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Kalarippayattu (Malayalam: കളരിപയററ്) is a martial art practiced in the Indian state of Kerala and the Kodagu district of neighboring Karnataka. Kalarippayattu has two main divisions : Vadakkan Kalarippayattu (Northern style), which is associated with Malayalam-speaking Nairs, and Thekken Kalarippayattu (Southern style), which is associated with Tamils. Northern style involves more elaborate graceful body movements and southern style involves very rapid economical and yet powerful movements. Tradition attributes kalarippayattu and indeed Kerala itself to Parasurama, sixth avatar of Vishnu. This was originally practised by the fighters or warriors of Kerala. In ancient times, arguments between nobles were often decided on the basis of a Kalarippayyattu tournament's outcome.

File:Kalari1.jpg

File:Kalari4.jpg

Related to the point of indistinguishability to the Southern style are the Tamil martial arts practiced in the Travancore district of Kerala and the Kanyakumari district of neighboring Tamil Nadu that variously go by the names ati tata (hit/defend), ati murai (law of hitting), varma ati (Tamil)/marma ati (Malayalam) (hitting the vital spots), or chinna ati (Chinese hitting) (Zarrilli, 1992). These arts claim descent from the rishi Agastya and, compared to kalarippayattu, place more emphasis on empty-hand techniques and less on weapons.

Etymology

The term "Kalarippayattu" is a bahuvrihi (compound word) formed from the words kalari (Malayalam: കളരി) meaning "place, open space, threshing floor, battlefield" and payattu (Malayalam: പയററ്) derived from "payttuka" meaning "to exercise in arms, practice". Kalari is derived from the Tamil root "kalam" meaning "arena, area for dramatic, gladiatorial, or gymnastic exhibitions, assembly, place of work or business." Payattu is derived from the Tamil root "payil" meaning "to become trained, accustomed, practice" (Zarrilli, 1992). Together these two words in Tamil mean "Practice of arts of the battlefield". Most words related to Kalari are originally from Tamil, including words like "suvadi" (footprint), "vadivu" (stance/pose), "verum kai" (weaponless hand), "mei payattu" (mei=body).

Disputed history of kalarippayattu

How far back can kalarippayattu be dated? Did Bodhidharma create the Chinese and Japanese martial arts from kalarippayattu?

Please read the the article '''Disputed history of kalarippayattu''' for more details about these topics.

Cultural influence

Kalaripayattu also shows a strong influence of Ayurveda and major classical dance forms of Kerala, namely Kathakali. Kalarippayyattu teachers often provide massages with traditional medicinal oils to their students in order to increase their physical flexibility or to treat muscle injuries encountered during practice. Such massages are generally termed "Thirumal" and the unique massage given to increase physical flexibility is known as "Katcha thirumal".

Stages

Kalarippayattu training differs from most other martial arts training. Bare hand fighting skills are taught in the end. Since it was originally the martial training given to warriors, the martial art teaches the practitioner to become adept in several different forms of weapons. The stages in which this training is imparted is:

Meythari

This is the beginner stage where rigorous body sequences comprising of twists, stances and complex jumps and turns are to be mastered. These exercises are termed as Meyppayattu and they impart excellent neuro muscular co-ordination in the practitioner.

Kolthari

Once the student is physically competent enough, he/she is introduced to fighting with a long wooden weapons. The first weapon taught is usually 5 feet in length or up to the forehead of the student from the ground level. The second weapon taught is a short wooden stick of about two and a half feet or three palm spans. This is called the "Cheruvadi" or "Muchan". The third weapon taught is "Otta" which is a wooden staff curved to resemble the trunk of an elephant. The tip is rounded and is used to strike the vital spots in the opponent's body.

Ankathari

Once the practitioner has gained confidence with all the wooden weapons, he/she is introduced to metal weapons, which require superior concentration due to the lethal nature of such weapons. The first weapon taught is the metal dagger called "Kadhara" which has a curved blade. Once the dagger is mastered, the master weapon of Kalarippayattu ; the sword and shield is taught to deserving students. The sword is called "Val" and the shield is called "Paricha" This is probably the most beautiful sequence to be seen in the demonstration of this martial art.

There are more weapons taught including a wooden spear and the famous flexible sword called "Urumi" which is an extremely dangerous weapon taught to the rarest of students.

Verumkai

After all the weapons have been mastered, the practitioner is taught how to defend his/her person with bare hand techniques. These include strikes to vital points of the body, grapples and arm locks.

A complete Kalarippayattu training is incomplete without learning the medical aspects. The practitioner who has completed martial training is taught how to treat physical injuries with traditional medicines. A person who is well versed with all these aspects and becomes a complete master is called Gurukkal.

Weapons

Kalari uses a number of unique weapons.

