What is Kalaripayattu?

Kerala, India is a special place. It is not too hot or too cold. Never below freezing, there is a constant abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. Also, the area is rich in spices and medicinal herbs, which grow naturally in the region and are constantly available and fresh. Most of Kerala is on the Arabian Sea, so fresh fish are caught daily.  

Kalari traditions remember most of human history, where living close to nature was possible. Parasurama, the demigod and mythical creator of Kerala raised the land out of the sea. He gave Kalaripayattu to the Keralites to build civilization there, to be healthy and strong and to protect Kerala.

Kalari is a system of physical practices that improve body control and focus. It is also a healing art that is particularly suited to sports related injuries. In a system of detoxifying practices, the mind/heart/body connection is nurtured and perpetually cleansed.

A kalari is a community center, where people come for information and treatment for injuries and conditions that are not martial arts related but can benefit from therapeutic aspects of the practice. 

  

There is a rich and long history of martial tradition. Kalari originated before the caste system began, but then passed down from generation to generation within the Nayar, or warrior caste. Healing and martial arts have been kept alive through thousands of years in the region and have evolved in modern times, once more outside of caste boundaries.  All castes, any religion, girls and boys, women and men all practice together now in many Kalaris. A Gurukkal can now be any religion or caste.

In present time, a Gurrukkal who embodies hundreds of generations of past gurus (all the way back past Parasurama to Shiva himself) must look to the reality of a global future. Kerala has a lot to gain from the inevitable influences of the west, and it also has a lot to offer.

The Creation of Kalari

In the Kalari world-view, all names for God, in all cultures are interpretations of the wisdom of nature. All of the world’s religions consist of stories invented by civilized people to describe the wisdom of nature. Sacred texts explain our human moves away from the divine, and an effort to reestablish order inside of a civilized culture. Thus is the function of the uniquely human frontal lobes of the brain and opposable thumbs of the hands: to be able to use our faculties to move away from nature, and then intellectualize it.

The potential human lifespan, in a perfect idyllic natural environment (Kerala, India), is 120 years. Our lifespans are dramatically shortened and the quality of our health is greatly diminished by our civilized moves away from the wisdom of nature.

Completely natural creatures (animals in the forest), hunt for their own food. Prehistoric humans, after about age seven, spent most of their time and effort gathering and hunting for nourishment.  They lived close to the earth and nature’s cycles. If their environment became uncomfortable, they moved.

When people stopped being animals in the forest, they began to move away from the wisdom of nature.  They adapted to climates outside of their natural environment, built buildings to live and work in. Humans began to divide labor in the interest of civilized efficiency. Families were created, and other social structures, like villages.  Food was stored instead of eaten immediately with all leftovers abandoned.

Kalari was devised in the time of the first human history, as compensation for these moves away from nature. The physical exercises, which challenge the left and right sides of the body and brain evenly, were devised to compensate for the physical, intellectual, and spiritual lacks created by civilization. Marma massage and herbal medicine likewise compensate for cultural deviation from natural wisdom.  All of Kalaripayattu is designed to bring the practitioner back into alignment with nature, or God.

The purpose for practice is to live in perfect health until the goal of long life is achieved. The potential human lifespan, in a perfect idyllic natural environment is 120 years. Our lifespans are dramatically shortened and the quality of our health is greatly diminished by our civilized moves away from the wisdom of nature.

According to this logic, the answers to all questions regarding healing the human body lie in nature and the way that we lived before we became civilized creatures.