Southern Kalaripayattu (Thekkan)
Southern style of kalaripayattu, since 1958 the name for the Tamil art varma ati. It begins at once with attacks and defence of vulnerable points, with no body preparation.
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About Southern Kalaripayattu (Thekkan)
According to Phillip Zarrilli in Green's encyclopedia of martial arts, since 1958 the Tamil art varma ati, also known as adi murai, has been called the southern style of kalaripayattu. Under this name the Kerala State Sports Council could recognise it within the new Kerala Kalaripayattu Association, but the techniques, rules, competition disciplines and training venues were recognised as distinct from kalaripayattu. Varma ati, literally the striking of vulnerable points in Tamil, is practised in the area of southern Travancore and in the Kanyakumari district in the south of Tamil Nadu, traditionally among some Sambavars and chiefly among Nadars. It attributes its origin to the sage Agasthya, not to Parasurama as kalaripayattu does.
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Zarrilli writes in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1992) that the kalaripayattu of old southern Kerala and the Kanyakumari district has become almost indistinguishable from the Tamil arts, and that many practitioners and journalists use the names southern kalaripayattu and varma ati interchangeably. He himself, however, regards them as closely related but distinct systems. The English Wikipedia, by contrast, describes the southern style as the northern style influenced by varma ati. Unlike kalaripayattu, varma ati has no body preparation exercises. From the first lesson the student learns attacks and defences aimed at vulnerable points, in Tamil varmam, and trains outdoors or in unroofed enclosures of palm leaf. The basis is three sets of steps, otta cuvatu, kuttu cuvatu and vatta cuvatu, and some masters also teach fighting with a long staff, short sticks and weapons. The masters, called asan, treat injuries according to the Tamil medicine siddha. In 2012 the associations and the state sports council compiled for schools a mixed syllabus of the northern and southern styles.
History
In Green's encyclopedia Martial Arts of the World, Phillip Zarrilli describes varma ati as a martial system practised in southern Travancore in Kerala and in Kanyakumari district in southern Tamil Nadu. The Tamil name literally means striking vulnerable points, and the art is also called ati murai, ati tata and chinna ati. Traditionally it is practised by some Sambavars and mainly by Nadars, who claim an ancient warrior heritage. Its origin is attributed to the sage Agasthya. Green's chronology places the emergence of the Tamil martial art called varma ati in Travancore at around 1100.
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In 1958, when the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association was founded, varma ati began to be called the southern style of kalaripayattu so that the Kerala State Sports Council could officially recognise it. Within the same association, however, its techniques, rules, competition disciplines and training places were recognised as distinct from kalaripayattu. Zarrilli considers it likely that the varma ati of the Nadars and Sambavars was closely related to the kalaripayattu styles practised by the Nairs in old Travancore, because this is a border area where Tamil and Malayalam cultures overlap. In the last thirty years before the encyclopedia was published, he says, the mixing of the styles and techniques of the two arts grew in step with people's growing mobility. In the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1992) he adds that the exact relationship between the Tamil arts and the old southern kalaripayattu can only be settled by detailed historical, linguistic, sociological and technical research.
How it differs
Zarrilli writes that the southern style is better described separately, because its origin myth and way of practice differ so much from kalaripayattu, even though they are clearly related. Northern kalaripayattu claims Parasurama, varma ati the sage Agasthya, whose name, according to Zarrilli, was adopted by several siddhas. The northern style is practiced in a kalari building in a pit, varma ati outdoors. The northern style draws on Ayurveda, varma ati on the Dravidian medicine siddha, according to which masters massage, heal and set bones. While Sushruta's medical treatise lists 107 vulnerable points, the varma ati tradition knows 108 names of them. According to Zarrilli, the kalaripayattu texts on vulnerable points are sober descriptive manuals, whereas the texts of varma ati masters are strongly poetic Tamil verses that were traditionally sung and taught verse by verse. In Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1992) Zarrilli concludes that the southern styles of Kerala were historically probably mixed, whereas the styles of Malabar differed considerably from Tamil ones.
Technique
According to Zarrilli, varma ati stresses unarmed fighting from the first lesson and links the first steps at once with attacks and defences aimed at vulnerable points, called varmam in Tamil and marmam in Malayalam. The basic steps and body movements learned for self-defence are the basis for handling all weapons. Some practitioners include stick fighting, especially with the long stick, and some masters also teach short sticks and an unusual weapon made from a pair of deer horns.
