Silambam
சிலம்பம்The Tamil art of fighting with a bamboo staff. Documented references reach back to Sangam literature; the staff stands about forehead high.
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About Silambam
Silambam is the Tamil art of fighting with a bamboo staff, at home in southern India. It has no founder and no verifiable year of origin; claims such as "a thousand years BC" rest on no source. Documented references reach back into Sangam literature, that is at least to the fourth century BC. The name derives from silam, hill, and from silambambu, a bamboo from the Kurinji hills of Kerala; the art probably began as practical defence against animals in hill country and only later developed into a combat system. The principal weapon is a bamboo staff about a metre and seventy long, reaching the practitioner's forehead when stood upright. The staff is soaked and beaten to harden it and is sometimes fitted with metal rings; other lengths are used according to the situation. The syllabus, however, goes far beyond the staff: it includes the curved sword, the machete, thrusting deer-horn weapons, the whip, the flexible sword, the push-dagger, the weighted chain staff and the spiked knuckleduster. Unarmed work continues in kuttu varisai, with its animal forms. The British administration banned silambam in favour of firearms training, which led to its decline; revival came only after independence. The main umbrella body today is the World Silambam Association, which obtained UN Special Status in 2022. Popularity has also been sustained by Tamil cinema, from the films of M. G. Ramachandran in the 1950s and 1960s to contemporary productions.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.