The kalari tradition which have been the traditional heritage of the panicker/kurup community( i dont like to call it as a caste which woud automatically put it below and above some other castes as it is unworthy of a discussion and inhumane) deserves a wider introduction as to laymen and foreign people it is linked only to the training of the martial art form called kalaripayattu. But it is not the truth, which i have been seeing since my childhood, where to me kalari is an institution, a pace of worship and devotion as well as body training gym.
(Wide references from the book paithrukam done by Mukundan Kurup and team. aND ALSO mentioning kalaridotcom group for the informations shared through watsapp history group kalari kurup panicker history.
Thanks also to sreehari , research scholar in history for certain stunning revelations and giving me confidence in writing certain controversial topics. )
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD KALARI :
So coming to the etymology of the word kalari, there are two theories to it. They are :
(1) In Kalaries or places of practising of kalaripayattu as it was called, they used to worship "khaloorika" godess, a fierce diety, whose name stood for weapons. As a result the place where khaloorika devi came to be worshiped came to be known as kalari.
(2) In tamil, Kalloori means a place of study or a university, and kalari is a malayalam version of kalloori, meaning a pace of education.
So in short , whatever might be the origin of the word kalari, it binds both the two origins in practise as it is a place of education as wel as related to weapons and warfare.
MYTH PREVALENT ABOUT ORIGINS OF KALARI KURUP/PANICKER :
It is a prevalent myth among the ancestors of kalari kurup/panickers and is propogated by historians MukundanKurup and Sreehari through their book "paithrukam" published by kalaridotcom, an organisation of kalari kurup/panicker, that, these martial arts practitioners were descendents of corresponding people in tulu nadu who were acharyas of dhanur vedas. In tulu nadu which is located in karnataka, they were known as tulu nambi, and they had their own garadi, which is a tulu version of a kalari. The supreme god of tulu people , berma deva resembles in structure to the vishnumaya or the shashthan or chathan of a certain group of panicker/kurup people highly prevalent only in thrissur, Kannanchira Kalari Temple, in thrissur, guruvayur, has Vishnu Maya as the prime diety as well as Avangattukalari temple in tripprayar which also claims to have one of the oldest vishnu maya idols along with kannanchira temple. The above two are oldest of vishnu maya temples who find its mention in aitheehyamala by kottarakkara shankunni, a collection of mythologies of the older times in kerala along with the famous parayi petta pantheeru kulam. Though avanangattu panicker finds his mention more in the former book , there is only mention of a place called "kannanchira" from where the avanangattu panickers married when there were no women in their community.Although differernt mythologies are prevalent pertaining to both gods, their essence is same, that which originates from "kularnnava" thantra an esoteric form of worship system. Both berma deva and vishnu maya though have connection s with manju sri deity in vajrayana buddhism. Manju sri is a bodhisattva, or the realised soul or buddha himself. Though vishnu maya diety is worshipped only in Thrissur locales, in kalari the dieties are a mix of buddhist-aryan-dravidian influences which is highlighted by Sreedhara Menon in thi sbook The panorama of indian culture, where he explains about the influence of aryan brahmin gods into the folklore of theyyam and other local devotional art forms. Instead of destroying the indegenous cultures, the brahmins let stay the local traditions and devotional forms, and hence inspite of having an independent existence there was an exchange of gods to and fro to such an extent that the older deities lost its relevance in the coming social situations. The gods such as Bhuvaneswari, Chamundi, Rakteswari, Veerabhadra, Bhootagana, Ganapathy, Ashtavasus, Bhagavathy etc were worshipped in kalaris, which will be explained in detail in future posts, which is the idea of this blog.
42 FEET KALARIES :
The kalaris were popuarly known in ancient times as 42feeted or nalpatheeradi, as is was 42 feet long and 21 feet wide, shaped as a rectangle. The resons for being 42*21 is being explained as such. As usual in history there are two main theories for explaining this numerological connection :
(1) 5 bhootas, 5 panchabhoota tanmatras , 5 njanendriyas,5 karmendriyas together with the shiva or the purusha or surya part or the soul constitute 21 feet and the same 20 constituents with the shakti part or the chandra part or the prakrithi part or the mind part make the whole of the 42 feeted kalari. The two parts may also be considered as mother and father, yin and yang, and it represents the duality that is the essence of creation of higher forms of life through males and females.
