La "scienza del respiro" indo-persiana

This paper deals with the tradition of practical philosopby called in Persian 'ilm-i dam or 'ilm-i nafas, i.e. the "science of breath". Recent studies have underlined the depth and the multiple layers of the entaglement of this Islamicate tradition with its original inspiration, the Indic reflections on breath and pneumatic realities (pranayama and svarodaya). Here, we aim at problematizing the connection of the intellectual spaces of the Indo-Persian "science of breath" with some South Asian theories about self-understanding, and at the same time we discuss possible new readings of the 'ilm-i dam theory in the light of the recent philosophical manifesto of Emanuele Coccia.