Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.1121

c7.1121

(From this primordial principle the five elements (pañcabhūtas) were born. The first of these is ether which is the element of sound because sound travels through ether (śabda-tanmātra-rūpa). Then air (vāyu) gave rise to the sense of touch and so it is called sparśarūpa. This vāyu again gave rise to Agni (Vāyuragnih). Then came water which corresponds to the sense of taste (rasarūpa). From water came earth which is gandharūpa (the source of smell) (Udakādbhūmiḥ). Ākāśa (ether) has only one guṇa, namely sound. Vāyu (air) has two guṇas—śabda and sparśa (Sound and touch). Agni has three guṇas:—rūpa, śabda and sparśa. Jalaṃ (water) has four guṇas—śabda, sparśa, rūpa, and rasa. The last element—earth—has five guṇas—śabda, sparśa, rūpa, rasa and gandha. From these five tanmātrās is born the liṅga-śarīra or sūkṣma-śarīra).