KALARIPAYATTU- THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD MARTIAL ARTS...

Before starting I would like to mention name of my Guruji.

Guru Murugan Pillai.

His academy name is Nithya Chaithanya Kalari. Only academy in Northern part of India.
His website is www.nckalari.com

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SOURCE/ ORIGIN OF KALARIPAYATTU

Lord Shiva: 

It is believed that Lord Shiva himself developed an art of warfare known as KALARIPAYATTU which was finally learnt by people in South India through his disciples.

Lord Nandi: 

As lord Nandi is very dear to Lord Shiva and is always with him, so first student of this art of warfare was lord Nandi.

Lord Karthikeya (Murugan) : When demon Tarkasura has spread evilness a lot, then to stop and kill him Lord Kartikeya (Murgugan), son of my dear lord Shiva took birth. Tarkasura has got a boon that he can be killed only by lord Shiva's own son. Now to kill Tarkasura, Lord Kartikeya learnt the art of warfare from Lord Shiva and Lord Nandi. Lord Karthikeya was sent to south India by Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha was sent to Northern part of India for their further Karmas. That is why one can see Lord Karthikeya in form of Lord Murugan being worshipped a lot in south India and Lord Ganesha being worshipped a lot in North India like Maharashtra.

Sage Agastya: 

Sage Agastya too learnt the art of warfare from Lord Shiva and Lord Murugan and somehow travelled to southern part of India. In Kerala his style is being called as Thekkan Kalari and in Tamil Nadu it is being called as Silambam/ Chilambam. I will refrain from using which part of South India he travelled. Tamil Nadu people and Kerala people usually gets into heated discussion on this to prove which art is more better. As my Guruji knows both arts, so I came to know that both the arts are almost similar. Also point to note is Guru of Southern Kalari/ Thekkan Kalari and Silambam is Sage Agastya. So I don't know why both groups fights.
Sage Agastya also gave the knowledge of 108 Marmas to the world which is main part of the Kalaripayattu. One with knowledge of these Marmas can injure his opponent and can even heal someone. Kalaripayattu Guru's are very good Ayurvedic/ Siddha doctors.

Sage Parshurama: When Kshatriyas has gone wild due to hunger/ greed of power and has spread evilness a lot, then Sage Parshurama roles comes into play. One of the Kshatriya king even killed Sage Parshurama's father. Sage Parshuram's mother, on murder of her husband, mourned and beated her chest 21 times Seeing that mourning sage Parshurama decided to kill whole Kshatriya's clan 21 times singlehandedly so that evilness in the world can be controlled. It is believed that Sage Parshurama is immortal and is still alive in this Kaliyuga too and will appear to train art of warfare to Lord Kalki to end Kaliyuga.

Sage Parshurama style of martial arts is called as Vaddakan Kalari and is mainly based on ruthless weaponry system. This art flourished well in northern sides of Kerala. 

MY THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCE OF KALARIPAYATTU:

After learning from so many years and still learning, I can say Kalaripayattu is itself a complete Martial arts in itself. Each and every aspect of Kalaripayattu is scientifically designed to progress.

Health aspects - Kalaripayattu moves are designed in such a way that practitioners gets overall body development. Kalaripayattu practitioners are extremely flexible and agile to do any move in day to day life. Practitioners muscles, tendons and ligaments are also very strong. Traditional weight lifting sets mostly matching with few modern methods are also done for overall strength development.

In a research, it is found that practitioners of Kalaripayattu has the best respiratory system development compared to other Martial arts including Yoga

                                                                                    Defensive and offensive- 
Kalaripayattu combat practice is not just about killing someone but it is defenso- offensive martial arts training. I have read many statement where Kalaripayattu is said to be too much deadly that it cannot be used normally/ defensively against anyone. But I consider this statement as false. Practitioners learns both the defensive portions and then the offensive portions of Martial arts. Point to note is amount of defense and amount of offense varies from situation to situation and varies against fighters/ street fighters.

