Kalaripayattu: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 00:58, 29 June 2005

Kalarippayattu (കളരിപയററ്) is an ancient martial art form from India. It is mostly practiced in southern India in Kerala.

File:Kalari1.jpg

File:Kalari4.jpg

Overview

Kalaripayattu is practised inside a Kalari (കളരി), which is an arena akin to a gymnasium or a dojo. The word Ppayattu (പയററ്) means "practice". These words are in Malayalam ,a language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Kerala and are derived from Malayalam's root Tamil. Kalari is a derived word "Kalam" from Tamil, meaning battlefield. Also, "Payattu" is derived from the Tamil word "Payirchi" meaning practice. 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). 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.

History

The oldest western reference of Kalaripayattu is a 16th century travelogue of Duarte Barabosa, a Portuguese traveler. It suggested that Kalaripayattu was an integral part of the Kerala society between the 13th and 16th century. The first historical interpretation of the origin of the Kalaripayattu system was given by Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai. He points out that this fighting art emerged during the 12th century from the military exigency of the "Hundred Years War" between the Cheras and the Cholas. This theory was reiterated by later writers without question. Today, as the concept of the Hundred Years 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-17th centuries and becoming less prominent after the British outlawed it during the 18th and 19th centuries. It has recently been reinvigorated in the last few decades due to the general worldwide interest in martial arts.

Internet discussion versus Historical and Archaelogical Evidence

With the advent of the internet, there are many hypotheses about various subjects masquerading as facts and/or academically accepted theory. The disguise hiding the proponents' biases and agendas. The intent is to create a lie that is spread so widely and repeatedly the propaganda is popularly accepted as truth. These are often complicated when one propaganda is argued against another, so it seems like the truth is between either lie when neither is true. Kalaripayattu is one of these subjects. Kalaripayattu is an Indian martial art, and a claim has been made that it is the origin of the martial arts traditions of Asia, and it was transported to China by Bodhidharma. This has been strongly refuted by those who have a bigotted bias against India and those who have nationalist agendas that precludes any idea that any cultural art is the result of an import, as if somehow that would degrade the art or the country and it's artists.

Some have gone so far to claim that Bodhidharma did not exist simply because there are no surviving historical, as in written, records in India, whereas there are numerous records of him in China and Japan. This argument is logically ridiculous, there are in fact no historical records of Hsuan-Tsang or Xuan Zang, the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who travelled to India, in India itself. Yet, he provides one of the most important and accurate histories of India used by British scholars centuries later to rediscover sites in India lost from use with the decline of Buddhism. Buddhism's importance in historical records in India had almost been erased and subsumed into the Hindu tradition. Regardless of the logical fallibility of the argument, one would not really expect Indian historical records of a monk who made his mark in China and did not return to India. On the internet, propagandists disclaiming his existence remark that historical record of Bodhidharma did not exist until centuries after his death. Yang Xuanzhi describes Bodhidharma in the earliest surviving mention of him in "The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Lo-yang", a 547 Chinese text. Yang tells of meeting Bodhidharma at the monastery of Yung-ning.

Furthermore, propagandists claim there is no record of Bodhidharma coming from the south of India. Several texts in China do exactly that including "Xu Gao Sen Zhuan" by Dao Xuan, which is a 120 years or so after Bodhidharma's death though it largely copies earlier texts--T'an Lin's "Biography" and Bodhidharma's own "Two Entrances" from the first two sections of the "Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices" discovered in tens of thousands of manuscripts in a hidden chamber of the Tun-huang or Dun-huang caves in northwest China. The differences in Dao's text in that he uses Yang's description of Bodhidharma's age and a route to China by sea. 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. Since the region is the area where martial arts are practiced to this day, the martial art of Kalaripayattu is connected to the martial arts that Bodhidharma practiced by many martial artists Indian and Chinese and Japanese, or other ethnicities, but to essentially describe the development of Oriental tradition of martial arts.

Propagandists claim that "Hindutva" scholars and historians are the only ones who propose these ideas, but clearly these ancient contemporary texts could hardly be described as "Hindutva", they were Buddhist and to do so would be anachronistic to attribute an unassembled ideology several centuries into the past. Furthermore the claim that the origin of the Oriental tradition of martial arts coming from India is made by Chinese and Japanese martial artists, who could hardly be described as "Hindutva" idealogues. 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").

