“Which direction should the building face?”—is a dilemma many people face while deciding on the main entrance to houses and other structures.

When it was believed that the earth has four corners, four sides and is like a table top with mountains and seas, around which the sun rises and sets, the directions were definite and there was no confusion. Since the sun seemed to rise from the east, it was the sacred direction.

But as scientific knowledge increased, we realised the fact that the earth is like a huge ball, it rotates on its axis everyday, the sun neither rises nor sets, and the difference between east and west has diminished.

East is not a fixed direction. It changes every second as the earth rotates.

(Refer diagram 1)

 What we call ‘East I’ at 6 am in the morning would have shifted by 1,000 km by 7 am. The reason for this is that our location (Karnataka) on planet earth, turns at about 1,000 km per hour around its axis! The speed of earth in rotation being maximum at the equator and minimum near the axis.

As earth turns, east also changes. East is ‘east’ for a maximum of one second! By the next second, it shifts by 320 meters!

What may surprise many and sound odd too is the fact that if we sit facing ‘east’ and offer prayers after evening, the sun will not be in that direction at all! It will be in the opposite direction, though of course, we cannot see it (the sun)!

From evening to morning the next day, the sun will be in the west! The west is not an ordinary direction, it is the direction the sun will be in during the entire night! It is the direction in which the sun will shine for 12 hours of the night for the other side of the globe! How can anything bad come from this direction? How can the west be inauspicious?

(Refer diagram 1)

The directions are relative! What is east to us will be west to those who are in a place that turned towards the sun earlier than us! Similarly when our location starts to turn away from the sun, the very same direction will be ‘west’ for us.

Even as we are pointing at the sun in the morning by 6 am, it will be 6 pm for the Americans and they will be pointing at the very same direction and call it ’West’! We call various directions ‘east’ or ‘west’ for our convenience and not because there really is anything fixed as ‘The east’ or ‘The west’!

Do the rays differ?

There is a strong belief that somehow morning rays of the sun are superior to evening rays! Does the sun send one type of rays in the morning and another type in the evening? Being a sphere, it definitely does not know any morning or evening for it to send different rays! Morning and evening happens not because of the sun but because of the rotation of the earth on its axis everyday.

(Refer diagram 1)

The belief that the morning sunrays have special qualities is essentially a ‘Flat earth’ concept where the earth was thought to be square and it was the sun that went around the earth! But then it has been many centuries since this was disproved and we don’t have to believe in it when we know for sure that the sun neither sets or rises!

The sun keeps shining twenty four hours of the day and it is continuously morning or evening at one part of the earth or the other. If there is really any change in the solar flares that reach the earth, then it affects us, whether it is morning or evening.

The sun sends the same types of rays irrespective of whether it is morning or evening.

(Refer diagram 2)

 During both these periods, as the sunrays travel longer distance in the atmosphere, dust and other particles obstruct and reduce the intensity of the rays. Since in the morning the atmosphere is quite cool, we don’t really feel the intensity of the sun’s rays. This in fact can be dangerous! As dangerous as watching a solar eclipse bare eyed without suitable dark glasses.

Though we may be able to look in the direction of the sun when it is hidden by the moon, as soon as the sun starts to reappear in the classical ’Diamond ring’ fashion, the first rays that escape and hit the earth will be as sharp as when the sun is shining in full! These can damage our eyes, even as we are enjoying the same!

If we expose infants to morning sunrays thinking it to be mild for long periods, then it is likely to damage the tender skin. The reflexes of infant’s eyes may not be fast enough to close when exposed to direct sunrays, so if the child sees the sun directly, then even the morning sun can harm its eyes.

Eastern sunrays are no better than western sunrays.

Depending on the season, the sunrays will be less intense for just for half an hour after our location has turned towards the sun (morning) and for the same duration before it turns away from the sun (evening).

All the positive qualities of morning sunrays are there in the evening ones too. If the eastern sunrays have the ability to kill germs, then their western evening counterparts too have the same qualities!

Sun neither sets nor rises!

We have this tradition of saying, “The sun has set, the sun is rising” —but we know that the sun neither sets nor rises! It remains where it is! Though to our external eyes it appears as though the sun goes around the earth, if we close our eyes only for a minute and think about our solar system, we realise that a medium sized planet called earth goes around the star called sun!

Our belief regarding the directions are deep-rooted. Even after centuries of sun centred planetary system has been accepted, belief in the ‘Earth centred universe’ has not changed completely.

If your house has a west facing entrance, please don’t feel worried. That is actually the ‘East’ for the Americans. Geographically, India and America are on the two sides of the globe. Therefore whatever good flows to the Americans from their eastern entrance should flow into your house from your western entrance! (Diagram 2)

The author is an architect and can be contacted on mobile no 98441 32826 or Email: architectjayaram@yahoo.co.in