skritized texts, like Marmmayogam,that are the kalarippayattu practi-
tioner’s handbook of empty-hand practical fighting applications and emer-
gency revivals for the sixty-four “most vital” of the spots (kulabhysamarm-
mam) As detailed in Zarrilli (1998, 1992), kalarippayattu texts focusing on
the vital spots are rather straightforward descriptive reference manuals cat-
aloguing practical information. In contrast to the straightforward descrip-
tive nature of these texts are the varma ati master’s highly poetic Tamil
texts, which were traditionally sung and taught verse by verse. Some texts,
such as Varma Cuttiram, located at the University of Madras manuscript
library (#2429), are relatively short (146 sloka [verses]) and focus on one
aspect of practice. Longer texts like Varma ati Morivu Cara Cuttiram
(Songs [concerning] the Breaking and Wounding of the Vital Spots) include
more than 1,000 verses and provide the name and location of each vital
spot, whether it is a single or a double spot, symptoms of injury, methods
of emergency revival, and techniques and recipes for treatments of injuries
not only to the vital spots but also to bones, muscles, and similar tissue.
The text admonishes the student to12.1 Proceed by giving massage with the hands, legs, and bundles of medici-
nal herbs,
12.2 with confidence set fractures. I am explaining all this carefully, so listen
and follow what I say.
12.3 With piety take your guru and god in mind, and treat other lives as
your own.
12.4 With thinking and doing together as one, search out the vital spots,
fractures, and wounds. (Selvaraj 1984)These texts reveal that the varma ati system was traditionally a highly eso-
teric and mystical one, since only someone who had attained accomplish-
ment as a Siddha yogi (an actualized master of a specialized Tamil form of
disciplined practice through which the individual gains enlightenment)
could be considered a master of the vital spots. As anthropologist Margaret
Trawick Egnor notes, “The language of Siddha poetry is notoriously eso-
teric; modern students of it say it was deliberately made so, so that the Sid-
dha knowledge would not become public” (1983, 989).
Although numerous palm-leaf and hand-copied manuscripts dealing
with the vital spots have been collected in government manuscript libraries
and some have even been published (see Nadar 1968; Nadar n.d.; Selvaraj
1984; Nayar 1957), given variability of interpretation, individual masters
differ in their interpretations. As Ananda Wood asserts, “the direct in-
struction of an experienced teacher is necessary to interpret such theoreti-
cal texts practically. A theoretical text is fairly meaningless without such a
teacher who knows the practical skills and techniques himself. For exam-
ple, a vital spot may be described in a text as located two named measures756 Written Texts: India