Udaya

Kalaripayattu

കളരിപ്പയറ്റ്

Also Kalari, Payattu.

Martial art Kerala

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What it is#

Kalaripayattu is the martial art of Kerala, practised in a kalari, a pit dug below ground level with a floor of red earth and a shrine in the south west corner. It is often called the oldest martial art in the world, a claim that is popular and cannot be demonstrated; what is documented is a continuous Kerala practice from at least the medieval period, with the Chekavar and Nair warriors of the ballads. It combines strikes, grappling, weapons and a system of bodywork and medicine, and the same master who teaches the fighting usually sets bones and gives massage.

How it is built#

Four stages, taken in order and not skipped. Meithari is body conditioning: the stances, the leaps, the kicks, the sequences done alone, for a year or more. Kolthari is wooden weapons, beginning with the kettukari staff, then the cheruvadi and the otta, a curved stick for striking the marma points. Angathari is metal: dagger, sword and shield, spear, and the urumi, a flexible blade worn as a belt which is the most dangerous weapon to the person using it. Verumkai is unarmed, taught last, because a hand is held to be the most dangerous weapon and is given only to somebody already disciplined. Marma, the vital points, is taught in both its attacking and its healing uses, and reputable masters teach the healing first.

How it is learnt#

The question a family actually has

A child may begin at seven, traditionally on an auspicious day in the month of Karkidakam. Training is before dawn, daily, and the first year is meithari alone, on oiled skin, with the uzhichil massage given by the master with his feet in the monsoon months. Weapons come after a year or two and the urumi after many years. A student touches the earth of the kalari and then the master’s feet on entering, every time. A gurukkal, a full master, is a position reached after decades, and it carries the obligation to treat injuries in the locality.

Whose lineage is whose#

Where a claim is contested, by whom

Two broad streams are named: the northern, vadakkan, of Malabar, which is weapon heavy and is the one the ballads of Thacholi Othenan and Unniyarcha belong to; and the southern, thekkan, of Travancore and the Tamil border, which leans on unarmed work and marma and shades into the Tamil varma kalai and silambam. Whether these are two traditions or one with regional emphases is argued. The British banned the practice in Malabar after 1804 and it survived in households and in performance, which is why some lineages have gaps and why claims of unbroken descent should be taken carefully.

Worth knowing#

The shrine in the corner

Every kalari has its deity in the south west, usually Bhagavathy or Siva, with a lamp lit before training. A student entering touches the ground, then the forehead, then the master’s feet, and does so every single time without exception for however many years he trains. The pit itself is dug seven steps below ground, which keeps the temperature even and the floor soft and, in the explanation the masters give, puts the practice below the level of the ordinary world. A martial art that begins each session with an act of submission is making a point it repeats in the sequencing of the weapons.

Why the empty hand comes last

A beginner wants to learn to fight with his hands and is given a stick instead, for years. The reasoning the gurukkals give is practical and moral at once: a stick can be dropped and a trained hand cannot, so the hand is given only to somebody whose temper has been tested over a decade of being told to wait. Marma, the striking of vital points, is taught alongside the medicine for treating those same points, and a master who taught the attack without the cure would be regarded as having failed in his duty rather than merely as having taught badly.

Where the regions differ#

  • Tamil
  • Kerala
  • Telugu
  • Kannada
  • North
  • Maharashtra
  • Bengal
  • Punjab
  • Assam
  • Sri Lanka
  • Nepal
  • Gujarat
  • Odisha
  • Mithila
  • Kashmir
  • Tulu Nadu
  • manipur
  • rajasthan
  • konkani
  • sindhi
  • jharkhand
  • himalayan
  • kodava
Where it is kept: 2 of the 23 traditions this app follows. The filled one is where it is from.
Kerala
The northern style of Malabar and the southern of Travancore, with the kalaris of Thalassery and Kozhikode the best known, and the Karkidakam massage season.
Tamil Nadu
Silambam and varma kalai are the Tamil neighbours, the southern Kerala style shading into them across the border.

All the arts