Kalaripayattu

Kalaripayattu (sometimes shortened as Kalari) is an Indian martial arts and fighting system that originated in Kerala. There is mention about Tulunadan Kalari in the Northern ballads of Malabar. It is considered by some to be the oldest martial art still in existence, with its origin dating back to the 3rd century BCE.

Kalaripayattu includes strikes, kicks, grappling, preset forms, weaponry and healing methods. Regional variants are classified according to geographical position in Kerala. These are: the Northern style from Malabar region in north Kerala, the Central style from inner Kerala and the Southern style from Travancore. Northern Kalaripayattu is based on elegant and flexible movements, evasions, jumps and weapons training, while the southern "Adi Murai" style primarily follows the hard impact based techniques with priority on empty hand fighting and pressure point strikes.

Kalaripayattu techniques are a combination of ‘Chuvadu' and ‘Vadivu'. While Chuvadu literally means ‘steps', the basic steps of the martial art, Vadivu means ‘postures' or ‘stances'. Named after animals, the postures are usually eight in number. Styles differ considerably from one tradition to another. Not only do the names of poses differ, the masters also differ about the application and interpretation. Each stance has its own style, power combination, function and effectiveness.