Partner Training - I really appreciate the amount of partner training involved in this art. There is lot of partner training involved in each and every weapons and empty hand to get used to real blocks and strikes. One thing I found that practitioners of this great art can feel that practicing the predefined moves with partners at full speed and power is so much difficult then how difficult it will be to block the moves which we don't know or which is nor pre-decided. By regular practice every practitioners get used to bear heavy strikes and block them and counter them.

Combat mistake- According to me, only mistake many (not all) Kalaripayattu practitioners, if not all, do that they think by practicing only predefined moves they can really fight with anyone. And this is the biggest mistake they do. Practitioners must spar in controlled environment, with each other to get the real reflexes.
Another mistake they do including many other martial arts style practitioners is they get used to counter/ block specific type of strikes. They keep on thinking that opponent will strike in specific way only in which they practice. As per me each and every Martial artist must research and exchange ideas with each other and even spar (in a healthy way) with each other so that practitioners can develop their real art.

Kalaripayattu vs any other Martial arts: Many people especially in Martial arts world say that Kalaripayattu is not effective against other Martial arts like MMA, Muay Thai etc. I want to say one statement against this.

If Kalaripayatu practitioner is skilled enough that he can just touch you, then you are in danger. If you are skilled enough not letting Kalaripayattu practitioner touch you then you can save yourself. And I think second one is almost next to impossible.

Marma's Knowledge- Marma's (pressure points of body) knowledge can be extremely important to any Martial artist especially in old age. When you will grow old and your power and speed of body will reduce then this knowledge of Marma will be useful in taking down your opponents. Martial arts which involve only punching, kicking etc will not work too much as each one of them will require speed and power to some extent. Marma's knowledge is also extremely important for any Martial artist to learn as one must know how to heal their students/ opponents/ Enemies.

Real Combat style of Kalaripayattu:
Youtube is filled with application of Kalaripayattu which is not very close to this combat style. I can understand either they do not know how to show this stuff or they are not skilled enough in representing the techniques. May be someday I will be able to do so.

Now actual combat style is like below

Mainly open hand strikes from different different angles + Few Punches + Practical Kicks + Slips + Long Blocks + Short blocks + 64 types of throws in grappling + counter of the throws + 18 types of locks and their variations + Unlocking the locks + Elbow Attacks + Knee Attacks + Marma hitting. Think about practitioner who instantly grapple with you and pinches one of your Marma in closed range. After getting pinched your hands or legs do not move or you cry out in pain. Even the juijutsu knowledge is not going to help as one with Marma knowledge do not need any gap to pinch/ poke your Marmas. Grapplers may be understanding what Iam saying.



I CAN SAY THAT KALARIPAYATTU IS COMPLETE MARTIAL ARTS IN ITSELF FOR ALL AGE GROUPS WHICH MAKES IT ONE OF THE BEST AMONG ALL THE MARTIAL ARTS IN WORLD.

Below are the reasons for choosing Kalaripayattu.

1. Extreme Flexibility
2. Strength and Endurance
3. Perfect fitness and healthy Body.
3. Weapons Training
4. Weapons vs Empty Hand
5. Weapon vs Weapon fight
6. Bare Hand Combat
7. Complete pressure points knowledge.
8. Spiritual portions of Martial arts
9. Medicine knowledge
10. Knowldege of Prana/ Chi/ Internal Martial arts.
11. Knowledge of Self

STAGES OF KALARIPAYATTU

For knowing stages/ course of Kalaripayattu, please go to link http://nckalari.com or can ask me personally.

To know more on this art, please refer the article https://indianyug.com/kalaripayattu-the-ignored-original-marial-arts-from-india/ 

Namaste

Pranaam

Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com

KALARIPAYATTU VS GYMNASTICS FOR STUDENTS

I would like to cover this very important topic as I keep on receiving no. of calls from students/ parents for Gymnastics classes and at last after knowing details of Kalaripayattu they end up opting for Kalaripayattu classes. This is just because people know name of Gymnastics more than that of Kalaripayattu.

