Body · Reading
Five elements
Air, fire, water, earth and space: the pancha mahabhuta, the tradition's building blocks of the body.
Awaiting subject reviewWritten from our source material and not yet checked by a teacher of this practice. Read it as reference, and learn the practice from someone who teaches it.
A traditional model
The pancha mahabhuta, the five great elements, are the traditional building blocks of everything in Prakriti, including the body.
Space, akasha, gives room: the hollows of the body. Air, vayu, gives movement. Fire, agni, gives transformation: digestion, warmth, perception. Water, jala, gives cohesion and flow. Earth, prithvi, gives structure: bone, muscle and form.
The elements are qualities, not substances in the modern sense. Ayurveda builds on them to describe the doshas.
Diagram
Ideas behind it
Sources and tradition
- YOG Union App Content Map, 2 November 2026, pp. 11–12, anatomy cards