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hindu-cosmosWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Tattva 34 — Fire (Tejas / Agni)

Fire and light: the element of heat and visibility, third of the five great elements.

Tejas (also called agni) is the gross element of fire — the third of the five great elements, the principle of heat, light, and transformation. It is what makes things visible and what cooks, burns, and changes them. In the tattva descent it unfolds from the subtle element of form, since fire is the element most bound up with visibility and color.

Key passages(15)

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Chāndogya Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

'Fire (tegas) is better than water. For fire united with air, warms the ether. Then people say, It is hot, it burns, it will rain. Thus does fire, after showing this sign (itself) first, create water.

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Tarka-saṃgraha · Annaṃbhaṭṭa

High

Vaiśeṣika-sūtra · Kaṇāda

High

Vaiśeṣika-sūtra · Kaṇāda

High

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

High

Haṭhayoga-pradīpikā · Svātmārāma

High

Praśna Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

He replied: "The ether is that god, the wind, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, eye, and ear. These, when they have manifested (their power), contend and say: We (each of us) support this body and kee

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Vijñāna-bhairava · Anonymous (Bhairava Āgama / Tantra)

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

Moderate

Bhumi (earth), Ap (water), Anala (fire), Vâyu (air), Kha (ether), mind, intellect, and egoism: thus is My Prakriti divided eight-fold.

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Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

Moderate

Praśna Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

Moderate

The earth and its subtile elements, the water and its subtile elements, the light and its subtile elements, the air and its subtile elements, the ether and its subtile elements; the eye and what can b

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Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

Moderate