Having learned Gymnastics from no. of teachers and Kalaripayattu from Guru Murugan, I can easily explain difference between two.

Fist of all I would like to use one statement that Gymnastics too is one part of Kalaripayattu and apart from Gymnastics Kalaripayattu has many things to offer.

People has below reasons to choose Gymnastics.

1) Stunts like Flips, Handsprings, Rolls etc which looks very cool. Now these are also used in Dance.

2) It offers very good flexibility to students.

3) It gives very good strength to students.

4) It gives very good control on body.

5) It gives very high level of Fitness.

Now I will explain why people should opt Kalaripayattu instead of Gymnastics.

1) Stunts- All the flips, Handsprings, Rolls etc are already their in Kalaripayattu. At higher stages these moves are done with weapons in hands. Beside this there are so many complex moves including complex kicks in Kalaripayattu which when learnt leads to overall development of Body. Students of Kalaripayattu can easily learn most of the Dance moves in their Dance classes too. Even the high professional Dancers learns Kalaripayattu for improving their perfomances.

2)  Flexibility - Though Gymnastics gives very good amount of flexibility to it's practitioners but it cannot match the flexibility offered by Kalaripayattu. Kalaripayattu offers endurance Flexibility instead of just simple flexibility. I mean to say Kalaripayattu practitioners can perform many moves especially of legs for much longer time. Actually most of the moves are combination of Strength, Flexibility and repetitions of both to increase Muscle endurance.

3) Strength- Though this is most neglected part by few students of Kalaripayattu but Kalaripayattu offers extreme level of strength to the body. Strength of lower portion of body of good Kalaripayattu practioners are unmatchable. Upper portion of body has also very good level of strength but not just for stunts but for combat purpose also. Strength required to move weapons is not offered in Gymnastics. Last but not least Weight lifting too is age old tradition of Kalaripayattu practitioners, though very few students lift weights.

Beside other strength training exercise, try to hold the stances shown in pic. below even for 5 minutes and you will know what kind of strength Kalaripayattu practioners have.

4) Control- As I have already said Kalaripayattu practioners practice a lot of complex moves including Gymnastics which gives them total control on body in every kind of situation.

5) Fitness- Fitness offered by Kalaripayattu is unmatchable by Gymnastics or any other Martial arts. Iam saying this by experience not just boasting. Kalaripayattu gives overall fitness to students which includes Physical Fitness, Internal Fitness, Mental Fitness and Spiritual Fitness.

6) Moving Meditation - Kalaripayattu has a lot of scientific predefined moves. Most of the predefined moves when performed for in a seuqence is actually a kind of moving meditation. Very high level of concentration is achieved by it's practitioners. Below is just one example. These moves are called Ashtavadivus sequence.

7) Self Defense - Self defense is such an important part in today's lifestyle that is never offered by Gymnastics. Very high level of Self Defense system is taught in Kalaripayattu. Bare hand combat are taught at much later stages and weapons are taught in initial stages of Kalaripayattu.

8) Weapons - Variety of Weapons is taught in Kalaripayattu. Practioners are taught weapons not just for combat purpose only but are taught for display/ performing purpose too. Students when performs infront of large audience, their fear, nervousness go away after sometime. So you can see Kalaripayattu works on overall personality development of students. Me too has performed on variety of platforms all over India. However academy in which iam learning has perfomred outside India too.

In one line I will say Kalaripayattu is such a deep science offered by Lord Shiva (and his disciples) to mankind which if utilized can lead to very very healthy life till old age. This is not offered in Gymnastics.

Pranaam

Namaste

Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com

The BISCUIT, Kalaripayattu Guru and the Dhyana lesson

One day in evening I went to meet my Kalaripayattu Guruji. He was sitting in his Ayurvedic Chemists shop in Mayur Vihar, Delhi. I sat too with him to chat on some issues. He ordered Tea for us and took out Biscuit from his shop. We started dipping Biscuit in a Tea to eat it. As I was taking Biscuit from a Packet in his hand, by mistake one Biscuit fell on the ground. Guruji said in a joking way, What are you doing, where is your Dhyana (Concentration)..!!!

