Pancha Mahabhoota | Earth, Water, Fire, Ether, and Wind
Pancha Mahabhoota
Panch mahabhoota made with three words panch, maha, bhoota. Panch means five and maha refer to great, bhoota refers to elements that exist, combine meaning would be “Five great elements of existence”. According to Ayurveda scriptures and Scholars, these fundamental elements are responsible for the creation of the universe, including humans. There is a balance of these five elements in the universe. The Elements are Space, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Every element has a specific role in itself. If this balance is disturbed it can be dangerous for the universe and also for the people. These five elements are called Pancha-mahabhoota.
क्षिति जल पावक गगन समीरा ।
पंच रचित यह अधम शरीरा ।।
–Tulsidas ji
It is believed that our body is also made up of these five elements. Our body is created by five supreme element- Earth, water, fire, ether, and wind. The body is composed in the same order as it is written here.
- The first mother’s ovum is the earth element,
- Janaka’s sperm is the water element.
- The combination of these two is the fire element.
- The formation is an ether element.
- Pranvayu (प्राणवायु ) is an air element.
 |
| EARTH | WATER | FIRE | WIND | ETHER |
Importance of Panchamahabhoota
Every human has a unique balance of panch-mahabhoota, the imbalance of these elements cause diseases.
The Pancha-mahabhootas and their associated organs and factors
- Ether(sound) (ears, throat)
- Air (touch) (skin, heart)
- Fire (seeing) (eyes, navel)
- Water (taste) (tongue, sacral)
- Earth (smell) (nose)
Elements are developed from influence of this basic constitution of the universe as below
| Ether | Sattva dominant |
Air | Rajas dominant |
Fire | Sattva and Rajas dominant |
Water | Sattva and Tamas dominant |
Earth | Tamas dominant |
Properties of Panchamahabhoota
Property type
| Earth (पृथ्वी-तत्व) | Water (जल-तत्व) | Fire (अग्नि तत्व) | Wind (वायु तत्व) | Space(Ether) (आकाशीय-तत्व) |
Nature | Heavy | Soft | Warm | Uncertain | Mixed |
Quality | Weight, solidarity | Fluidity | Hot, spread | Speed | Spread |
Characters | Yellow | White | Red | Blue or brown | Black |
Shape | Square | Crescent moon | Triangle | Hexagon | The dot |
Chakra | Base | Health care | Manipur | Non-profit | Purification |
Body function | Skin, blood | All body fluids | Apps, sleep, thirst | Muscle contraction | Passion |
Body position | Thighs | Leg | The shoulder | Navel | Head |
Mental state | ego | wisdom | Manas, Vivek | Mind | Wisdom |
Thesaurus | Annamay | Pranamay | Manomay | Scientific | Delightful |
Deathbed | Inanimate | Life | same | Udan | Wynn |
Planet | Wed | Moon, Venus | Sun, mars | Saturn | Jupiter |
The direction | East | The west | South | answer | Mid-vertical |
 |
| PANCH-MAHABHOOT AUR TRI-DOSHA SAMBANDH |