Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

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