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Varma ati has three sets of basic techniques: otta cuvatu, kuttu cuvatu and vatta cuvatu. All of them stress control of the lower half of the body and attacks on vulnerable points and their defence with the hands, arms and elbows. Training begins with salutation steps, vandana cuvatu, a salutation to the four directions in which one foot, usually the left, stays in place, ended with a salutation to the master. In otta cuvatu one foot stays in place and the other moves in four directions, so the practitioner first blocks or evades and only then enters the counterattack. Most masters teach twelve basic sequences of otta cuvatu, vatta cuvatu have six to twelve sequences and allow a direct counterattack, and kuttu cuvatu are combined steps with both feet. According to Zarrilli, varma ati practitioners generally agree that the sage Agasthya set 108 names of vulnerable points, of which 96 belong to less serious points and 12 to deadly dangerous ones. Because some points come in pairs, there may be more. The main revival technique uses one of twelve to sixteen methods of massage and stimulation of the revival points.
Training
According to Zarrilli, varma ati is practised outdoors or in unroofed palm-leaf enclosures. Unlike kalaripayattu, it has no preparatory body exercises, and the student is at once initiated into sharp sets of attacks and defences. According to Zarrilli, the practice has a far less fixed ceremony, mainly puja, and the body is not oiled daily before training. Zarrilli's article on India lists five main self-defence methods learned by students of the Tamil forms: the steps kuttacuvat and ottacuvat, unarmed fighting kaipor, stick fighting kuruvatippayattu, short stick fighting netuvatippayattu and the knife against an empty hand kattivela. English Wikipedia states that southern-style training begins with steps, continues with paired practice of set techniques and with weapons from the small stick, and that vulnerable points are taught only when the gurukkal sees fit.
Ranks and progression
The masters of varma ati are called asan. According to Zarrilli, traditionally only someone who had reached fulfilment as a siddha yogi could be regarded as a master of vulnerable points, and the Tamil verses on vulnerable points were learned verse by verse as hidden knowledge within the Tamil siddha tradition.
Competition
At the annual district and state competitions of the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association, students of both the northern and southern style perform forms, according to Zarrilli, solo or in pairs with weapons, and a jury of masters announces the overall winner separately in each of the two styles. Varma ati competition disciplines were recognized in the association as distinct from kalaripayattu.
Today
After the 2010 decision to include kalaripayattu in school teaching, the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association and the Kerala State Sports Council drew up a mixed syllabus combining the southern and northern style. According to The New Indian Express in 2012, it took from the southern style the steps chuvadukal, the stances vadiv, locks and grips and basic defensive movements, and from the northern style the body exercise meypayattu and the unarmed fighting verum kai payattu. The same newspaper described the two styles as two parallels that never meet, and master Sudhakaran Gurukal of the C V N kalari objected that kalaripayattu is unified and the styles only a trick. According to Zarrilli, knowledge of vulnerable points remains a very secret and disputed matter among today's practitioners of both varma ati and kalaripayattu. The English Wikipedia states that the southern style is practiced in Kerala less than the northern, mainly in southern Kerala and near Kanyakumari.
Did you know
The work Varma Cuttiram in the manuscript library of the University of Madras has, according to Zarrilli, 146 verses, whereas Varma ati Morivu Cara Cuttiram has over 1 000 verses with the name and location of each vulnerable point, the symptoms of injury and ways of revival. Green's encyclopedia retells a story from the life of Chattambi Swamigal (1853 to 1924), a scholar and saint from southern Kerala regarded as a master of vulnerable points. According to the story, he defeated drunken youths in Edappali with a touch of his stick and revived them the next day. According to a 1977 dissertation by Raj, which Zarrilli cites, this art is also called silambam in the areas of Madurai, Tanjore, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Nagerkoil, and a related tradition is kuthu varisai from Tanjore.
Frequently asked questions
Is the southern style of kalaripayattu the same as varma ati?
According to Phillip Zarrilli, the Tamil art varma ati has been called the southern style of kalaripayattu in Kerala since 1958, but he himself regards it as a closely related but distinct system.
Whom does the southern style claim as its founder?
The sage Agasthya, whereas the northern kalaripayattu claims Parasurama.
How many vulnerable points does varma ati recognise?
According to Zarrilli, practitioners usually agree on 108 names of vulnerable points, determined by the sage Agasthya: 96 less serious and 12 deadly.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.