, Vastu-nirnaya, Vastu-purusa-laksana, Vastu-prakasa, Vastu-pradipa, Vastu-manjari, Vastu-vicara, Vastu-vidha, Vastu-samgraha, Vastu-sarvasva, Tantra-samuccaya, Manusyalaya-candrika and so on, which speak more about restrictions of the caste society and its discriminations than architecture. These texts literally succeeded in hoodwinking the people to accept Vastusastra as the sacred architectural wisdom of India. Achari takes on this uncritical acceptance, not because it is a matter of popular superstition, but because it has grown up as an obfuscating canker in the architectural profession today. It is now seeking to penetrate into the professional education in architecture. In the book he has beautifully exposed the fact that there is nothing epistemologically significant about the content of the Vastusastra that cleverly debunked the knowledge and skill of the craftsmen. Analytically addressing a topical theme of global interest, very relevant to the present as well as to the future, I see this treatise of Achari as a potential book of worldwide readership. Rajan Gurukkal About the Author R. V. Achari has a degree in Civil Engineering (with Architecture) from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and stood first in the university. He worked in the Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi; SAIL, Ranchi; MECON, Bengaluru and in McNally Bharat, Dhanbad and Bengaluru. He has made significant contributions to the design of Steel Plant structures and Suspension Bins, and is a pioneer in Scallop Design of Industrial Thickeners. He is a Fellow, Indian Association of Structural Engineers. He founded Silpi Design & Engineering, Bengaluru in 1989, and now he is its Emeritus Consultant. At present he is the Resource Person (Indian Architecture) at Sri Sankara Sanskrit University Kaladi. He has published two books on Vastusastra in Malayalam, and was instrumental in the Kerala University withdrawing the Vastu syllabus.