I smiled and came back with my philosophy and said- I think Biscuit had gone to the ones who deserves it today. I was referring to one very famous statement in hindi - Daane Daane pe likha hai Khaane Waale ka Naam ( Name of deserving one is already written by God on every seed/ drop of food/water).

Guruji came back with an answer- But this should not happen from the hands of Martial artist.

I remained quiet and started thinking on it. After few days, I got the answer. The Martial artist should be so much perfect in his/her work that he/she should not make such mistakes. In other words, Martial artist must be aware of each and every second, must enjoy each and every present moment. If one does so, one will certainly not make such mistake.  

A very big lesson I have learnt. I am still trying to achieve it. However I still make mistakes but Iam trying my best and I have been successful at some level in this.

Namaste

Ranjit Mishra

Martial Warriors Academy

www.martialart-warriors.in

Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com

MY KUNG FU STUDY AND CONCEPT OF ALERTNESS

My Kung fu study (for 5 years) was not like other people practice Kung Fu. It was totally different from what people normally study in Kung Fu course. In my study what i learnt is

                                   Practice- Research- Practice- Apply practically

I practiced no forms and whatever i was able to apply practically was part of my Kung Fu though few basics are similar to other people practice Kung Fu.

But the best of the best thing that I learned in my Kung Fu study is Alertness concept.

According to Master Santosh Singh, one needs to remain alert at all times and at all places and be ready to fight at any place. This was the basic of my Kung Fu study. Even the best fighter in the world can be defeated if he is not alert at all times. Because if you are good in fighting then weaker one often cheats in fight to defeat/ Kill you. There are numerous examples of such cases where weaker one backstab stronger ones because they do not want to fight them like man from front.This knowledge i am sharing with you is total summary of what i have learnt in Kung Fu.

But this kind of alertness do not comes just by knowing it. Habit has to be formed for this. How I developed this habit is very interesting to know and is bit filmy. But yes this is true. 

Whenever and wherever we met, in a class or outside class, he used to test me anytime by hitting me. In return i had to defend against that particular attack. We have done this in functions also.. :-) 

This habit took years to develop. Then second stage was He hits, I block and then I instantly hit and he blocks. This took another one year to develop inside me.

This practice helped me a lot as I am ready to defend myself anywhere and at any time. The better offensive concepts I know was from other Martial Arts I learnt/ learning afterwards but defensive concept was best in my Kung Fu study.

Another kind of practice we used to do with weapons and without weapons was He hits and I block. None of the attacks and none of the blocks was fixed. Below link is a just a small example of such kind of practice in initial stage.

This video shows me defending with Tonfa and he hitting with Long stick. Point to note is nothing is choreographed and this was my training in initial stages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecX4xcjmE1s 

LESSON LEARNT- BE ALERT TO REMAIN ALIVE

Namaste

Amituofo

Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com

IS PRESENT MMA REALLY A MARTIAL ARTS...!!!

Now a days MMA is very famous for being the world best Martial arts. Fighters from different field of Martial arts combines their skills with other Martial arts to become a complete fighter. Now the question is are they really a complete fighter....!!!

For understanding this, we have to first understand the definition of MMA. 

MMA is Mix Martial arts system.

Now to be very specific, MMA IS NOT AT ALL A MARTIAL ARTS. However it can be called as Mix Fighting arts and not mixed Martial arts. Because Martial arts is a very broad term as I have written in my very first blog. For any system to be called as Martial arts, it should cover below things. 

Physical Martial arts

Internal Martial arts

Mental Martial arts

Spiritual Martial arts.

But current MMA is totally focused on Physical portion of  Martial arts. As can be seen in these sports fighting, Internal Martial arts, Mental Martial arts, Spiritual portions of Martial arts can no where be found. These fighters abuse each other a lot. Many times they cheat in sports just to win. Many of them keep on hitting other fighter who has already fainted, etc. etc. These things are never part of any real Martial arts.

