Kalaripayattu

While we were on our holiday we visited Periyar and while staying there we went to a Kalaripayattu presentation. This is the mother of all martial arts and is spectacular to watch…

First they performed a religious opening ceremony, and after that the real thing kicked in. It included mock fights with swords, daggers and other weapons were one mistake would have meant DEATH. In these mock fights they jumped very high and often struck sparks. These were breathtaking although at the end someone was always disarmed and after that the weapon-less person always won. This was because it would be hard to make the person with the sword win without killing the other fighter. After the mock fights they show how to use a bow staff. First with one and then with two which seemed almost to be touching. After that they lit both the staffs which resulted in an amazing show that looked like two rings of fire! Next they demonstrated how to use an urumi-sword / flexible-sword which looked impossible to block. The last act was jumping through a ring of fire. It was purely amazing.

Sword Fight

A twirling staff with fire on the end.

Two staffs with fire on the end.

Jump through the ring of fire.

Facts:

Kalaripayattu is the mother of all martial arts and was used by the lords of Kerala. It was used when two lords had an argument. It worked by each lord choosing a champion and the champions fighting instead of there being a full scale war. Here are two more pictures I found on the web.

How do they do it?