Activitystubschool: pan-indian· Bṛhat Saṁhitā

Sleeping

śayana
act-shayana

Definition

Sleep as a placed and oriented activity: BS 53.124 regulates what one may sleep above, the lines one may not lie along, and head direction.
Classical

Prāṇa relevance

The only activity in ch. 53 whose BODY ORIENTATION the root text regulates (head not north/west; not along the vamshas) — a direct body-in-space rule; Phase 3 anchor.

Cross-book attributes (1) — fill / concur / diverge

Orientation SvobodaFilledper txt-svoboda-vastu
⚑ Head EAST = best sleep; head SOUTH = deep sleep + good body-mind integration; head WEST = active night, lots of dreams; head NORTH = AVOID 'unless you're dead or ready to die' (or for lucid dreaming/astral travel). Sleep on the RIGHT side to open the LEFT (lunar, calming, rejuvenating) nāḍī and set a restful pattern; left-side sleeping activates the right (fiery) nāḍī (good AFTER a heavy meal for digestion). Back-sleeping aggravates vāta; stomach-sleeping disturbs all three doṣas.

Connections (1)

avoided-in · 1
  • →81-pada plot scheme (Brihat Samhita)Classical
    The vamshas are the marma-bearing lines (53.63–64); the sleeper's body laid along them parallels the salya lodged on them — parallel is ours [SPECULATIVE]; the proscription itself is the classical core.

Sources

Notes from other books

  • txt-svoboda-vastuSvoboda layers the svara-yoga right-side-sleeping nāḍī rule (pra-nadi-svara) onto head-direction; this is the on-thesis prāṇa physiology of sleep that BS 53.124 leaves implicit. Partial agreement with BS (head-not-north) and a divergence on west — captured, flagged, not reconciled.

Other attributes

Physiological Aspect
rest and restoration; the body's most prolonged fixed orientation in the dwelling
Typical Zone
zon-bedroom (commentary scheme; the root text gives orientation rules, not the room)
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