Master: Madhu Puthuppanam Gurukkal
Reg. No. 25/63 Puthuppanam Vadakara Calicut Dist. Kerala India
Ph:0496-2528135
https://www.facebook.com/kpcgm.kalari/
Madhu Gurukkal receiving the salutation
Due to this history, Vadakara is an important holy place for CVN Karari practitioners, but that is not the only reason.
There is the guardian temple of Kalaripayattu warriors called "Lokanarkavu" in this town.
Thacholi Othenan, the legendary martial hero of the medieval Malayalam Ballads 'Vadakkan Pattukal' was a famous fighter trained under Kadathanad style Kalaripayattu.
It is said that Lokanarkavu temple was the place where he used to pray daily for gaining martial strength and victory toward Durga Goddess, the main deity of the temple.
Since then, Lokanarkavu temple is the most important place of worship for Kalaripayattu practitioners who visit and pray in this temple at the milestone of their life or occasion having something strong wishes.
They also demonstrate Kalaripayattu here at the festival time twice a year with various ritual performances like dance and music.
traditional wooden architecture of Lokanarkavu temple
With such a rich history and settings, there are many local Kalari schools here in Vadakara.
In particular, the Kalari tradition of the Vadakara region is called Kadathanad style, which inherits the ancient style of the arts not modernized yet like the C.V.N. style, shows its unique presence in the Kalaripayattu field.
Kadathanad K.P.C.G.M. Kalari Sangam has a history of over 200 years, where Madhu Grukcal has succeeded after his father Kadathanad Chandran Gurukkal, who was known as a master of Otta Payattu.
The Kalari quietly sits on a hilly settlement a little north of the National Highway.
The practice is extremely distinctive compared to other Kalaris of CVN style. Along with the Kalari construction, it is the school that keeps the most traditional form of training system I have ever visited.
L: Traditional palm leaf thatched-roof, R: Loincloth called Kaccha
L: Weaved palm leaf for thatched-roof, R: Flexibility!
L: Gurukkal's daughter and friends, R: Praying for Puttara
I visited here in early 2007, anyway because it is a pure local Kalari, I could not communicate with them well in English, and had conversations with gestures & inspirations at the time of research.
Even with some difficulties, they were very friendly and cooperative, and I enjoyed all the time of research.
There are many disciple children, and girls have been practicing as much as boys, probably because of the presence of daughter in Madhu Gurukkal, and while they do not understand the English very much, the girls were at the center to cooperate entire research where I was able to see various demos.
L: Girl's troop, R: Boys troop
Kalari practitioners are the expert of Yoga too
L: Salute for the Gods and Goddess, R: Gurukkal & senior disciples
The low temperature of the soil and the wind passing through the walls of this semi-underground structure cools the body of the trainee moderately, and even in the tropical country of Kerala, it is possible to continue practicing comfortably all year round.
There shows also high-level yoga poses, but as you can see in Mallakhamb, advanced Yoga-Asanas, which has high difficulty for ordinary people, are just a kind of preparatory or warming up for them, and many Kalari schools incorporate yoga-Asana in their training.
It is more obvious to watch the movie than to spend a million of words for understanding actual practice landscape. Although it is child-centered member, we can see the high level of flexibility and predominant agility with much power not found in CVN styles.
The interior of the Kalari had a poor light intensity, and although it was not captured very well by the cheap camera at that time, its unique feature of practice would be understood easily.
In Kalaripayattu, traditionally boys practice in loincloth called Kaccha as shown in the above photos. They showed me how to roll up the kaccha, therefore I'll show you the videos of its process.
The appearance of rolling up a very long cloth in layering way tightly on the lower abdomen is very interesting and seems similar to the "Mawashi" loincloth in Sumo wrestling.
At the base of Kalaripayattu lies the thought and practice of Kundalini Yoga, and it seems that there is a methodology that enhances and activates the power of chakra by rolling up the kaccha tightly.
This point reminds me "臍下丹田：Seika-Tanden", the focusing point of "気：Chi" on the lower abdomen in Japanese martial arts.
This is a personal hypothesis, but the traditional Japanese martial arts such as Sumo wrestling and Jujutsu seem to be influenced by Indian martial arts DNA somewhere in its history.
When I wrote the old edition of this homepage, I commented "A lot of young children are in the high level of flexibility and stamina. It is a very promising Kalari for after ten years,". Then ten years have passed now, it seems to have grown into a powerful Kalari with many outstanding young players.
According to the interview at that time, I wrote "if foreigners joined the Kalari, accommodation can be arranged in a nearby private house for around 2,000 rupees per month. The lesson and the tuition fee is from 5,000 rupees a month. You can ask for meals to housewife nearby or self-cooking" on the old edition of this site.
But all prices have risen sharply during these periods, so if you wish to learn and stay there, you should make contact them directly and ask for detailed info beforehand.
Even though ten years have passed, it seems that there are almost no foreigners accepted, but I have no doubts that it must be a valuable experience just by observing it, so I highly recommend to visit them if you have an interest and opportunity.
Access: From the bus stand of Vadakara, take a local bus bound for Quilandi to the south and get off at Arabinndagosh Road. Turn east on the corner of the store and take 5 minutes by auto or 20 minutes on foot. As auto is difficult to catch in the early morning or the evening, it is best to take an auto directly from the bus stand.
If you want to visit or practice there, you can either call them directly or talk in advance using Facebook's English message, considering the difficulty of conversation.
I visited Vadakara once in the winter of 2007, and it was a hard schedule to cover four Kalaris during my stay only for a few days, I could not do anything like sightseeing, but only one place I visited was the Lokanarkavu Hindu temple already mentioned above. It's worth visiting there, I strongly recommend it.
No comments:
Post a Comment