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Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

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An Indian miniature<br />

of the defeat of a<br />

devil by a prince on<br />

horseback and a<br />

warrior, Ragmala<br />

Bikaner school,<br />

1765. (<strong>The</strong> Art<br />

Archive/Marco Polo<br />

Gallery Paris/Dagli<br />

Orti)<br />

physical and physical and physiological. <strong>The</strong> brightness of one’s eyes as<br />

well as the tone of one’s skin is said to be a manifestation of shakti, as is<br />

the ability to levitate, on the one hand, or lift an opponent into the air, on<br />

the other. In other words, shakti means many different things, which makes<br />

it possible to translate across various domains of experience, and the martial<br />

arts can be thought of as a critical, if often overlooked, point at which<br />

this translation is most clearly worked out.<br />

Whereas shakti can be derived from devotional and ascetic practices,<br />

it is perhaps most closely linked, and clearly embodied, through the prac-<br />

464 Religion and Spiritual Development: India

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