March 24th, 2007 | admin

Kalarippayattu is widely practiced in Kerala and in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu, the southern most states of India. It is also believed that ancient Buddhist monks took kalarippayattu lessons from Tamil Nadu. They used the knowledge in the places of their exile and pilgrimage, mainly to protect against wild animals. In their hands, it was transformed to Karate. Aggression and physical harm to others is completely absent in Buddhist philosophy – thus the monks took only a small portion of the knowledge.

Kalari means an arena and payattu means fight. Hence kalarippayattu is a fight at the arena. The master of kalaripayattu is called an ‘asan’ or ‘guru’. Asan is the most common usage. There are different wings in kalarippayattu – empty handed fight, short stick, long stick, small knife, sword and shade, belt sword, are the weapons of aggression and defense.

Kalarippayattu primarily is the method of self-defense, but it also gives enormous benefits to the practitioners. It gives flexibility to body, better immune system, mental alertness, good physique, confidence, and self-control.

There are two distinct schools of Kalarippayattu in Kerala – Vadakkan or Northern style and Thekkan or Southern style. In the northern part, prominence is for weapons and in southern parts, empty handed fights. Vadakkan Kalari depends primarily on full body massaging to attain body flexibility, while southern style practitioners have a wide set of exercises to attain physical flexibility.

Marma concept is unique to Kalarippayattu. According to marma knowledge, there are 108 vital points on human body, which when is attacked with proper force and balance can cause even death. These highly sensitive points are called marmas. Among the 108 marmas, 12 are extremely critical.

An Asan (master of Kalaripayattu) must possess a sound marma knowledge as there are chances that the students may accidentally shock a marma (marmam). The effect of this shock, called thattu can be rectified with a maruthattu, which is the application of a controlled shock in an appropriate manner to neutralize the effect of the first shock.

Marma massaging is a method of massaging the body by giving proper pressure at the marma points. One must observe and work under his Asan for long time before venturing into using the skills on his own. Marma massaging can rectify deformation of bones and injuries like fracture occurred during fighting and/or accidents. Choice of medicated oil depends on the kind of massage the person requires. The medicines are transferred directly to the blood through the skin with this high pressure massaging.