The Art Beneath the Weapon | Nithin K & Shradha Rajeevan | TEDxMVJCE: transcript

Heat. [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] [music] Heat.

[music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [bell] Heat.

[music] >> [music] >> Hey, [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] heat. Hey. Heat.

[music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [applause] >> What you just witnessed was not a fight.

It was a salutation. Before we learn to attack, we learn to go. In calary pride, the body first acknowledges the earth beneath us. The tradition that came before us and the teachers who pass it on. Kalipite is one of the oldest tradition martial art of Kerala. It has a different styles and traditions that developed over generations.

Two broad styles are there uh commonly known what color the northern style taken calorie the southern style. We practice the northern style. >> When you hear the word kaler pa, you would probably imagine a warrior, a fight, a swad, or perhaps somebody performing a spectacular jump or a kick. But what if we told you that kalori pita does not begin with fighting. It begins with learning how to move. And even before that, it begins by observing.

Observing nature and observing how living beings move. Think of an elephant. Its power comes from being deeply grounded. A snake can change its directions without changing its speed. And a horse carries tremendous energy in every step that it takes. Each animal has its own way of standing, balancing and even responding to danger.

And somewhere along the way, the masters of kalaripa observed this and asked a fascinating question. What if the human body could learn from them? This idea seen in a part of kalipite called ashtaval. Ashta means eight. Viva means a posture or a stance. These eight animal inspired postures are an important foundation of karip.

Now we will show you the eight animal postures. Gajawa the elephant. Naruka the rooster. Simha the lion. Ashawa the horse.

Vahava the wildboard. Malia the fishara the cat and sarpadiva the snake nara.

Now let us observe how these postures comes together as a one continuous sequence. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat.

[music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat.

Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [applause] >> As you train in depth in karipa, you begin to notice that these forms slowly begin to connect. The postures become movement and the movement becomes a language.

What you see in kaler pa the jumps the kicks the speed and the combat rests on a body that has spent years learning how to move. The first stage of training in the northern tradition of kaleripa revolves around preparing the body and is called may tar. In this stage, a rigorous body conditioning sequence called mi pa is performed in order to increase flexibility, strength, body awareness and control.

It is often said that before you learn to control something outside the body, you learn to control the body itself. So may pa forms a base for the weapon training that comes in the later stages. Now we will present a small part of the may pater done to traditional oral commands in kaler. foreign kitty.

PDC. Day. for foreign.

for picture. Okay.

>> [applause] >> You may have noticed that even this sequence the animal poses are still present. Now what happens when these movements meets a weapon? The relationship between the body and the surrounding space changes but the foundation still present. Now we will show you these movements through sword and shield.

An important thing to note here is that the sword and the shield belong to the angari stage which is not the immediate stage after may pa or may tar what we have just performed. Instead we are just observing and exploring what happens to the body when an external element is present. In this case the sword and the shield. Heat.

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After the mari comes the colari or the stage of wooden weapon training. The first weapons to be introduced in this stage is the long stick. Colari prepares the body and the mind [snorts] for the sharper weapons that come in the next stage which is angatari. Here the weapon becomes an extension of the body demanding precision and control.

Now we will present a basic version of the ketakari piet or the long stick file. But now we want you to observe the body beneath the weapon. You will still notice that the animal forms that we began with are present in some of the movements done. Presenting to you the ketakari fighter. >> [snorts] >> Heat.

[snorts] Heat. Heat. HEAT.

HEAT. HEAT. >> [snorts] [applause] [applause] >> There is still much more to learn as we go deeper into calorie pipite. In many ways, the learning never ends. And this bring us back to where we began. The ashiv the ashto are not simply a beginning of calorie piet. They are the foundation that everything else transform from. And this foundation does not disappear even if the training becomes advanced. It

stays with us. And this is true for any art form that we practice. We learn the basics. We practice them and we return to them each time. Progress does not mean leaving the basics behind. It means carrying them with us with a deeper understanding each time that we go back to them because a strong foundation gives us the power and freedom to go further. Thank you.

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