though clearly related to kalarippayattu, are different enough to warrant
separate consideration. The remainder of this entry focuses primarily on
northern style, with a brief description of central style.
The traditional practice of kalarippayattu is informed by key princi-
ples and assumptions about the body, consciousness, the body-mind rela-
tionship, health, and exercise drawn from Kerala’s unique versions of yoga
practice and philosophy, South Asian medicine (called Ayurveda[Sanskrit;
science of life]), and religious mythology, practices, and histories. The
Malayalam folk expression “The body becomes all eyes” encapsulates the
ideal state of the practitioner, whose response to his environment should be
like Brahma the thousand-eyed—able to see and respond intuitively, like an
animal, to anything. To attain this ideal state of awareness, traditional mas-
ters emphasize that one must “possess complete knowledge of the body.”
This traditionally meant gaining knowledge of three different “bodies of
practice”: (1) the fluid body of humors and saps, associated with Ayurveda,
in which there should be a healthful congruence of the body’s humors
through vigorous, seasonal exercise; (2) the body composed of bones, mus-
cles, and the vulnerable vital junctures or spots (marmmam) of the body;
and (3) the subtle, interior body, assumed in the practice of yoga, through
which the internal “serpent power” (kundalini sakti) is awakened for use
in martial practice and in giving healing therapies.
Training toward this ideal began traditionally at the age of 7 in spe-
cially constructed kalari, ideally dug out of the ground so that they are pits
with a plaited coconut palm roof above. The kalari itself is considered a
temple, and in Hindu kalari from seven to twenty-one deities are consid-
ered present, and worshipped on a daily basis, at least during the training
season. After undergoing a ritual process of initiation into training and
paying respects to the gurukkal, the student in the northern style of kalar-
ippayattu begins by oiling the body and practicing a vigorous array of
“body preparation” exercises, including poses, kicks, steps, jumps, and leg
exercises performed in increasingly complex combinations back and forth
across the kalari floor. Most important is mastery of basic poses, named af-
ter animals such as the elephant, horse, and lion, comparable to yoga pos-
tures (asanas), and steps that join one pose to another. Repetitious practice
of these vigorous physical forms is understood to eventually render the ex-
ternal body flexible and “flowing like a river” as students literally “wash
the floor of the kalari with their sweat.”
In addition to the techniques described above, the central style in-
cludes distinctive techniques performed within floor drawings, known as
kalam,traced with rice powder on the floor of the kalari. Special steps for
attack and defense are learned within a five-circle pattern so that the stu-
dent moves in triangles, or zigzags. In addition, some masters of central228 Kalarippayattu