According to early Indian philosophers, what are the basic elements described in Pancha Tattva?

Correct — B, Air, Earth, Fire, Sky and Water. Early Indian thought describes matter as built from five gross elements, the pancha mahabhuta: prithvi (earth), ap or jal (water), tejas or agni (fire), vayu (air) and akasha (sky, space or ether). The set appears across the Upanishads, the Samkhya and Vaisheshika systems, Buddhist and Jain thought and Ayurveda. Option (b) is the only one that carries all five names and nothing else.

• (a)Earth, Fire, Sky, Gas and Water — This drops air and inserts 'gas' in its place. Vayu is the element, and the traditional lists have no separate category called gas.
• (c)Gas, Land, Fire, Sky and Water — Two substitutions at once — gas for air and land for earth — leave the list without two of the five gross elements under their own names.
• (d)Air, Earth, Fire, Land and Water — Land replaces sky here, so akasha, the subtlest of the five, disappears while earth is effectively named twice. Akasha is the element the other four are held to arise in, so its loss is the substantive error.

The pancha mahabhuta are the five gross elements of Indian natural philosophy, arranged from the subtlest to the densest as akasha, vayu, tejas, ap and prithvi. Each is linked to a sense — akasha to sound, vayu to touch, tejas to sight, ap to taste and prithvi to smell. The scheme underpins Ayurvedic physiology, where the five elements combine into the three doshas.

Every option keeps fire and water, so the question is decided at the other three slots. Two modern words are planted in the list — 'gas' and 'land' — and neither is a translation of any of the five. Vayu is air, not gas; prithvi is earth, not land; and akasha, the hardest to translate, is rendered as sky or space. Spot those three and the answer follows without any knowledge of the philosophical systems themselves.

• The pancha mahabhuta are prithvi, ap, tejas, vayu and akasha.
• In English these are earth, water, fire, air and sky or space.
• Each element is associated with one sense — akasha with sound, vayu with touch, tejas with sight, ap with taste and prithvi with smell.
• The Vaisheshika system lists these elements among its categories of substance.
• Ayurveda builds its three doshas — vata, pitta and kapha — from combinations of the five elements.

• Reading 'gas' as a modern rendering of vayu.
• Treating land and earth as interchangeable and so accepting a list without sky.
• Assuming the five elements are a Greek borrowing; the Indian list is independently attested and includes akasha, which the classical Greek four do not.

A vocabulary-and-list item on early Indian thought, set by swapping one or two of the five names for near-synonyms; the wider theme appears in prelims as questions on the six systems of philosophy.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is not among the pancha mahabhuta?

  • (a)Akasha
  • (b)Vayu
  • (c)Manas
  • (d)Prithvi

  Answer(c) Manas — mind is treated separately from the five gross elements.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the traditional Indian scheme, which element is associated with the sense of sound?

  • (a)Prithvi
  • (b)Akasha
  • (c)Ap
  • (d)Tejas

  Answer(b) Akasha — sky or space is paired with hearing, as earth is with smell.