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In short
Prithvi tattva is the earth element: in this app the signs Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. The engine counts how many of the nine grahas sit in earth signs to find a chart's dominant element, and reads the 10th-house sign's element in the career reading. BPHS calls two of these three signs earthy by name.
What the term means
Prithvi tattva is the earth element as a quality of signs. In this app the earth signs are Vrishabha (Taurus), Kanya (Virgo) and Makara (Capricorn) - every fourth sign from the second. The engine's element table, ELEMENT_BY_SIGN, simply repeats Fire, Earth, Air, Water round the twelve signs, so each element holds one movable, one fixed and one dual sign.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 4 calls two of the three signs "earthy" in so many words: Vrishabh (Sl. 8) and Makar (Sl. 19-20). Its description of Kanya (Sl. 13-14) names no element. For the grahas, BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 20 and Ch. 76 Sl. 2 give earth to Budh, and Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 14 likewise gives earth to Mercury. BPHS also has a fifth element, space, which it gives to Guru (Ch. 3 Sl. 20); the four-way sign table has no place for it. One difference from the app should be stated: BPHS Ch. 76 Sl. 3-4 reads a person's elemental temperament from the strongest graha, while this app counts the signs the grahas occupy.
How this app uses it
- Dominant element: buildKundaliInsights() counts the nine grahas, Rahu and Ketu included, by the element of the sign each occupies, and reports the largest count as the chart's dominant element. On a tie, the first in the order Fire, Earth, Air, Water is reported.
- Career reading: the career and money engine looks up the element of the 10th-house sign; for Earth its sentence is about tangible, operational, asset-backed work.
- Saptavimshamsa (D27): the count starts from one of the four movable signs, chosen by element - fire signs from Aries, earth from Cancer, air from Libra, water from Capricorn - so the earth signs start from Cancer.
- Matching: the Varna koota table in kundli matching repeats every four signs, so all three earth signs share one Varna value.
One engine reading
For 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, the Sun and Jupiter in Capricorn and Rahu in Taurus give Earth a count of 3, the highest of the four, so the chart is reported as Earth-dominant.
Pages that use this term
- Taurus (Vrishabha Rashi) - a sign BPHS calls earthy.
- Capricorn (Makara Rashi) - the other sign BPHS calls earthy.
- Virgo (Kanya Rashi) - the earth sign BPHS gives no element word.
- Mercury in Vedic astrology - the graha BPHS gives the earth element.
- Career and money - reads the element of your 10th-house sign.
- Kundali - shows your chart's dominant element.
Related terms
Agni tattva, Vayu tattva, Jala tattva, Budha and Rashi.