For the purpose of science, all substance are products of the five basic elements or principles.  Moreover, these substances are of two kinds, animate and inanimate. 

The five basic elements are: 

• Ether (Akashiya):  The minutest to the biggest pores and visible and invisible channels of the body, the receptor spaces of every cell in the body, the sense of sound and the sense organ of hearing are akashiya in nature. 
• Air (Vayaviya):  The contraction, expansion, flexion, extension, movement, excitement, inhalation, exhalation, opening and closing of the eyes (eyelids), the mouth (lips) and sphincters (gastric, urinary, anal, etc.) are the characteristics pf vayaviya (because air is always invisible) and so the sense of touch and the cognitive organ of touch which is the skin is also vayaviya in nature. 
• Fire (Agneya:  The radiance of the body, the heat of pitta and the sense of sight and cognitive organ of sight which are the eyes are also agneya in nature. 
• Water (Jaliya):  Those parts which are liquid, slow, soft, and have viscidity such as lymph, blood, fat, adipose tissue are apya in nature.  The sense of taste and the cognitive organ of taste, the taste buds on the tongue, are also apya in nature, are as the excretory products such as urine and sweat. 
• Earth (Parthiva):  Those parts which are solid, rough, heavy, bulky, firm, and motionless like bones, teeth, nails, hair, tendons, ligaments, muscles, sense of smell and the cognitive organ of smell, the nose are parthiva in nature as are the excretory products such as faeces.

 These five elemental principles form the basic foundation on which anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology of that Ayurveda stand for.  Acharya sushruta emphasizes that there is no other subject of consideration in the practice of medicine than these principles and no study of theological treatise is complete without them. 

The parts of the body including the five sensory powers of faculties are derived from these basic and elemental principles and therefore, parts of the body can be divided according to the predominance of one or the other of these elements or principles.  These can be studied as: 

All branches of Ayurveda dealing with anatomy, physiology, tridosha, drugs, therapeutics etc. are interrelated only because all substances mentioned there in are panchbhautik and they act according to their mutual composition and the predominant bhuta is the individual basic principle. 

To elaborate the importance of this panchbautik doctrine with the principles of internal medicine, the relation between the process of digestion and the five basic and elemental principles has to be clearly understood in the light of the statements of the great Ayurveda sages. All the food we take in including the air that we inhale, are panchbautik and also the bhutagni (digestive ferments) present in our alimentary canal that digests the corresponding parts of the food is panchbautik.

Tags: air, Ayurveda, earth, ether, fire, five basic elements, water