What exactly is Kalaripayattu?

Question

I have heard a lot about ancient Indian martial arts called Kalaripayattu.

Does anyone have info on this? How does it compare to kung fu?

Answer 1

I know there are some books on Kalaripayattu, e.g. this one and this one. There's also a large entry on it on wikipedia.

I've heard it's popular mainly in India, there should be quite a number of schools there. Also, there a few places to learn it in Europe as well:

• London, UK
• Cologne, Germany
• Paris, France

Answer 2

I'm a student of Kalaripayattu practicing in the US. I've studied for 6 years with Anil Natyaveda who was trained traditionally in Kerala India.

Reading the answers I figured chiming in might be useful.

The Wikipedia article is pretty decent as an introduction. Also, I can recommend When the Body Becomes All Eyes - a book by a Western martial artist who studied in Kerala. I wasn't so thrilled with this one - the pictures are not so accurate, although the descriptions are not too bad.

I can also highly recommend some of the YouTube videos out there - there are too many for me to search through, but I have yet to see a bad one and seeing pracitioners moving can be very helpful - I always feel the static pictures don't do it justice.

Sadly, I don't have any other martial arts training, so I can't compare it easily to another art, but I can say from personal experience that:

• The form assumes no armor and very little in the way of clothing - the location of origin is very hot and humid so heavy armor is more of a liability than an asset. As a result, the poses tend to focus on a very low stance where access to organs is blocked by shoulders and ribcage.

• The form includes hand to hand, and weapon combat - the variations within the overarching style can have more or less kicks vs. hand to hand work - and the emphasis on certain weapons vary from style to style and school to school. The most striking weapon is the urumi or flexible sword.

• The focus is on contraction and expansion through the lower abdomen (nambi) - it works as the center of the body for spins, kicks, jumps and general movement. Almost every movement can be seen as contracting, moving and expanding one's energy around this point.

• The focus is on speed and targeted accuracy over brute strength. After some significant time spent training, practicioners tend to develop long and lean muscle mass - they are strong, but also very flexible and quite lean looking.

• It's a combat form that assumes war - while it isn't secretive, it does account for a multiple foe situation and the need to kill/maim or be killed. In constrast to styles I've heard described as tournament styles (aiming for disabling, not death or maiming) or assination styles (assume one on one combat and that secrecy prior to attack is important).

• A very interesting feature of the art is that practicioners also (at least in some schools) engage in vigorous massage - usually done with the feet. If you search on YouTube for kalari massage. It's done both to heal hurt people and to invigorate the body of healthy people.

• The form goes hand in hand with Ayurvedic practices - a master is expected to also be able to heal using a variety of therapies (massage is just one) and the pressure points of Ayurveda are also the target areas of the combat form.

• The training and knowledge transmission is fairly typical of other traditional Indian skills - dedication to a teacher, a long term commitment, learning movements in isolation as reflex before it becomes purposeful, etc.

• The general theory is as @poepje says - the style migrated with a monk from India to China, where it seeded other Asian styles, so it's often thought of as a root form... from what I've seen, it definitely has some similarities to othe SE Asian forms, but the farther the distance, the more the format has changed to suit the purpose of the new region...

I did KungFu for all of about 10 weeks - I can say that the basic horse pose in Kung Fu is remarkably different than the basic pose of Kalaripayattu - but that's about it. In the end there's always a few similarities, because humans are basically grown from the same model.

Answer 3

It is not a dying art exactly. It is now only priactised only in the state of Kerala in India. Many other arts like Kung Fu have its root from Kalarippayattu. The only thing is that one who wishes to practise it need to find a good master from a reputed institute (Kalari). Also atleast we need to spend a three years to cover the syllabus. There are two styles of Kalarippayattu mainly, one is "Northern Style"(Kadathanaadan) and the next is "Southern Style". In Kalari only there are treatment for any injuries caused during practice. In other martial arts we cannot cure injuries. In the treatment methods used in a Kalari, there are effective treatment methods and medicines to cure any injuries.

Answer 4

Kalaripayattu is an old martial art. It is said (though we'll probably never really know for sure) that it's (one of) the oldest existing martial art(s). And that Bodhidharma, an Indian pilgrim monk, would have taught the Chinese Shaolin monks some of the early Kalp. moves which evolved into Shaolin Kungfu (which in its turn is said to be the mother of kungfu). I believe there isn't any written evidence or clues for the Kalaripayattu part on this though.

The Discovery Channel had a series called Fight Quest where one episode is about Kalaripayattu. Interesting to watch, and downloads can be easily found for it.

Answer 5

As an Indian, I'd like to put forward a fact about Kalaripayattu. There are a good number of schools in India that teach/focus on this form of an ancient martial art. As far as effectiveness of this martial art is concerned, I wouldn't like to comment on it because every martial art is great in its own way.

I would opine that Kerala (a state in Southern part of India) would be a wonderful place to start your training in Kalaripayattu, as Kerala is supposedly the origin of this martial art.