Kalari Payatt is the most ancient tradition of Martial art. It count the ancestor “mother” of all kinds of single combats, a pearl kept up to our time in the south of India, in state Kerala
Kalari (a word in the Malayalam language spoken in Kerala, S.India) word, for a special kind of gymnasium, in which the martial art known as Kalari Payattu, is practiced. In 5 century Chineses, interested in an establishment of trading connections in India, establish connections with Southern India. Having visited Kanchipuram – a kingdom of silk, they were conquer art of Bodhidharma and invite him in Shaolin monastery for training the Chinese monks. So Martial art has come to China.
During board in India of Englishmen, kalari Payatt was forbidden. After acquire by India of independence, this art was revived. In 1949 association Kalari Payatt was created. Now in state Kerala total about 500 registered schools and about 1000 schools which till now follow a traditional way of training.
Kalari payattu is divided into 4 stages. They are meipayattu or maithari (body) kolthari(sticks), angathari(metal weapons), verumkai (without weapon or empty hand). If one desires to become a teacher (Gurunathan) of Kalaripayattu, further 3 more stages have to be completed viz. Chiktsavidhikal (treatment) , manthrathantra (rememberane of God etc), marmagnanam (knowledge of Marmas or pressure points). The student who excells himself in the 7 qualities will be normaly selected for the training of Guru.
Kalarippayat as it survives today is also more than the sum of its mutated progeny. It was designed, in the first place, to be more than just a narrow-focus, single-purpose martial artKalari is an arena for combat, payatt ; stands for a system of combat. The arena—terra firma—is more or less common to all the martial arts; the payat always follows the ground rules and martial imperatives of the multifarious societies where this martial art has taken root.