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elow the nipple, but the lack of a standard measure corresponding to the
name in the text would mean that an experienced practitioner would be required
to interpret the text and point out the spot” (1983, 115). An increasing
number of reference texts about the vital spots have also become
available to Ayurvedic medical practitioners and kalarippayattu practitioners,
such as a recent Alikakerala Government Ayurveda College publication
that includes a section on the vital spots.
To summarize, techniques of practice and related information on
teaching and martial practice are recorded in texts passed on from generation
to generation. These texts record abbreviated, shorthand, partially descriptive
sets of verbal commands for oral use in teaching. Techniques can
only be transmitted directly from teacher to student through embodied
practice and oral correction. Ultimately, the authority of any text rests in
the embodied knowledge and practice of the master himself and in his
transmission of that knowledge into the student’s practically embodied
knowledge.
During the 1970s cheap popular paperback editions of these manuals
began to appear in print (Velayudhan n.d.), making available on a
commercial basis what had hitherto been secret information passed on
from masters to disciples. In addition, complete sets of techniques have
been published, such as can be found in Sreedharan Nayar’s Malayalam
books, Marmmadarppanam, Kalarippayattu, and Uliccil, and most recently
in P. Balakrishnan’s Kalarippayattu. It seems likely that future research
in other specific martial traditions will reveal a similar range of specialist
texts that have no doubt been influenced by the antique Tamil and
Dhanur Vedic traditions.
Phillip Zarrilli
See also India; Kalarippayattu; Meditation; Performing Arts; Religion and
Spiritual Development: India; Varma Ati; Wrestling and Grappling: India
References
Balakrishnan, P. 1995. Kalarippayattu: The Ancient Martial Art of Kerala.
Trivandrum: Shri C. V. Govindankutty Nair Gurukkal, C.V.N. Kalari,
Fort.
Bhishagratna, K. K., ed. and trans. 1963. The Susruta Samhita. Vol. 2.
Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series.
Dasgupta, Gautam, trans. 1986. Agni Purana. Chapters 249–252.
Unpublished manuscript in author’s private collection.
Dutt Shastri, M. N., trans. 1967. Agni Puranam. Varanasi: Chowkhamba
Sanskrit Series.
Egnor, Margaret. 1983. “Death and Nurturance in Indian Systems of
Healing.” Social Science and Medicine 17, no. 4: 935–945.
Freeman, J. Richardson. 1991. Purity and Violence: Sacred Power in the
Teyyam Worship of Malabar. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of
Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania.
Gangadharan, N., trans. 1985. Agni Purana. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Written Texts: India 757