Martial Arts Of The World - Webs
Martial Arts Of The World - Webs Martial Arts Of The World - Webs
228 Kalarippayattu though clearly related to kalarippayattu, are different enough to warrant separate consideration. The remainder of this entry focuses primarily on northern style, with a brief description of central style. The traditional practice of kalarippayattu is informed by key principles and assumptions about the body, consciousness, the body-mind relationship, health, and exercise drawn from Kerala’s unique versions of yoga practice and philosophy, South Asian medicine (called Ayurveda [Sanskrit; science of life]), and religious mythology, practices, and histories. The Malayalam folk expression “The body becomes all eyes” encapsulates the ideal state of the practitioner, whose response to his environment should be like Brahma the thousand-eyed—able to see and respond intuitively, like an animal, to anything. To attain this ideal state of awareness, traditional masters emphasize that one must “possess complete knowledge of the body.” This traditionally meant gaining knowledge of three different “bodies of practice”: (1) the fluid body of humors and saps, associated with Ayurveda, in which there should be a healthful congruence of the body’s humors through vigorous, seasonal exercise; (2) the body composed of bones, muscles, and the vulnerable vital junctures or spots (marmmam) of the body; and (3) the subtle, interior body, assumed in the practice of yoga, through which the internal “serpent power” (kundalini sakti) is awakened for use in martial practice and in giving healing therapies. Training toward this ideal began traditionally at the age of 7 in specially constructed kalari, ideally dug out of the ground so that they are pits with a plaited coconut palm roof above. The kalari itself is considered a temple, and in Hindu kalari from seven to twenty-one deities are considered present, and worshipped on a daily basis, at least during the training season. After undergoing a ritual process of initiation into training and paying respects to the gurukkal, the student in the northern style of kalarippayattu begins by oiling the body and practicing a vigorous array of “body preparation” exercises, including poses, kicks, steps, jumps, and leg exercises performed in increasingly complex combinations back and forth across the kalari floor. Most important is mastery of basic poses, named after animals such as the elephant, horse, and lion, comparable to yoga postures (asanas), and steps that join one pose to another. Repetitious practice of these vigorous physical forms is understood to eventually render the external body flexible and “flowing like a river” as students literally “wash the floor of the kalari with their sweat.” In addition to the techniques described above, the central style includes distinctive techniques performed within floor drawings, known as kalam, traced with rice powder on the floor of the kalari. Special steps for attack and defense are learned within a five-circle pattern so that the student moves in triangles, or zigzags. In addition, some masters of central
style teach cumattadi, sequences of “steps and hits” based on particular animal poses and performed in four directions, instilling in the student the ability to respond to attacks from all directions. Traditionally, preliminary training took place during the cool monsoon period (June-September), and also included undergoing a vigorous full-body massage given with the master’s feet as he held onto ropes suspended from the ceiling of the kalari. As with the practice of yoga, special restrictions and observances traditionally circumscribed training, such as not sleeping during the day while in training, refraining from sexual intercourse during the days when one was receiving the intensive massage, not waking at night, and taking milk and ghee (clarified butter) in the diet. From the first day of training students are admonished to participate in the devotional life of the kalari, including paying respects to and ideally internalizing worship of the guardian deity of the kalari, usually a form of a goddess (Bhagavati, Bhadrakali) or Siva and Sakti, the primary god and goddess worshiped in Kerala, in combination. The exercise, sweating, and oil massage are understood to stimulate all forms of the wind humor to course through the body. Long-term practice enhances the ability to endure fatigue by balancing the three humors, and it enables the practitioner to acquire the characteristic internal and external ease of movement and body fluidity. The accomplished practitioner’s movements “flow,” thereby clearing up the “channels” (nadi) of the internal subtle body. Only when a student is physically, spiritually, and ethically ready is he supposed to be allowed to take up the first weapon in the training system. If the body and mind have been fully prepared, then the weapon becomes an extension of the body-mind. The student first learns wooden weapons (kolttari)—first long staff, later short stick, and then a curved stick known as an otta—through which empty-hand combat is taught. After several years of training, combat weapons are introduced, including dagger, spear, mace (gada), sword and shield, double-edged sword (curika) versus sword, spear versus sword and shield, and flexible sword (urumi). In the distant past, bow and arrow was also practiced, but this has been lost in the kalarippayattu tradition. All weapons teach attack and defense of the body’s vital spots. Empty-hand techniques are taught either through otta or through special “empty-hand” techniques (verumkai) taught as part of advanced training. For example, C. Mohammed Sherif teaches eighteen basic empty-hand attacks and twelve methods of blocking, which were traditionally part of at least some northern Kerala styles. Eventually, students also should begin to discover applications that are implicit or hidden in the regular daily body exercises. In some forms of empty-hand training, special attention is Kalarippayattu 229
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228 Kalarippayattu<br />
though clearly related to kalarippayattu, are different enough to warrant<br />
separate consideration. <strong>The</strong> remainder of this entry focuses primarily on<br />
northern style, with a brief description of central style.<br />
<strong>The</strong> traditional practice of kalarippayattu is informed by key principles<br />
and assumptions about the body, consciousness, the body-mind relationship,<br />
health, and exercise drawn from Kerala’s unique versions of yoga<br />
practice and philosophy, South Asian medicine (called Ayurveda [Sanskrit;<br />
science of life]), and religious mythology, practices, and histories. <strong>The</strong><br />
Malayalam folk expression “<strong>The</strong> body becomes all eyes” encapsulates the<br />
ideal state of the practitioner, whose response to his environment should be<br />
like Brahma the thousand-eyed—able to see and respond intuitively, like an<br />
animal, to anything. To attain this ideal state of awareness, traditional masters<br />
emphasize that one must “possess complete knowledge of the body.”<br />
This traditionally meant gaining knowledge of three different “bodies of<br />
practice”: (1) the fluid body of humors and saps, associated with Ayurveda,<br />
in which there should be a healthful congruence of the body’s humors<br />
through vigorous, seasonal exercise; (2) the body composed of bones, muscles,<br />
and the vulnerable vital junctures or spots (marmmam) of the body;<br />
and (3) the subtle, interior body, assumed in the practice of yoga, through<br />
which the internal “serpent power” (kundalini sakti) is awakened for use<br />
in martial practice and in giving healing therapies.<br />
Training toward this ideal began traditionally at the age of 7 in specially<br />
constructed kalari, ideally dug out of the ground so that they are pits<br />
with a plaited coconut palm roof above. <strong>The</strong> kalari itself is considered a<br />
temple, and in Hindu kalari from seven to twenty-one deities are considered<br />
present, and worshipped on a daily basis, at least during the training<br />
season. After undergoing a ritual process of initiation into training and<br />
paying respects to the gurukkal, the student in the northern style of kalarippayattu<br />
begins by oiling the body and practicing a vigorous array of<br />
“body preparation” exercises, including poses, kicks, steps, jumps, and leg<br />
exercises performed in increasingly complex combinations back and forth<br />
across the kalari floor. Most important is mastery of basic poses, named after<br />
animals such as the elephant, horse, and lion, comparable to yoga postures<br />
(asanas), and steps that join one pose to another. Repetitious practice<br />
of these vigorous physical forms is understood to eventually render the external<br />
body flexible and “flowing like a river” as students literally “wash<br />
the floor of the kalari with their sweat.”<br />
In addition to the techniques described above, the central style includes<br />
distinctive techniques performed within floor drawings, known as<br />
kalam, traced with rice powder on the floor of the kalari. Special steps for<br />
attack and defense are learned within a five-circle pattern so that the student<br />
moves in triangles, or zigzags. In addition, some masters of central