http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/india_sb2.html
Courtesy: HPI
7 September 2001 CALICUT, INDIA, September 7, 2001
Kalarippayat
is said to be the world's original martial art. More than 2,000
years old, it was developed by warriors of the Cheras kingdom in
Kerala. Training followed strict rituals and guidelines. From unarmed
kicks and punches, kalarippayat warriors would graduate to sticks,
swords, spears and daggers and study the marmas -- the 107 vital
spots on the human body where a blow can kill.
Training was
conducted in secret, the lethal warriors unleashed as a surprise
weapon against the enemies of Cheras. Still, Chinese traders learned
some of the mysterious body movements and took them home to provide
the basis of their own martial arts. Now, the box-office success
of Chinese kung-fu movies has in turn revived kalarippayat.
Indian filmmakers,
hoping to mimic the high-kicking fights and gravity-defying leaps
in Jet Li's Romeo Must Die and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon, are hiring kalarippayat fighters and teachers like Kumar
as stuntmen. They're even making sure Bollywood stars have basic
training. "Even five years ago, Kerala martial arts had nearly died
out," says Kumar, who with his two brothers runs C.V.N. Kalari Sangham
in Calicut, among the best known schools in the country. "Now suddenly
it is popular again and it's all because of these films."
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