Indian roots?

[8stepmantis]

Looking at clips of Kalaripayutu with its disconnected arm movements and I'm struck by how much it sucks. Especially when it was supposed to be the root of Shoalin. Then I look at movement in silat which look very similar to Indian training methods, which look very simlilar ritualistically, with the minor difference that they would actually work. I look at Ankor Watt and all the hindu influences there, the prayer rituals in Muay Thai and the fact that they use elephants.

I think that SE Asian arts must have had heavy influence from both Chinese and Indian Arts, perhaps more so Indian arts.

How about an inside perspective? Am I way off base?

[sikal]

I've never seen/heard any definitive evidence and, the MA community being what it is, it's probably a point of controversy but since the Majapahit Empire - a Hindu empire with Indian rulers - ruled much of the SE Asian region for a couple hundred years it seems likely that there would have been some influence.

Mike

[george stando]

Different forms of indian martial arts and most kalaripayattu is a newer form. There is a lot of research, serious research done into all the martial arts of india which would be rather staggering and offer alot insights into root development.

The roots of india, tibet and china on martial arts of thailand, burma and cambodia is covered heavily by vincent giordano who is authoring a text on that and has trained and traveled those regions for many, many years

[sly fox]

tbh the kalaripayatt you see now is northern style, theres southern style, and the one most like silat central style... northern style isnt very silat like at all but is closer to northern shaolin in some ways...also remember there are very few kalari people that really know the applications now... id say a good 70% of knowledge has been lost

without writing too much, as im afraid i rarely write on forums now, just tend to read a bit I researched all three styles of kalari and spent quite a while in india doing so to look at a link with silat... which is my art...if you want to see links with silat look at central style kalari

[Stephen Mullins]

Majapahit Empire

I've never seen/heard any definitive evidence and, the MA community being what it is, it's probably a point of controversy but since the Majapahit Empire - a Hindu empire with Indian rulers - ruled much of the SE Asian region for a couple hundred years it seems likely that there would have been some influence.

Mike

I agree that the influence of the culture of the Majapahit Empire was probably the major factor in the development of martial arts all around Southeast Asia. I'm still waiting for a major research project on the commonality between styles in that part of the world -- not some quick, speculative magazine article but rather a major scholarly work on the subject.