Long staff or pirambu or neduvati ( means rattan stick)
Kurunthadi
Knife / dagger
Vettukathi ( a form of machete or Kukri)
Valum parichayum ( sword and round shield)
Churika
Chuttuval (flexible sword)
Kottukampu or Thavikkana

References

. ISBN 0520219724. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)

Cephas, Shawn. "The Root of Warrior Priests in the Martial Arts", Kungfu Magazine (Winter 1994)

Chou Hsiang-kuang. (1955) A History of Chinese Buddhism. Allahabad: Indo-Chinese Literature Publications.

. ISBN 0877287856. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)

Lin Boyuan. (1986) Zhongguo wushu shi. Taibei: Wuzhou chubanshe.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. (1949) Essays in Zen Buddhism. London: Rider & Company.

Zarrilli, P. (1992). "To heal and/or harm: The vital spots (marmmam/varmam) in two south Indian martial traditions--Part I: Focus on Kerala's kalarippayattu". Journal of Asian Martial Arts 1 (1)

Additional readings

Movies on Kalarippayyattu

Oru Vadakkan Veera Katha - a movie of an ancient tale of a kalarippayyattu warrior called Chandu. Traces his exploits and has some well choreographed fighting scenes.

External links

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Together these two words in Tamil mean "Practice of arts of the battlefield". Most words related to Kalari are originally from Tamil, including words like "suvadi" (footprint), "vadivu" (stance/pose), "verum kai" ([[weapon]]less hand), "mei payattu" (mei=body).
-==Disputed history: how far back can kalarippayattu be dated?==
+==Disputed history of kalarippayattu==
-[[Disputed history of Kalarippayattu]]
+How far back can kalarippayattu be dated?
-The earliest reference to kalarippayattu occurs in ''A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the [[16th century|Sixteenth Century]]'' by [[Duarte Barbosa]], indicating that kalarippayattu had already developed by this time.
+Did [[Bodhidharma]] create the Chinese and Japanese martial arts from kalarippayattu?
-Phillip B. Zarrilli, University of Exeter professor and one of the few Western authorities on kalaripayattu, estimates that kalarippayattu dates back to at least the [[12th century]] CE.[http://www.ex.ac.uk/drama/staff/kalari/power.html]
-The historian Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai hypothesizes that kalarippayattu was a product of the battles between the [[Chera|Cheras]] and the [[Cholas]] during the [[11th century]].
-This theory was reiterated by later writers without question. Today, as the concept of the war has been questioned and rejected, the theory of the origin of Kalari during this war has lost its ground. As stated earlier, the oldest suggested existence of Kalaripayattu date back to the [[13th century]]. The earliest recorded evidence of Kalaripayyattu date from Portuguese descriptions during the latter [[16th century|16th]]-[[17th century|17th]] centuries and becoming less prominent after the [[British Empire|British]] outlawed it during the [[18th century|18th]] and [[19th century|19th]] centuries. It has recently been reinvigorated in the last few decades due to the general worldwide interest in martial arts.
+Please read the the article [['''Disputed history of kalarippayattu''']] for more details about these topics.
-==Disputed history: did Bodhidharma create the Chinese and Japanese martial arts from kalarippayattu?==
-Some martial arts claim descent from Bodhidharma through the Shaolin monks.  This has led to speculation that, if Bodhidharma was Indian, and if there is an Indian martial art called kalaripayattu, then if Bodhidharma trained in kalarippayattu, the martial arts descended from Shaolin are, by extension, also descended from kalarippayattu (Cephas, 1994).  This claim is complicated by the conflicting history of Bodhidharma.
-; Disputed claim : The Shaolin Temple in China contains fresco murals with dark-skinned, not black, but similar in skin tone to Indians, monks teaching ostensibly Chinese monks fighting forms. On the mural that survived three fires between 1644 to 1927, it says in Japanese script "Tenjiku Naranokaku" translating as "the fighting techniques to train the body [which come] from India . . ."
-Cited in support of the Indian progeniture of Shaolin kung fu is a fresco painted during the [[Qing Dynasty]] ([[1644]]&ndash;[[1912]]) depicting light-skinned and dark-skinned monks sparring, supposedly inscribed and translated in Japanese as "Tenjiku Naranokaku," which translates as "the fighting techniques to train the body [which come] from India..." Elsewhere, however, the title is given in Chinese as "Quanpu Bihua," which translates as "Boxing Drills Mural."
-; Disputed claim : A book by Terence Dukes, or Shifu Nagaboshi Tomio, an ordained teacher and Buddhist monk initiate of the Ryushinji Temple in Okinawa, Japan, studies the development of martial art forms from China to Japan and from India to China and also traces the corresponding transfer of Buddhism and ancient Indian knowledge like Sanskrit texts ("The Bodhisattva Warriors: The Origin, Inner Philosophy, History and Symbolism of the Buddhist Martial Art within India and China").
