VAASTU IN PERSPECTIVE OF TECHNOLOGY

In this paper, an ancient Indian philosophy of architecture (Vaastu-Shastra) is explained and compared to the work of contemporary philosophers of technology. The knowledge of Vaastu is cognitively understood as the concept of instrumental understanding, sense- understanding, theoretical and scientific understanding that describes its own philosophical study. While comparing Vaastu to the modern philosophers of technology we are certainly reminded of the philosophies of Carl Mitcham, Albert Borgmann and Don Ihde in some or other way. The philosophical issues of these contemporary philosophers are very much interlinked to the Indian philosophy of Vaastu – for example (a) Mitcham's concept of technology from the ancient time till today, perceives technology as an object, knowledge and activity along with three ways of “Being-with” technology. (b) Secondly, Borgmann's analyses of pervasive influence of technology in human life from a different perspective - philosophically, socially, historically and scientifically, reflecting the way we have taken up the world both individually and collectively. (c) Thirdly, Ihde's cultural hermeneutic of technology as a hermeneutic praxis and (d) lastly, Polanyi's implicit and explicit knowledge. Interestingly, some points of agreement are noted between this very old form of knowledge with the modern philosophers of technology, which observes technology as object, process, and function.