Koshas

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Koshas." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/categories/koshas.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Koshas. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/categories/koshas

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-koshas,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Koshas},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/categories/koshas},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The five koshas are the sheaths that, in Vedantic teaching, wrap the self: the sheaths of food, breath, mind, discernment and bliss, named in Sanskrit annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya. The scheme is set out in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which describes each as enclosing the next like nested vessels, from the physical body outward to the subtlest layer of felt wellbeing. They are read as a map of progressively subtler layers of a person rather than as separate bodies, and Advaita Vedanta uses the model as a teaching device, guiding a practitioner to look past each sheath in turn toward the unchanging self the tradition holds none of the five actually is.

Facts

Overview

What Defines This Grouping

Five "sheaths" enclosing the self in Vedantic analysis - of food, breath, mind, discernment and bliss - used as a method of discrimination rather than as five separate bodies. 1

Size of the Traditional Set

5 koshas 1

Attestation

Era of Attestation

Set out in the Taittiriya Upanisad, one of the older prose Upanisads. 2

Learn More

The five sheaths of the self

The five koshas are the sheaths that, in Vedantic teaching, wrap the self: the annamaya kosha of food (the physical body), the pranamaya of breath (the vital body), the manomaya of mind, the vijnanamaya of discernment or intellect, and the anandamaya of bliss. They are set out in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which describes each as enclosing the next like nested vessels, with the true self within all five.

The scheme is a map of the person from the outermost material layer to the innermost, and a tool of contemplative analysis: to recognise that one is not merely the body, nor even the mind, but the awareness the sheaths enclose.

Analysis Toward the Self

In Vedantic practice the koshas are used to work inward, distinguishing the self from each sheath in turn, I have a body but am not only the body, I have thoughts but am not only the mind, in a method of discrimination aimed at realising the atman. The five-sheath model is widely taught in modern yoga and Vedanta.

The atlas describes each kosha, what it comprises, and its place in the Vedantic analysis of the self. The koshas belong to the same Indian map of the person as the gunas and chakras under The Body & Its Centres.

Cross-Tradition Connections