MMA IS AN INCOMPLETE PHYSICAL MARTIAL ARTS

This statement is not something new I said. Many knowledgeable martial artist have said this. MMA is too much focused on Empty Hand combat System. To be more specific, Empty Hand Sports Combat System. I mentioned the word sports because MMA players fights with certain rules but in real combat system there are no rules. 

Some universal rules in MMA fighting are as below:

·        No groin attacks- This is a kind of attack in real fight fear of which changes the style of whole fight. Then real MMA fight will not be what we see in a cage.

·     No knees to the head on a grounded opponent- Knee to head on ground opponent can lead to sudden death or heavy shock on the brain. This happens in real fights.

·       No strikes to the back of the head or the spine- Hitting back spine even one time can lead to a paralysed body for lifetime. Hitting back of the neck can also give one an instant knockout in one or two blows but it damages your brain system.

·        No head butts - Head butts are not allowed which can injure opponent a lot.

·      No eye gouging- Who wants his eyes to be gouged out in a sports fight. Only one fight with this included will make one blind. After this Martial arts career is finished.

·       No fish hooking- Think about person putting Fingers inside one's mouth and tearing it apart. This happens in street fight where there is no rules.

·       No biting- One of the most natural weapon of body. I met one fighter in my Kung Fu combat study who took out finger of one person by biting him in a fight. He came to know about this finger in his mouth when this Guy ran away after the fight.

·     No hair pulling- One of the easiest thing to attack. Few Hair pulling strategy can instantly incapacitate an attacker/ Grappler. One should also know how to get out from hair pulls in a fight. This is not present in MMA.

·      No strikes or grabbing of the throat- Used for fainting and killing the opponent. This is done very quickly in a close range fighting. Below is just a very small example.

·      No manipulation of the fingers or toes- Finger locks and finger tearing are very easy to apply and the most dangeorus lock. Who wants a broken finger in a fight...!!!

·    No intentional grabbing of the ring or cage- Just imagine a fight in a bathroom, Drawing room with tables and bed, On bed, On sofa, in Kitchen, On stairs, On open terrace where you are in danger of falling, in a jungle, in water, in mountains and terrain where one uses each and every thing in a fight. This is not there in sports.

Personally i do believe that practicing sport combat with certain rules trains reflexes and other features necessary required in a street combat. But this sparing should be done safely so that one do not get injured.

Sparing should always be injury free as who knows when you have to apply in reality what you have learned. If you are injured after a sports fight then all will be in vain if something happens in real on street. However I don't have much right to say this. As i am a Muay Thai sports fighter too and I keep on injuring myself in fights. Minor injuries are acceptable but not any major injury like below pictures.

Above were just a few limitations of MMA. Other limitations are below not available in current MMA. I learned/ learning this from Kung Fu and Kalaripayattu study.

1. Weapons Practice.

2. Weapons vs Empty Hand System

3. Weapons vs Weapons fight

4. One weapon vs Other Weapon

5. Multiple opponents fighting coming from all directions. Most of the time if one faces multiple opponents they will be unskilled. So a Martial artist has to be/ can be very quick in fighting against multiple unskilled opponent. Here fighting strategy changes where one do not keep on waiting, looking for an opening in a fight but here one has to be very quick minded and has to keep on moving inside his opponent to take him down.

6.Weapon vs Multiple opponents

7. Weapon vs multiple armed opponents.

8. And now think all the above cases to be applied in a bathroom drawing room with table  and sofa, on bed, In kitchen, on open terrace where you are in danger of falling, In a jungle, in water, in mountains and terrain where one uses each and every thing including walls in a fight. This is not there in sports.

9. 108 Marma strikes available in Kalaripayattu.

10. Marma Healing system available in Kalaripayattu. One of the most important point to learn for any real Martial artist. As my Kalari Guru says- Many of the martial artist knows how to injure someone but we Kalari practitioners knows how to heal the same.

So there is too much to learn and explore in any really called MMA. 

