Prithvi, the Earth Tattva

Prithvi is the earth tattva, the densest of the five gross elements of the Indian scheme, the principle of solidity, resistance, structure and smell. In the classical analysis earth is associated with the sense of smell and with everything that has fixed form and mass; in the subtle physiology it is linked to the base of the body and to the qualities of stability and support. The five tattvas are the elemental principles of Samkhya and Tantric metaphysics, each proceeding from a subtle essence and giving rise to a sense-faculty.

Earth entered Western esoteric practice through Rama Prasad's Nature's Finer Forces of 1890 and the Golden Dawn, whose members meditated on the tattva symbols, earth shown as a yellow square, in the practice they called tattva vision, from 1888 onward. This Western use is a modern borrowing; the earth tattva and its attributes of solidity and smell belong to the ancient Indian doctrine of the five elements from which the symbols were taken.

Sources Classical Samkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and MeaningGerald James Larson with Nature's Finer Forces: The Science of Breath and the Philosophy of the TattvasRama Prasad