In Vedic culture and in ancient cultures around the world, east was given the highest importance among all the 4 directions. The sun rises in the east and therefore east had importance associated with it. The East culture was called as Prācya sabhyatā or the eastern culture, which could mean ancient culture.
But what about the other directions and their priority in Vedic culture…. Mahabharata gives an interesting account of this….
Yudhishthira stayed back at the kingdom and sent the 4 brothers – Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, Sahadeva to 4 different directions, Digvijay trip to establish his supremacy as an emperor. The choice of the 4 directions to the 4 brothers speaks a lot about the prioritization of the various directions.
Bhima, the older among the 4 was allocated the eastern direction
Arjuna, the second among the 4 was allocated the northern direction
Nakula, the third among the 4 was allocated the western direction
Sahadeva, the youngest among the 4 was allocated the southern direction
The prioritization, therefore, would be in the order of East-North-West-South in the anti-clockwise direction.