right. After a protracted conflict, the Zamorin wrested power by killing
two Vellatri princes. The event created a permanent schism between the
kingdoms. At each subsequent festival until its discontinuation in 1766 fol-
lowing the Mysorean invasion, some of the Valluvanadu fighters pledged
to death in service to the royal house attended the Mamakam to avenge the
honor of the fallen princes by fighting to the death against the Zamorin’s
massed forces.
So important was kalarippayattu in medieval Kerala that both its
heroic demeanor and its practiced techniques were constantly on display,
whether in actual combat, in duels, or in forms of cultural performance
that included mock combats or displays of martial skills and dances and
dance-dramas where the heroic was on display. Kalarippayattu directly in-
fluenced the techniques and content of numerous traditional forms of per-
formance such as folk dances; ritual performances such as the teyyamof
northern Kerala where deified heroes are worshipped; the now interna-
tionally known kathakalidance-drama, which enacts stories of India’s epic
heroes based on the Mahabharata, Ramayana,and puranas;and the Chris-
tian dance-drama form, cavittu natakam,which used martial techniques226 Kalarippayattu
Satish Kumar (left) and Shri Ajit (right) perform a dagger fight in Bombay, December 27, 1997. The duo are in
Bombay to promote Kalarippayattu, the ancient physical, cultural, and martial art of the state of Kerala in southern
India. (AP Photo/Sherwin Crasto)