All of this comes with the notion that any transfer of martial arts from region to region was accompanied by the transfer of Buddhism. Although there was much cultural exchange as Buddhism travelled through Asia from India, this does not preclude cultural exchanges that occured prior to the advent of Buddhism along the already thriving silk roads and other exchange routes. Much of the preconceived notions about Oriental martial arts come about from the assembled stereotype of the current situation of martial arts and films; in which, Buddhism is also associated with China and Japan and not India regardless of Buddhism's origin and once flourishing in India.

Since most traditional martial arts in the Orient including India are based on a tradition of masters, regions, schools and forms can be studied as they have been by scholars like Terence Dukes, one could compare Kalaripayattu traditions and Chinese traditions and Japanese traditions to find some sort of definite answer to whether or not India was an origin of martial arts in other countries. In a country like India, where there are few recorded historical works describing ancients times that we know surprisingly much about, it's important to rely on archaelogical evidence and other means of scholarship. After all, one of the world's most important historical works the Bible is filled with legends, by most people's definitions, and written a few centuries after the crucial events described within.

Kalaripayattu could credibly claimed to be older than the 13th century. If not, then neither can many of the historical assumptions most serious academic theory holds true. One does not date Jesus Christ by when the Bible was physically written. Also, I am not clear at what the earlier editor is describing about the "Hundred Years War" and the Cheras and the Cholas. The Hundred Years War was fought between France and England. Maybe the editor was claiming that since the war between Southern Indian dynasties of the Cheras and the Cholas (and the Pandyas and Pallavas--the dynasty described in Indian and Chinese histories and in Chinese historical texts as the dynasty to which Bodhidharma was born under) lasted more than a hundred years it means that anything associated with the war is false also. Such a logical step is false, the wars between Southern Indian dynasties lasted several centuries and regardless how long the wars last, that would not prove or disprove that kalaripayattu existed during the wars or before the wars. The historical text by Pillai connects the origin of kalaripayattu to the wars between the Southern Indian dynasties that would make it existing during the early part of the first millenium. Regardless of if Kalaripayattu existed in India early on, it's clear from archaelogical evidence and the Vedas, the Hindu's religious texts (one of the world's oldest literatures), that martial arts existed from the earliest times, as the warrior caste is tied to martial arts training under gurus. Also in the earliest Vedic texts, the importance of wrestling to male status is described, corroborated by what Greek historical records say Alexander the Great and his armies found and admired. (Though not mentioned in any written historical record from that time in India. One would have to discount Greek and Roman histories to make this any significant evidence about martial arts in India.)

I will not say that India is the origin of martial arts of China and Japan, etc. even though Chinese and Japanese sources say as much. Shaolin monks in China relate how Bodhidharma brought martial arts and how they used these arts to survive brutal imperial repression and dacoitry. 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 Chinese script "Tenjiku Naranokaku" translating as "the fighting techniques to train the body [which come] from India . . ." Likewise, Zen Buddhists in Japan and other Japanese martial artists also trace martial arts to India. It may very well be a legendary narrative that a single Indian brought martial arts to China though reflecting a true transfer of martial arts from one country to another. History is full of legends borne out to have truth, like the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. Or it might be a legend connecting countries in bonds of brotherhood that do not exist. Either way there is no definite or clear answer in historical (written) records that would settle the issue ie. clearly say Bodhidharma brought "Kalaripayattu" to China and start martial arts traditions; although from the sum total of evidence--oral histories and the transfer of other arts along trade routes, one is more inclined to believe at least some transfer of knowledge occured given the same academic inferences made in other cases.

Whatever the case, propagandas and controversies will ensue. Especially in light of upcoming films's like Jackie Chan's The Myth (which features a Kalaripayattu artist along with the beautiful Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat) and rivalries of the two great emerging nations of China and India--or at least a supposed rivalry by outside observers and misguided nationalists. A supposed rivalry ignore current cooperative efforts by both countries--recent 2005 joint military exercises, a joint oil purchasing effort, etc. And to extend any modern rivalry to ancient martial arts would be a futile anachronistic exercise that ignores the ancient historical record and archaelogical evidence of many tribes and kingdoms that moved between both regions in which Central Asia also played an important role along trade routes.

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".

Variations

Kalarippayattu has two main divisions : Vadakkan Kalarippayattu (Northern style) and Thekken Kalarippayattu (Southern style). Northern style involves more elaborate graceful body movements and southern style involves very rapid economical and yet powerful movements.

