Gośālā Architecture & Paśu Śāstra

1. The shed

The rule (PASU-GOSHALA-001). Cattle housing should have cross-ventilation, a dry and unencumbered floor, and exposure to the sun from the east or north. The shed’s long axis runs east to west, with the stalls turned to take the gentle morning sun and kept out of the hot south-west wind. Its citation is the Arthaśāstra (book 2, chapter 29) and Kṛṣi Parāśara vv. 85–92, neither checked against an edition, so the rule is held as class D (building science: ventilation and solar heat load on livestock housing) with low confidence.

What the engine applies. A planning allowance of 11 m² for each adult cow and 4.5 m² for each calf, and a floor that falls 1 in 40 toward a collection channel on the north or east side. These are the engine’s figures, not a text’s, and not a welfare standard; the herd’s veterinarian decides what its animals need. If a shed’s facing is not a compass direction, the audit says the orientation was not assessed rather than guessing.

2. Dung, urine and the fields

The rule (PASU-GOSHALA-002). Slurry from the shed drains to a biogas digester or a vermicompost pit and the digested slurry goes to perimeter fodder fields, with the digester down-gradient in the south or south-east. The corpus holds this as class E: a modern practice read into the texts’ verses on manuring (Kṛṣi Parāśara vv. 94–101, not verified against an edition), and not a located rule. Whether a digester makes sense for a herd of a given size is a question of engineering and cost that the engine does not answer.