called a kalari), North India’s mushti
(wrestling) and dandi (staff fighting),
and Karnataka’s malkambh (wrestler’s
post). Among these, Kerala’s kalarip-
payattu is the most complete extant
South Asian martial tradition today.
Kalarippayattu is unique to the
southwestern coastal region known to-
day as Kerala State. Dating from at least
the twelfth century and still practiced by
numerous masters today, kalarippayattu
combines elements of both the Sangam
Tamil arts and the Dhanur Vedic system.
Like their puranic and epic martial coun-
terparts, the kalarippayattu martial prac-
titioners traditionally sought to attain
practical power(s) to be used in com-
bat—powers attained through training
and daily practice of the art’s basic psy-
chophysiological exercises and weapons
work, mental powers attained through
meditation or actualization in mantra as
well as ritual practices, and overt physi-
cal strength and power. Sharing a set of
assumptions about the body and body-mind relationship with yoga, practice
began with “the body” and moved inward through the practice of daily ex-
ercises from the early age of seven. Kalarippayattu was traditionally prac-
ticed primarily by Nayars, Kerala’s martial caste, as well as by a special sub-
caste among Kerala’s Brahmans, the Yatra Brahmans; lower-caste
practitioners known as chekavardrawn from among special families of
Tiyyas (a relatively low-ranking caste); Muslims (especially Sufis in northern
Kerala); and Christians. The art is practiced by both boys and girls for gen-
eral health and well-being as well as the preparation of martial practitioners;
the external body eventually should “flow like a river.” The state of psy-
chophysiological actualization was accomplished through practice of dietary
and seasonal restraints, the receipt of a yearly full-body massage, develop-
ment of the requisite personal devotional attitude, and practice of exercises.
Kalarippayattu’s body exercise sequences (meippayattu) link combinations
of yoga asana-like poses (vativu), steps (cuvat), kicks (kal etupp), a variety
of jumps and turns, and coordinated hand and arm movements performed
in increasingly swift and difficult succession and combinations back and
forth across the kalari floor. The poses usually number eight, and they are176 India
Relief carving
on the headstone
of an Indian
warrior outside
Meherangarh Fort
in Jodhpur, India.
(Jeremy Horner/
Corbis)