Sanatan Shastar Vidiya
North Indian Sikh art of fighting with weapons, associated with the order of the Akali Nihangs. Today it is taught under this name by Nidar Singh's school in Britain.
Quick Facts
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Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Sanatan Shastar Vidiya
Shastar vidya, literally the science of weapons, is a North Indian martial art with weapons that, according to the BBC, the Sikhs developed in the seventeenth century. According to The Independent, it was mastered most of all by the Akali Nihangs, a Sikh warrior order. After the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the middle of the nineteenth century, the British administration banned the Nihangs, the art went underground, and the British instead promoted gatka, a ceremonial and toned-down form.
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The name Sanatan Shastar Vidiya is used by the school of Nidar Singh Nihang of Wolverhampton, whom the BBC in 2011 described as the only known living master. The claim that the art is thousands of years old and that the Sikhs took it over from an older North Indian tradition comes from the school's account, and we have not been able to verify it independently. We have not found a peer-reviewed study that would test his interpretation. According to the chapter by Kamalroop Singh in the Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies (2014), as summarised by the English Wikipedia, gatka is only one branch of a broader system. Training begins with footwork in the paintra stance and unarmed fighting, and the student comes to weapons gradually. The maneuvers include bandesh, a lock or hold. Based on this maneuver, online overviews describe a separate art called bandesh, for which we have not found any reliable source.
History
According to BBC (2011), the Sikhs developed shastar vidya in the seventeenth century, and The Independent (2009) reports that the Akali Nihangs mastered it most. Christopher Shackle of SOAS told BBC that the nihangs were very powerful when they emerged in the late seventeenth century but later became marginal.
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After the fall of the Sikh Empire in the mid-nineteenth century, the British administration of Punjab banned the nihangs and their blue turbans, according to The Independent, and the art became illegal. Nidar Singh, according to The Tribune (2011), dates the decline to after the Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845 to 1849 and the 1857 uprising, when knives with blades over six inches were forbidden. Kamalroop Singh, according to Wikipedia, adds that the decline cannot be blamed on the British alone, as firearms also played a role, and that in 1878 the Akal Takht issued a hukamnama urging Sikhs to learn and maintain the art. According to The Tribune, Nidar Singh's school traces itself to the akhara of Baba Darbara Singh (1645 to 1735), from the time of Guru Tegh Bahadur. After the death of his teacher Baba Mohinder Singh in 1995, Nidar Singh calls himself the ninth gurudev of this akhara. According to BBC, he met Mohinder Singh at seventeen while visiting an aunt in Punjab and trained with him for eleven years. According to Khaleej Times, Mohinder Singh learned from Baba Gian Singh.
How it differs
According to both the BBC and Khaleej Times, shastar vidya is intertwined with gatka, a form of stick fencing that, according to the BBC, arose under British rule in Punjab for demonstrations rather than real combat. Kamalroop Singh, according to Wikipedia, instead regards gatka as one of the branches of shastar vidya. Nidar Singh told The Independent that most present-day practitioners of Indian martial arts learn only the watered-down display styles that the British permitted. In the book Martial Arts of the World, Green states that British singlestick probably influenced gatka, whose practice sword and strikes closely resemble it. Bandesh is also linked to shastar vidya. Online overviews describe it as a separate Indian art of joint locks and disarming. The six stages these overviews list correspond to the names of shastar vidya maneuvers as given by Kamalroop Singh, for example rokh and rokhna, lapet and lapetna, cheen and chhini. We have not found any reliable source for a separate art.
Technique
According to BBC, the foundation is a five-step movement: advancing on the opponent, striking the flank, deflecting incoming blows, gaining the upper hand and striking. Khaleej Times gives five basic principles: measured advance, judging the edge of reach, entering while deflecting blows, advantageous position and chhatka, the quick kill. Nidar Singh told The Independent that the key skill is deception and that real damage comes from blows the opponent does not see coming. The Tribune writes that the art teaches how to face armed opponents unarmed and disarm them, and includes analysis of old battle formations. Kamalroop Singh, according to Wikipedia, divides the system into branches called ang: unarmed fighting bahu judh, wrestling mal judh, fighting with staff and club gada judh, including gatka, fighting with weapons shastar judh and fighting with projectile and thrown weapons astra judh. He lists eight maneuvers: the straight strike hujj, the block rokhna, twisting lapetna, throwing phainkna, snatching chhini, a lever or hold bandesh, the whip marora and the jump chungi. Bandish is his name for the whole repertoire. The paintra stances include the basic mul paintra and the tiger, monkey, bull, snake and eagle paintra. On the body he distinguishes thirty-three maram points, of which eight are principal.
Training
According to The Independent, students begin with fairly harmless wooden staves, and only those who show special sensitivity and devotion reach sharp swords. Kamalroop Singh, according to Wikipedia, states that before taking up a weapon the student must master footwork and unarmed fighting. The first weapon is marahatti, usually a bamboo staff, then the basic combination of gatka, a wooden stick, with the leather shield phari, and after that kirpan with the shield dhal. Since the seventeenth century the teacher has been called ustad and the student shagird, and before sparring both cross weapons twice and tap them. According to the BBC, even Nidar Singh's most advanced students have only recently come far enough to fight him with weapons without being injured. By his own account in The Tribune, he has trained seventy hours a week for thirty years and teaches three days a week. According to Khaleej Times, he requires of a successor, besides physical aptitude, compassion, charity, control of the mind, purity and respect for truth.
Today
In 2011 the BBC described Nidar Singh as the only known living master. He himself said he had met only four people who could be called masters, and the last of them, Ram Singh, whom he met in 1998, died four years later. Nidar Singh teaches across Britain and travels to teach in Canada and Germany, and Khaleej Times adds India. He is looking for a successor because he fears the art will die with him. According to the BBC, the classes include Muslims and Christians alongside Sikhs. The Tribune writes of former British commandos, bankers, teachers and analysts, and quotes Nidar Singh as saying he does not accept bullies, criminals or religious fanatics. According to the BBC, in the first two years of teaching he received 84 death threats from Sikh groups that disagree with the ideology of shastar vidya and with the nihang teaching. We have not found competitions in shastar vidya, and competition exists only in gatka.
Did you know
According to Khaleej Times, the word nihang means crocodile and comes from the Mughal chroniclers, who used it to describe the ferocity of these warriors. According to Davinder Toor, whom the BBC cites, British soldiers, according to officers' records, shot at any man with a blue turban and a firearm. Green writes that aristocratic Sikhs wore two to three chakra in the turban, sharpened steel rings about seven inches across, and hurled them at targets. According to The Independent, Nidar Singh once packed groceries in a factory in Wolverhampton. He compiled the history of the nihang from the archives of the British Library and the V&A museum in the book In the Master's Presence. One of his favorite weapons is a wavy serrated sword resembling a snake, which can be used in combat to sever tendons.
Frequently asked questions
Is shastar vidya the same as gatka?
Not quite. The BBC describes gatka as stick fencing that arose under British rule for demonstrations, and Kamalroop Singh, according to Wikipedia, classes it as one of the branches of shastar vidya.
Who teaches shastar vidya today?
According to the BBC (2011), the only known living master is Nidar Singh Nihang of Wolverhampton. He teaches throughout Britain and also travels to teach in Canada and Germany.
What is bandesh?
According to Kamalroop Singh, one of the eight maneuvers of shastar vidya, a lock or hold. Only online overviews without a source list it as a separate art.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.