(2) Yet according to another school of thought, the 21 feet represents 21 gurus of kalari system who were taught kalari by the sage parashurama himself and were responsible for creating 108 kalaris all over kerala as per the instruction of parashurama according to mythology. Though mythologies have no authenticity and cannot be considered as a proof for our claims in history, we can get clues regarding the cultural, geographical details from these mythologies, as is evident from the mythology of creation of kerala, where it is evident that from gokarna to kanyakumari, the geographical area is isolated from other parts as a result of western ghats. And also, parashurama might be a warrior brahmin, who might be the peretrator of all brahmins of kerala. Also the gujarathi brahmins called as gaudas , in their history provide authentic details as regards to the existence of a gotra called bhargava clan of brahmins who have descended to kerala and tulu nadu. So mythologies cannot be considered useless , but provide directions in our search to find our ancestorial past, as in this case.
PARASHURAMA AND KALARI
It is beleieved according to popular mythology that parashurama threw away his axe after killing the kshatriya kula and this axe created a landmass out of sea from gokarna to kanyakumari. As far as kerala is considered, the parashurama, brought brahmins to kerala and bulit 108 shiva temples, 108 durga temples and 108 42 feeted kalaris. But in the text called Keralolpatti, it is said that there were 1008 kalaris set up according to advice of parashurama. Also the northern system of kalari practise was called the parashurama system, while the southern system was called the agastya or bhogar system of kalari or now popularly known as varmma kalai.
KALARI AND THEYYAM AND OTHER ART FORMS
Mr.Sreedhara menon, renowned historian in his famous book, the panorama of indian culture, explains about the link with kalari and other art forms, especially theyyam and kathakali. As in those times, the theyyam artists first only after seeking kalaripayattu basics called as maithari or meipayattu would learn theyyam or kathakali as these art forms needed flexibility of body and muscles to create various exaggerated expressions. Any kalari artist or warrior could reciprocate these art forms with ease and these were inter related. Such were the prevalence and depths of kalari, an indegenous military institution as said by Sreedhara Menon inhis book.
drprasanthkp@gmail.com
kannanchira kalarikkal
(Wide references from the book paithrukam done by Mukundan Kurup and team. aND ALSO mentioning kalaridotcom group for the informations shared through watsapp history group kalari kurup panicker history.
Thanks also to sreehari , research scholar in history for certain stunning revelations and giving me confidence in writing certain controversial topics. )
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD KALARI :
So coming to the etymology of the word kalari, there are two theories to it. They are :
(1) In Kalaries or places of practising of kalaripayattu as it was called, they used to worship "khaloorika" godess, a fierce diety, whose name stood for weapons. As a result the place where khaloorika devi came to be worshiped came to be known as kalari.
(2) In tamil, Kalloori means a place of study or a university, and kalari is a malayalam version of kalloori, meaning a pace of education.
So in short , whatever might be the origin of the word kalari, it binds both the two origins in practise as it is a place of education as wel as related to weapons and warfare.
MYTH PREVALENT ABOUT ORIGINS OF KALARI KURUP/PANICKER :
It is a prevalent myth among the ancestors of kalari kurup/panickers and is propogated by historians MukundanKurup and Sreehari through their book "paithrukam" published by kalaridotcom, an organisation of kalari kurup/panicker, that, these martial arts practitioners were descendents of corresponding people in tulu nadu who were acharyas of dhanur vedas. In tulu nadu which is located in karnataka, they were known as tulu nambi, and they had their own garadi, which is a tulu version of a kalari. The supreme god of tulu people , berma deva resembles in structure to the vishnumaya or the shashthan or chathan of a certain group of panicker/kurup people highly prevalent only in thrissur, Kannanchira Kalari Temple, in thrissur, guruvayur, has Vishnu Maya as the prime diety as well as Avangattukalari temple in tripprayar which also claims to have one of the oldest vishnu maya idols along with kannanchira temple. The above two are oldest of vishnu maya temples who find its mention in aitheehyamala by kottarakkara shankunni, a collection of mythologies of the older times in kerala along with the famous parayi petta pantheeru kulam. Though avanangattu panicker finds his mention more in the former book , there is only mention of a place called "kannanchira" from where the avanangattu panickers married when there were no women in their community.Although differernt mythologies are prevalent pertaining to both gods, their essence is same, that which originates from "kularnnava" thantra an esoteric form of worship system. Both berma deva and vishnu maya though have connection s with manju sri deity in vajrayana buddhism. Manju sri is a bodhisattva, or the realised soul or buddha himself. Though vishnu maya diety is worshipped only in Thrissur locales, in kalari the dieties are a mix of buddhist-aryan-dravidian influences which is highlighted by Sreedhara Menon in thi sbook The panorama of indian culture, where he explains about the influence of aryan brahmin gods into the folklore of theyyam and other local devotional art forms. Instead of destroying the indegenous cultures, the brahmins let stay the local traditions and devotional forms, and hence inspite of having an independent existence there was an exchange of gods to and fro to such an extent that the older deities lost its relevance in the coming social situations. The gods such as Bhuvaneswari, Chamundi, Rakteswari, Veerabhadra, Bhootagana, Ganapathy, Ashtavasus, Bhagavathy etc were worshipped in kalaris, which will be explained in detail in future posts, which is the idea of this blog.
