Haqā’iq-i Hindī: A Sufi Poetics of Air and Breath Through Bhakti Songs
Sophia October 31, 2025 Zahra Rashid
The poetics of air and breath in the 16th-century text Haqā’iq-i Hindī reveal how Sufi and Bhakti traditions in early modern South Asia interacted through shared embodied rituals and a common grammar of multivocal symbols, while also maintaining distinct identities. This dialogue was shaped by the broader literary, political, and social contexts of the period. The analysis shows that such poetics enable multi-cultural participation by appealing to embodied consciousness, offering insights for comparative philosophers studying cross-cultural interactions with Sufism.