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

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. Jackie Chan's The Myth also features Kalaripayattu martial arts.

External links

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 Kalaripayyattu date from Portuguese descriptions during the latter 16th-17th
 centuries and becoming less prominent after the [[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.
+centuries]].  It has recently been reinvigorated in the last few decades due to the general
+worldwide interest in martial arts.
+==Internet discussion versus Historical and Archaelogical Evidence==
-There is a recent suggestion by some kalaripayattu practitioners and the author Terrance Dukes (a.k.a "Shifu" Nagaboshi Tomio, Tomio S. Nagaboshi, and Terence Dukes) that kung fu, and as a result all Eastern martial arts was derived from kalaripayattu through the semilegendary monk, Bodhidharma, who is attributed with the birth of Chan Buddhism.  This suggestion is not accepted by mainstream historians as there is evidence in China of martial arts prior to the beginning of Chan Buddhism going back to at least the Spring and Autumn (722-481 B.C.E) period and most historians believe that martial arts was transferred into a "Shaolin" style through the monks harboring retired military personnel.  Further, Chinese and Japanese legends of Bodhidharma are conflicting as to his origins with the very first references in the 6th century A.D. attributing his origins to Central Asia and then later India.  The first Chinese legends that do exist state that he developed meditation exercises to strengthen the monks after meditating without moving for nine years in a cave in China.
+With the advent of the internet, there are many hypotheses about various subjects masquerading as facts and/or academically accepted theory. The disguise hiding the proponents' biases and agendas. The intent is to create a lie that is spread so widely and repeatedly the propaganda is popularly accepted as truth. These are often complicated when one propaganda is argued against another, so it seems like the truth is between either lie when neither is true. Kalaripayattu is one of these subjects. Kalaripayattu is an Indian martial art, and a claim has been made that it is the origin of the martial arts traditions of Asia, and it was transported to China by Bodhidharma. This has been strongly refuted by those who have a bigotted bias against India and those who have nationalist agendas that precludes any idea that any cultural art is the result of an import, as if somehow that would degrade the art or the country and it's artists.
+Some have gone so far to claim that Bodhidharma did not exist simply because there are no surviving historical, as in written, records in India, whereas there are numerous records of him in China and Japan. This argument is logically ridiculous, there are in fact no historical records of Hsuan-Tsang or Xuan Zang, the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who travelled to India, in India itself. Yet, he provides one of the most important and accurate histories of India used by British scholars centuries later to rediscover sites in India lost from use with the decline of Buddhism. Buddhism's importance in historical records in India had almost been erased and subsumed into the Hindu tradition. Regardless of the logical fallibility of the argument, one would not really expect Indian historical records of a monk who made his mark in China and did not return to India. On the internet, propagandists disclaiming his existence remark that historical record of Bodhidharma did not exist until centuries after his death. Yang Xuanzhi describes Bodhidharma in the earliest surviving mention of him in "The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Lo-yang", a 547 Chinese text. Yang tells of meeting Bodhidharma at the monastery of Yung-ning.
+Furthermore, propagandists claim there is no record of Bodhidharma coming from the south of India. Several texts in China do exactly that including "Xu Gao Sen Zhuan" by Dao Xuan, which is a 120 years or so after Bodhidharma's death though it largely copies earlier texts--T'an Lin's "Biography" and Bodhidharma's own "Two Entrances" from the first two sections of the "Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices" discovered in tens of thousands of manuscripts in a hidden chamber of the Tun-huang or Dun-huang caves in northwest China. The differences in Dao's text in that he uses Yang's description of Bodhidharma's age and a route to China by sea. 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. Since the region is the area where martial arts are practiced to this day, the martial art of Kalaripayattu is connected to the martial arts that Bodhidharma practiced by many martial artists Indian and Chinese and Japanese, or other ethnicities, but to essentially describe the development of Oriental tradition of martial arts.
+Propagandists claim that "Hindutva" scholars and historians are the only ones who propose these ideas, but clearly these ancient contemporary texts could hardly be described as "Hindutva", they were Buddhist and to do so would be anachronistic to attribute an unassembled ideology several centuries into the past. Furthermore the claim that the origin of the Oriental tradition of martial arts coming from India is made by Chinese and Japanese martial artists, who could hardly be described as "Hindutva" idealogues. 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").
