Kalaripayattu has the potential like that of Yoga to not just spread in India but also in the whole world say Kalari Gurus.
Swords and daggers, weapons to cut, slash and stab, sticks, spears and axes, arrows, discuses, boomerangs and so on are stacked up against the wall of the academy of Kalaripayattu. Manoj Kumar, the Kalari guru at the academy is a busy person. He teaches more than 200 students at the academy, apart from the online classes that he conducts for students across the country and even from other countries like Australia, Canada, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Kalaripayattu also known as the ‘Indian martial arts’ is gaining recognition and becoming popular. For the first time, it was included in the 37th National Games held in Goa. Nine out of 16 athletes won from the state of Karnataka.
Kumar said that earlierthey used to have fewer students. He said, “I started with just five students in the early 2000s but now every year at least 50 new students join the academy. Earlier this art form was only famous in south India, mostly Kerala. But the internet has played a big role in the growing popularity of this art form, all over India and abroad. Gurus as well as students started posting content about it. Sports persons who are into fighting sports soon became more curious about what India has to offer.”
For the people of Kerala, the art is nothing new. Kartik, a 16-year-old, who hails from Kerala has been learning Kalari since he was three. “If I recall, since my childhood my brother, sister, and neighbours ,everybody was into Kalari, so it was very natural for me to get into it. For me, it has always been a part of my life.”
However, numerous examples of sportspersons from the northern part of India who are interested in this art are available.
Nikhil is a 17-year-old professional mixed martial artist who hails from New Delhi. He has been taking online Kalaripayattu classes for two years. He said, “I want to become a Kalari trainer and spread this art form in north India as well.”
‘The Indian Martial Arts’ on ‘Epic channel’ and ‘History TV channel’ were the only shows that Simranjeet, an 18-year-old, from Punjab never missed… He was fascinated by Kalaripayattu since he was eight years old but had no means to learn the 3000-year-old art. Therefore, he came to Bangalore to learn the art for one year knowing that this art required a minimum of two hours each day for five to seven years to master.
Simranjeet said that he was always into martial arts, “I took a year off after school just to come to Bangalore and learn at least the basics of this art form so that I can hone the skills later back at home.”
Kalaripayattu is an age-old ancient form of martial arts originating in Kerala. Legends have it that Parshuram (known as the sixth avatar/ incarnation of Vishnu) learned this battlefield fighting skill from Shiva and then taught it to the original settlers of Kerala. But during colonial rule in India, in1804, Britishers banned this art form fearing a rebellion from people. Mr Kumar said that the practice of Kalari started again in the 1920s when a bunch of Kalari Gurus made the British believe that it is an innocuous art form like dance, and it will not cause any harm to them.
As history unfolded in the Indian subcontinent, this form of martial art lost its popularity. But since independence, it has been flourishing in Kerala and is slowly finding its way across the world. After India, most practitioners of Kalari are in the Gulf countries said Kumar.
Practitioners say that Kalaripayattu is not only a sport but a holistic approach towards the human body. It has five stages of practice for the five stages of human life, namely: infant, childhood, teenage, middle age, and old age. Therefore, there is no age at which Kalari cannot be done. There are 18 levels of Kalari starting from bare-hand fighting techniques developing to fighting skills with wooden tools then metal and in the final 18th stage one has to fight barehanded with an opponent loaded with metal weapons.
Kavya, an 8-year-old girl from Bannerghatta, Bangalore has been learning Kalari for the past three years. Her father said, “Our purpose is to make our girl strong enough to be able to defend herself in any situation and also to learn and spread this art in the future.”
Mr Kumar said that earlier Kalari meant fighting on a battlefield but in today’s time the purpose of fighting is within, that is, our mental and physical health. “People are still not aware that the causes(maybe?) of health issues such as anxiety, depression, and other diseases could bedue to a sedentary lifestyle. In present times one has to protect their mental health everyday. Today the challenge is to eradicate these illnesses and become fit.”
Kumar suggested that the challenge with ancient art forms like Kalari is that today people will play a sport if they have a chance of getting some monetary benefit out of it but there are no monetary rewards associated with learning this art form in the country today.
Master Devraj Koleri who has been practicing Kalaripayattu since 1982, currently teaching in Mahalakshmi Nagar, Bangalore said that as yoga has spread across the world, Kalari also has the potential to gain popularity across the globe. The guru suggested that no prior qualification was needed to learn Kalari. It is rather a way of life, but a student learning the art form should stay away from smoking, drinking, and other drugs while learning and practising Kalari. He also said that these days, people are opting for online courses of Kalari from across the globe. “We conduct a Kalari exam in December, our students from different states for India and from foreign all come to our Bangalore branch to attempt the examination.”
But the problem according to the grand master and master is that Kalari cannot be learned in a short period of time to qualify as a trainer.
