Bodily Channels, Movements of Soul, and Inner Time: the Roots of Breath Prognostication (Svarodaya) in Early Tantric Śaivism

This presentation investigates the roots of a little-studied form of yoga: examination of the flow of breath within the body’s channels (nāḍī), typically for prognostication. Such practices are generally known today as svarodaya, “divination by the breath” or “breathing prognistication.” Despite its prominence in early-modern yoga as well as Indian Sufism, svarodaya remains a neglected area, perhaps because it sits uneasily within categories such as meditation, posture, and breath-control, and due to its surprising connections to medical and warfare divination. As this presentation examines, svarodaya has its roots in the early Śaiva tantra corpus (circa 6th-9th centuries), in practices for examining the circulation of breath and the soul or life-force in bodily channels for self-knowledge and ritual power.