ok ... let me add what I know about the current theories on how the Universe began... First of all..this breaking down of elements into earth,fire, water, air and space is outdated (I think it was also prevalent among the greeks).
The most commonly accepted theory these days is that of the Big Bang, which states that ALL matter that currently exists in the universe was initially present in a singularity.. a singularity is basically a point of infinite density.. so all of it.. matter, space everything was within this infinitesimal point of infinite density...
A question that can be asked is then this: So what was "outside" this point? Stephen Hawking, the physicist, in his book "A Brief History of Science" says that the question is not valid under the conditions. (Unfortunately, I don't think there are too many people who can even think of NOT asking the question.. people like us... and I am sure we won't understand the answer either"..
Hawking also goes on to say that time did not exist... Time starts with a reference point, and the reference point for that is the Big Bang, which is when this infinitely dense dot blew up and expanded to the Universe as it is today.
There are also a few competing theories as to what happens now:
A) One theory says that the Universe has reached a steady state of expansion
B) Another viewpoint is that the Universe will finally start contracting on itself till it comes to a Big Crunch, that is all the matter in the Universe will again start contracting till it becomes a singularity.. an infinitesimally dense point...
At this point, time again ceases to exist.. On the whole this theory is the one that is closes to the Hindu view of Epochs happening one after the other.
C) Yet another theory is that the Universe will keep expanding..
One must remember that these are all theories... and theories only exist to explain observed phenomenon.. they are not the truth per se.. so we don't know what actually happened :)
Alos, I am not in favor of digging up old Hindu (or Muslim or Christian etc) mythology and reinterpreting it in light of new discoveries and saying: See our sages said this ages ago...
> Earth (Prithvi) - Water - Fire - Air - Space - I was not able to arrive at > as the which one of these five existed first .. in the beginning .. then > which was the beginning .. ?
Our scriptures have gone even one step beyond this and have covered areas where nothing existed. It is called shoonya - andhakaaram- kali. Buddhism talks about it and hinduism talks about it.
According to science, the first thing to come into existance before 5 elements was sound. Our scriptures say everything came out of "aum" - the popular OM.
I asked Dr.JB recently who was goddess kali and what is she supposed to represent ? He said kaali is nothing but an embodiment of kali - the darkness - the andhakaaram that existed before everything else came up. That is why she is dark in colour. The darkness that surrounded everything before anything else.
Alas ! at a later date she was made to subdue to lord shiva - just to emphasise superiority. That's beyond this topic, anyway:-)