-Even Terence Dukes, who in ''The Bodhisattva Warriors'' posits that the Asian tradition of martial arts comes from India, makes only a single specific reference to kalarippayattu ("It is only in these Dravidian areas of India that indigenous martial arts, under the name of Kalari exist nowadays") which Dukes reckons came about only towards the end of the Chola period (c. [[850]]&ndash;[[1279]] CE) (Dukes, 1994).
-Of the primary sources on Bodhidharma, the "Xu Gaoseng Zhuan" ([[645]]), written roughly a century after Bodhidharma's death, and those texts which copy it, the "Zutangji" ([[952]]) and the "Jingde Chuandenglu" ([[1004]]), identify him not only as South Indian, but [[Brahmin]].
-<blockquote>[Bodhidharma], the Teacher of the Law, was the third son of a great Brahman king in South India, of the Western Lands. (Suzuki, 1949)</blockquote>
-The "Biography" (pre-645) by Tanlin, the original which the "Xu Gaoseng Zhuan" copies, does not specify his caste.
-However, in the earliest surviving mention of him in the "The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Lo-yang" ([[547]]), [[Yang Xuanzhi]] describes Bodhidharma specifically as a Persian from Central Asia (Wade-Giles: ''po-szu kuo hu-jen'') (Broughton, 1999).
-<blockquote>At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild borderlands to China.</blockquote>
-; Disputed claim : Historical texts speak of [[Bodhidharma]], the legendary founder of [[Chan Buddhism]],a Brahmin born in Kacheepuram (''sic'') in Tamil Nadu, in 522 A.D. arriving at the courts of the Chinese Emperor Liang Nuti, (''sic'') of the 6th dynasty, as the person responsible for bringing Kalaripayattu from India to China. He taught meditative and physical exercises to the chinese monks so that they could defend themselves against the frequent attacks of bandits.
-: ....
-: The texts describe Bodhidharma's birth in the modern southern Indian state of Kerala around 440 during the Pallavas' rule. He is told to be a clan prince in a poor hunter class and was well versed in martial arts.
-Assertions like those championing [[Kanchipuram]] as Bodhidharma's birthplace are of recent provenance (Chou, 1955). Moreover, they conflict. Was Bodhidharma a Brahmin born in Kanchipuram in present-day Tamil Nadu or was he a poor hunter clan prince born in present-day Kerala?
-None of the primary sources on Bodhidharma specifies either the year, the kingdom, or the ''[[jati]]'' into which he was born.
-Daoxuan (as well as those that copy him) and Yang Xuanzhi merely give Bodhidharma's age as 150 over a time period that could range from [[516]] to [[554]], resulting in a possible birth range from [[366]] to [[404]]; though incredible, none of the ''texts'' could accurately be said to describe his birth c. [[440]].
-It is not until centuries after Bodhidharma's death that the "Jingde Chuandenglu" (1004) makes the first explicit association between Bodhidharma and the Shaolin temple.
-Even then, it contains no record of Bodhidharma teaching martial arts to the Shaolin monks or reference to any fighting skill or martial prowess on his part.
-The first explicit association of Bodhidharma and the Shaolin martial arts is made in a text from no earlier than 1624 written by Zining Daoren (literally "Zining, the Taoist").<blockquote>[A]fter Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years at Shaolin temple, he left behind an iron chest; when the monks opened this chest they found the two books “Xi Sui Jing” (Marrow Washing Classic) and “Yi Jin Jing” within.  The first book was taken by his disciple Huike, and disappeared; as for the second, “the monks selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the correct purpose of cultivating the Real.  The Shaolin monks have made some fame for themselves through their fighting skill; this is all due to having obtained this manuscript." (Lin, 1986, p. 183)</blockquote>For the thousand years between the establishment of the Shaolin temple and this text, none of the many contemporary texts about the Shaolin martial arts attributes them to Bodhidharma. Also, considering Bodhidharma's emphasis on direct personal transmission and criticism of textual scholarship, it is unlikely he would disappear leaving his followers only books.
-Bodhidharma is completely absent from Indian primary sources.
-There is physical and written evidence in China that martial arts as practiced by the Shaolin monks predate the [[6th century]] and that most martial arts in most countries developed to some degree independently of each other.
-The "Extensive Records of the Taiping Era" record that, prior to Bodhidharma's arrival in China, monks practiced wrestling for recreation.
-Shaolin monastery records state that two of its very first monks, Hui Guang and Seng Chou, were expert in the martial arts years before the arrival of Bodhidharma.
-The exercises attributed to Bodhidharma are consistent with Chinese [[qigong]] exercises and look little like Indian forms of bodywork like [[yoga]].
 ==Cultural influence==