+All of this comes with the notion that any transfer of martial arts from region to region was accompanied by the transfer of Buddhism. Although there was much cultural exchange as Buddhism travelled through Asia from India, this does not preclude cultural exchanges that occured prior to the advent of Buddhism along the already thriving silk roads and other exchange routes. Much of the preconceived notions about Oriental martial arts come about from the assembled stereotype of the current situation of martial arts and films; in which, Buddhism is also associated with China and Japan and not India regardless of Buddhism's origin and once flourishing in India.
+Since most traditional martial arts in the Orient including India are based on a tradition of masters, regions, schools and forms can be studied as they have been by scholars like Terence Dukes, one could compare Kalaripayattu traditions and Chinese traditions and Japanese traditions to find some sort of definite answer to whether or not India was an origin of martial arts in other countries. In a country like India, where there are few recorded historical works describing ancients times that we know surprisingly much about, it's important to rely on archaelogical evidence and other means of scholarship. After all, one of the world's most important historical works the Bible is filled with legends, by most people's definitions, and written a few centuries after the crucial events described within.
+Kalaripayattu could credibly claimed to be older than the 13th century. If not, then neither can many of the historical assumptions most serious academic theory holds true. One does not date Jesus Christ by when the Bible was physically written. Also, I am not clear at what the earlier editor is describing about the "Hundred Years War" and the Cheras and the Cholas. The Hundred Years War was fought between France and England. Maybe the editor was claiming that since the war between Southern Indian dynasties of the Cheras and the Cholas (and the Pandyas and Pallavas--the dynasty described in Indian and Chinese histories and in Chinese historical texts as the dynasty to which Bodhidharma was born under) lasted more than a hundred years it means that anything associated with the war is false also. Such a logical step is false, the wars between Southern Indian dynasties lasted several centuries and regardless how long the wars last, that would not prove or disprove that kalaripayattu existed during the wars or before the wars. The historical text by Pillai connects the origin of kalaripayattu to the wars between the Southern Indian dynasties that would make it existing during the early part of the first millenium. Regardless of if Kalaripayattu existed in India early on, it's clear from archaelogical evidence and the Vedas, the Hindu's religious texts (one of the world's oldest literatures), that martial arts existed from the earliest times, as the warrior caste is tied to martial arts training under gurus. Also in the earliest Vedic texts, the importance of wrestling to male status is described, corroborated by what Greek historical records say Alexander the Great and his armies found and admired. (Though not mentioned in any written historical record from that time in India. One would have to discount Greek and Roman histories to make this any significant evidence about martial arts in India.)
+I will not say that India is the origin of martial arts of China and Japan, etc. even though Chinese and Japanese sources say as much. Shaolin monks in China relate how Bodhidharma brought martial arts and how they used these arts to survive brutal imperial repression and dacoitry. 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 Chinese script "Tenjiku Naranokaku" translating as "the fighting techniques to train the body [which come] from India . . ." Likewise, Zen Buddhists in Japan and other Japanese martial artists also trace martial arts to India. It may very well be a legendary narrative that a single Indian brought martial arts to China though reflecting a true transfer of martial arts from one country to another. History is full of legends borne out to have truth, like the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. Or it might be a legend connecting countries in bonds of brotherhood that do not exist. Either way there is no definite or clear answer in historical (written) records that would settle the issue ie. clearly say Bodhidharma brought "Kalaripayattu" to China and start martial arts traditions; although from the sum total of evidence--oral histories and the transfer of other arts along trade routes, one is more inclined to believe at least some transfer of knowledge occured given the same academic inferences made in other cases.
+Whatever the case, propagandas and controversies will ensue. Especially in light of upcoming films's like Jackie Chan's The Myth (which features a Kalaripayattu artist along with the beautiful Bollywood starlet Mallika Sherawat) and rivalries of the two great emerging nations of China and India--or at least a supposed rivalry by outside observers and misguided nationalists. A supposed rivalry ignore current cooperative efforts by both countries--recent 2005 joint military exercises, a joint oil purchasing effort, etc. And to extend any modern rivalry to ancient martial arts would be a futile anachronistic exercise that ignores the ancient historical record and archaelogical evidence of many tribes and kingdoms that moved between both regions in which Central Asia also played an important role along trade routes.
 ==Cultural influence==
@@ Line 72: / Line 90: @@
 ==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.
+#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.  Jackie Chan's The Myth also features Kalaripayattu martial arts.
 ==External links==