Varma kalai
Tamil art of vital points, varmam. According to practitioners, it joins the fighting side, varma adi, with the healing that siddha medicine institutes now offer as varmam therapy.
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About Varma kalai
Varma kalai, also varmakalai, is the Tamil name for the art of the vital points, varmam. Anthropologist Roman Sieler of Heidelberg University says, according to Asia Times, that it includes both striking the vital points, varma adi, and healing them, and that according to practitioners varma kalai must combine the two. In Martial Arts of the World and in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, Zarrilli describes the fighting side of the same tradition under the name varma ati, which he says has been run in Kerala since 1958 as the southern style of kalaripayattu. According to the tradition Zarrilli reports, the founder is the sage Agastya, and we have not found a historical founder or a year of origin.
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According to Zarrilli, the tradition counts 108 vital points, more precisely 108 names, and practitioners attribute them to Agastya. Twelve of them are lethal, padu varmam, and 96 are lesser, thodu varmam. According to him, the masters, called asan, traditionally also massaged, healed and set bones within Dravidian siddha medicine, not Ayurveda. Old Tamil palm-leaf texts describe the location of the points, the consequences of injury and treatment. As a martial art, varma kalai is, according to Asia Times in 2017, fading and is kept alive only by a handful of masters around Kanyakumari, Rameswaram and Kovipatti and in parts of Kerala. Varmam therapy is today run by the Central Research Institute of Siddha Medicine in Chennai and the National Institute of Siddha, which in December 2024 held a mass treatment session and, according to the trade website Medical Dialogues, set a Guinness record.
History
In Martial Arts of the World, Zarrilli describes varma ati as a combat system of southern Travancore and Kanyakumari district in southern Tamil Nadu, traditionally practised by some Sambavars and above all by Nadars. According to him, its origin is attributed to the sage Agastya, whereas kalaripayattu is attributed to Parashurama. Master Gopalakrishnan reports, according to Asia Times, a tradition that the teaching came down from the gods through Agastya, who wrote it down. According to Zarrilli in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1992), knowledge of the points belongs to Dravidian medicine siddha, not to Ayurveda, and some practitioners were once called agastyars or siddhas. According to Zarrilli, the old Tamil texts of the masters are poetic, sung and taught verse by verse. Varma Cuttiram in the manuscript library of the University of Madras has 146 verses, Varma ati Morivu Cara Cuttiram over a thousand. According to him, the texts indicate that the system was highly esoteric, because only someone who had reached the level of siddha yogi could be a master of the points. Since the Kerala Kalaripayattu Association was founded in 1958, varma ati is treated as a southern style of kalaripayattu, so the Kerala State Sports Council could recognise it.
How it differs
According to Zarrilli in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, varma ati is closely related to kalaripayattu, but it is a distinct system. In the same association as kalaripayattu, its techniques, rules, competition disciplines and training places were recognised as distinct. Zarrilli also gives other names of the same tradition, ati murai, ati tata and chinna ati. Unlike the 107 vital points, which the medical text of Sushruta determines under 43 names, the varma ati tradition has 108 names of points. The specialist website Medical Dialogues writes that varmakalai is often understood only as a martial technique, whereas in siddha medicine varmam is a healing practice. Roman Sieler, according to Asia Times, states that a strike on the points varma adi and their treatment varmamaruttuvam develop the student's skills.
Technique
According to Zarrilli, practitioners of varma ati usually agree that the points, first identified by the sage Agastya, number 108. But this is a count of names, and as some names are double, there may be over two hundred points. According to Zarrilli, the text Varma Oti Murivu Cara Cuttiram lists 46 points as single and 62 as double. Of the 108, 96 are lesser points thodu varmam and twelve are main deadly points padu varmam. Per Zarrilli, the main revival technique uses one of twelve to sixteen adangal methods, massage and stimulation of revival points. According to Zarrilli, the texts record no specific techniques for attacking or defending the spots, though the techniques include strikes with hands, fingers and elbows. Master Sadasivan Asan of Trivandrum, whom Zarrilli cites, says that where there is no breath there is no varmam, and that varmam are places where breath gathers during meditation. In therapy, per an article in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, the points are stimulated with fingers and hands, exceptionally with toes and the sole of the foot.
Training
Unlike kalaripayattu, varma ati has, according to Zarrilli, no preparatory body exercises, and students learn attacks and defences from the start. Training takes place outdoors or in unroofed palm-leaf enclosures. According to master Gopalakrishnan, quoted by Asia Times, varma adi, the fighting side of varma kalai, is an advanced stage of training and is given only to students with self-control. According to Zarrilli, knowledge of the points remains very secret and disputed among practitioners of varma ati and kalaripayattu.
Ranks and progression
Varma ati training according to Zarrilli begins with the greeting steps vandana cuvatu. These are followed by otta cuvatu, steps on one leg, in which one leg, usually the left, stands while the other moves in all four directions, and most masters teach twelve basic otta cuvatu sequences as preparatory body training. Further sets are vatta cuvatu, which allow a direct switch to a counterattack, and kutta cuvatu, combinations of steps of both legs with defences and attacks on points. Some masters draw a kalam on the ground, a figure of five circles in which the steps are practised.
Today
According to Asia Times from 2017, only a handful of masters maintain the varma kalai tradition at the southern tip of Tamil Nadu around Kanyakumari, Rameswaram and Kovipatti and in parts of Kerala, and knowledge is passed on mainly in the family. As a martial art it is fading, it declined with the arrival of firearms, but it is still used to treat paralysis, sprains, fractures and nerve disorders. According to a Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine article, varmam therapy as a drug-free non-invasive pain treatment is led by the department of varmam, thokkanam and traditional bone setting at the Central Research Institute of siddha medicine in Chennai. The National Institute of Siddha in Chennai announced a mass treatment in December 2024, according to the daily DT Next, and according to Medical Dialogues 567 therapists treated 567 people at once and the institute registered a Guinness record.
Did you know
Zarrilli, according to Menon (1967), reports a tradition of Chattambi Swamigal (1853 to 1924), a scholar and saint of southern Kerala, who reportedly mastered wrestling, healing, yoga and the art of points, and allegedly defeated a group of drunken youths with a touch of his stick near the church in Edappalli. A 2025 article in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine says the points of varmam therapy have codes in World Health Organization standard terminology.
Frequently asked questions
How many vital points does varma kalai know?
According to Zarrilli, the tradition lists 108 names of points, which it attributes to the sage Agastya. Twelve of them are lethal and 96 lesser, and because some names are double, there may be more than two hundred points.
Is varma kalai a martial art or a healing practice?
Both. According to anthropologist Roman Sieler, quoted by Asia Times, varma kalai includes striking the points, varma adi, and healing them, and practitioners insist that it must combine both.
How is varma kalai related to adimurai?
Zarrilli and Green give adi murai, varma ati, ati tata and chinna adi as names of one Tamil fighting system, which has been run in Kerala since 1958 as the southern style of kalaripayattu.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.