Sanatan Shastar Vidiya
North Indian weapon art from the Kshatriya tradition, adopted by the Sikh Akali Nihangs in the 17th century. Today it is extremely rare.
Quick Facts
IndiaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Sanatan Shastar Vidiya
About Sanatan Shastar Vidiya
Sanatan Shastar Vidiya is a North Indian weapon-based martial art whose Punjabi name means literally "science of weapons". The system belongs to the fighting tradition of the Kshatriyas, the Indian warrior class, and in the seventeenth century it was taken up and developed further in the Punjab by Sikh warriors, above all by the Akali Nihang order. Training does not begin with the fist but with stance and footwork. Its foundation is the paintra, a flowing combat stance from which the practitioner can attack or evade at any moment. Unarmed work follows, and weapons come last. A beginner trains with a wooden stick called marahati and only reaches edged weapons once the basics are secure. The armoury is broad: the kirpan and khanda swords, the tabar axe, the guraj mace, the barchha spear, the bow and arrow, and the chakram throwing ring. Weapons are divided into astra, those that are thrown, and those held in the hand. Advanced students study roughly thirty-three vulnerable points on the body, known as maram, together with a body of covering and binding movements called bandish. A defining feature is that combat against several opponents at once is trained from the very beginning: the system was shaped for the battlefield, not for a duel. Alongside technique the school stresses the spiritual side, meaning prayer, meditation and a strict code of conduct. Today the art is extremely rare. Its principal holder and teacher is Nidar Singh Nihang, born Surjit Singh, who teaches in Britain. The claim of an unbroken lineage reaching back thousands of years belongs to the school's own tradition and cannot be verified historically; documented sources reach back to the era of the Sikh states.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.