See I appreciate MMA people for their skills and i am too a MMA practitioner, though of different type (just see my introduction). But still if anyone of you are pissed off with my explanation and want to challenge me, then I will say come fight with weapon. This is just for MMA people to let them know the reality and not for everyone. I respect everyone and I know i am not the best fighter in world. However iam trying to be good fighter in every kind of situation. There will be many who will be better than me. I appreciate MMA and believe it works on streets in some cases but I want people to learn real MMA covering all the portions of Martial arts as I often see people of MMA disrespecting students/ teachers of other Traditional Martial arts. They just don't understand they know only a portion of Martial arts and not full martial arts itself. So after reading this blog I expect all MMA people to respect people of other Traditional Martial arts and more better will be to learn from each other.


Namaste

Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com

Rapists needs to learn Kalaripayattu to stop rape

Yes. You read it right.... EVERYONE INCLUDING RAPISTS NEEDS TO LEARN KALARIPAYATTU SO THAT RAPES CAN BE STOPPED.

This statement I heard from one of the student of my Kalaripayattu Guruji. From her I came to know this is a thought of my Guruji. You might be thinking this statement is foolish. When i heard this statement I started thinking on it for  a while. And then I found this statement to be very true.

As per my Guruji (he tries to explain everything scientifically), we all are filled with Energy. If we are able to do any work then this Energy is required to perform any task. Even for speaking a word, Energy is required. Their is nothing special iam saying. Science has proven this. Some people are able to utilize this energy in good things which helps them to develop in life and therefore we find good things in the world. Some people use their Energy in wrong things as they do not get the right Environment. So they will release their energy in wrong things and thus we have Crimes like rapes. Now if their Energy can be diverted in right things like Kalaripayattu (and not just any fighting art where they are mentally conditioned for hating others) practice where they daily dissipate their energy in learning right things then Rape like thing will rarely exists in their mind. This martial arts style also helps people to develop mentally and spiritually.

Now i am explaining this statement in different way too.

If one including Rapists, starts learning Real Martial arts, then as i have explained earlier in my first blog, this will help him develop in four fields. Physical, Internal, Mental and Spiritual.

Earlier blog link:
http://ranjit-warrior.blogspot.in/2016/11/martial-arts-way-of-life-and-different.html

If anyone uses their daily energy in developing physically a lot, then one will rarely get a time thinking about wrong things. You can see this in anyone who really spends his time in developing physically. However this is not enough. Developing in other fields is also necessary as explained below.

If one practices Internal Martial arts, then this helps him in getting a pure and balanced Energy/ Prana / Chi. Balance in energy means balance in Sun Energy (Surya Nadi) and Moon Energy (Chandra Nadi) inside the body. Any imbalance (Excess or deficient) in the body, will lead to disease. I will explain more about the Internal Martial arts in some other blog. Restricting myself to this blog, Crime like Rape is a result of Excess of Sun energy (but not limited to this only) inside body too. Sexual Energy is a part of Sun energy. On can do sex, if he has this Sun Energy inside his body. But when this energy gets increased a lot, then thoughts of releasing these energies automatically comes in Mind. Rapes are just one kind of example of such Excess energy. Practicing Internal Martial arts helps one in balancing those energies.

If one practices Mental Martial arts, this means he/she is well aware of his Mind condition. This means he/she is always aware of all the negative thoughts coming in his mind and can control all such thoughts at his/her will. So even if a thought of Rape comes in one's mind who practices Mental Martial arts, he/she can control that energy or divert that energy in some positive work.

Best part of all is if one is developing spiritually in Martial arts, then this means he/she has control or can control/ divert all kinds of thoughts like Lust, Anger, Greed, Ego and attachment. Rapes are a product of all such negative vices. Rapes happen when all these vices Lust, Anger, Greed, Ego and Attachment takes over one's mind.

Please note: I have mentioned the name Kalaripayattu specifically in my headline as this is statement of my Guruji. However I feel any good and Real Martial arts can change anyone.

Namaste

Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com