42 FEET KALARIES :
The kalaris were popuarly known in ancient times as 42feeted or nalpatheeradi, as is was 42 feet long and 21 feet wide, shaped as a rectangle. The resons for being 42*21 is being explained as such. As usual in history there are two main theories for explaining this numerological connection :
(1) 5 bhootas, 5 panchabhoota tanmatras , 5 njanendriyas,5 karmendriyas together with the shiva or the purusha or surya part or the soul constitute 21 feet and the same 20 constituents with the shakti part or the chandra part or the prakrithi part or the mind part make the whole of the 42 feeted kalari. The two parts may also be considered as mother and father, yin and yang, and it represents the duality that is the essence of creation of higher forms of life through males and females.
(2) Yet according to another school of thought, the 21 feet represents 21 gurus of kalari system who were taught kalari by the sage parashurama himself and were responsible for creating 108 kalaris all over kerala as per the instruction of parashurama according to mythology. Though mythologies have no authenticity and cannot be considered as a proof for our claims in history, we can get clues regarding the cultural, geographical details from these mythologies, as is evident from the mythology of creation of kerala, where it is evident that from gokarna to kanyakumari, the geographical area is isolated from other parts as a result of western ghats. And also, parashurama might be a warrior brahmin, who might be the peretrator of all brahmins of kerala. Also the gujarathi brahmins called as gaudas , in their history provide authentic details as regards to the existence of a gotra called bhargava clan of brahmins who have descended to kerala and tulu nadu. So mythologies cannot be considered useless , but provide directions in our search to find our ancestorial past, as in this case.
PARASHURAMA AND KALARI
It is beleieved according to popular mythology that parashurama threw away his axe after killing the kshatriya kula and this axe created a landmass out of sea from gokarna to kanyakumari. As far as kerala is considered, the parashurama, brought brahmins to kerala and bulit 108 shiva temples, 108 durga temples and 108 42 feeted kalaris. But in the text called Keralolpatti, it is said that there were 1008 kalaris set up according to advice of parashurama. Also the northern system of kalari practise was called the parashurama system, while the southern system was called the agastya or bhogar system of kalari or now popularly known as varmma kalai.
KALARI AND THEYYAM AND OTHER ART FORMS
Mr.Sreedhara menon, renowned historian in his famous book, the panorama of indian culture, explains about the link with kalari and other art forms, especially theyyam and kathakali. As in those times, the theyyam artists first only after seeking kalaripayattu basics called as maithari or meipayattu would learn theyyam or kathakali as these art forms needed flexibility of body and muscles to create various exaggerated expressions. Any kalari artist or warrior could reciprocate these art forms with ease and these were inter related. Such were the prevalence and depths of kalari, an indegenous military institution as said by Sreedhara Menon inhis book.
drprasanthkp@gmail.com
kannanchira kalarikkal
The kalari set up was for every village or desam, previously it was used for army training, after British invasion it was used for teaching arts and literature including skills in many works. It refers the same mode of teaching the sixtyfour arts or skills are taught in the Kalaries, which includes Sanskrit, Panchanga, Jyothisha, Ayurveda etc. Only Kalari Kurup is allowed to Join his name with his name. Generally the Kalari's name is the name of the Desam, as allowed by the king of the place.
ReplyDeleteVery good blog. Got to know many things about Kalari panicker/ Kalari kurup community. I am myself from the same community. I would like to read more about it. Would greatly appreciate if you can guide from where I can start. Please suggest me the books which I can read to understand better. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteKalari seems word like kulwari
ReplyDeleteWhere kul means family and wari means residents. This kulwadi word is used for maratha who are master for sword art ancient time maratha was called kalwari or kulwarri..Not claiming kallar and kulwari are same but after read above notes which thought came in my mind I expressed here