If I had to ask you to take a wild guess on where do you think Martial arts originated, I am sure most of you would say either China or Japan as their first response. And there is a reason for that, in today’s times we see that these two nations have still preserved the art at a local level where most Chinese know Kung Fu and most Japanese know one of their arts be it Karate, Judo, Aikido etc. But it might surprise you that these two are not the original location where Martial Art first began. So which country it would be, if not China or Japan. And the answer to this question is, India. Yes, it was in India where Martial Arts as an organised art form first originated.
Now the reality of India in today’s time presents us with the dilemma that how cum a land which originated Martial Art currently is very limited or to say almost non-existent with respect to preserving its martial arts roots. There are various reasons for this reality to be like that. Some are more historical and some are more psychological. In this article, we will try to answer this conundrum.
Firstly, it is important to know historical background of how Martial Art originated in India and by whom! The person who founded Martial arts was a monk name, “Bodhidharma.” He first founded a martial art form name “Kalaripattyu” in the south in Kerala. If you ever visit Kerala then check it out. Many locals in Kerala know about this art and at certain places an exhibition is held to showcase the beauty of this art. Bodhidharma in quest of finding inner discipline for achieving enlightenment developed an organised system of Kalaripattyu taking inspiration from spiritual roots of India. He then later went to China to bring Chan Buddhism and became patriarch of Shaolin Temple.
In China, Bodhidharma saw very poor physical condition of shaolin monks and in order to educate them on real meaning of spirituality which is not necessarily ascetism or fanatism against physical senses, he told them that the growth of a human being needs to be at all 3 levels simultaneously. He said, only a discipline like Martial art can do justice to this line of achieving self-enlightenment. And hence he developed Shaolin Kung-Fu for these monks which later on became foundational Martial art system for many traditional martial art forms in the east. Shaolin Kung Fu and Kalaripattyu as martial art form are similar on many fronts since they were developed my same person. Then through China, martial arts spread and we see its emergence in Japan, Korea etc.
You might want to know how Shaolin Kung Fu spread across the east and gave births to numerous Martial Art forms in the world but Kalaripattyu didn’t even spread in India itself. And the reason for this is historical. Firstly, in India there were many different martial art forms like Mallayudha, Silambam, Gatka etc in the same time period as Kalaripattyu as Indian culture was rich with many art forms. And when India was under British rule, they banned all martial art forms which were seen as threats for rebellion and Kalaripattyu was one of the primary one. And this ban lasted over 100 years and it is good enough time period to ensure there is cultural gap for non-continuity of a martial art tradition. And hence, its impact was limited only to small area in Kerala.
Another reason for martial art tradition in India losing its way is more psychological and that is wrong understanding of a spiritual principle “Ahimsa, non-violence.” With the influence of Gandhi’s ideals and general psyche of society over few hundred years, Warfare was seen only from the prism of destruction at physical level. With all the Wars and Violence, the toll which people took made them apprehensive for anything that has to do with violence and that includes even learning self-defence or martial art. As a principle, Ahimsa applies not only at physical level but mainly at psychological level. We might avoid physical violence but in reality, we do commit many psychological violence because of our anger, envy, jealously, greed etc in our everyday life. And Martial art in true sense is to precisely fight this psychological violence within us but that is not at all easy and hence we take refuge in either fighting with anger towards others or not fighting at all due to cowardice.
In Conclusion, time has come to revive this rich ancient tradition which teaches us about way of life in today’s complex world which is grip with conflicts at all levels. It is up to us now on how we imbibe its learnings and apply it in our lives.
-Vineet Lalan