
4 Sthapati / Sthapaka, Contractor / Priest
In the vastu shastras (Sans.> vastu dwelling, plot of land + shastra doctrine,) the body of Sanskrit texts dealing with architecture dating from the 6th Century C.E. onward,two figures are distinguished with regard to a temple’s construction, 1) a sthapati or “general contractor,” knowledgeable in building practices who supervises the shilpins or skilled artisans executing the design, and 2) a sthapaka, a priest or “religious consultant,” responsible for ensuring that the temple’s construction, its orientation, ground-breaking and assignment of deities accords with sacred scripture. The shtapati is commonly associated with prakrit, the active or “female” energy of substantiation or materialization, and the sthapaka with purusha, the unchanging, hence inactive, male abstract, transcendent reality (within the gendered dichotomy of Hindu ontology).