Kalaripayattu - a major piece in the FMA puzzle?

Kalaripayattu (pronunciation: ke-le-ri-pe-jet-i) is an Indian martial art.  One of the oldest fighting systems inexistence, it is now practiced in Kerala, in contiguous parts of Tamil Nadu andamong the Malayali community of Malaysia. It was originally practiced in northern and central parts of Kerala andthe Tulunadu region of Karnataka.

Kalaripayattuincludes strikes, kicks, grappling, preset forms, weaponry and healing methods.Regional variants are classified according to geographical position in Kerala;  these are the Northern style from Malabar regionin north Kerala, the Central style from inner Kerala and the southern stylefrom Travancore region of south Kerala.  Thesouthern Payattu system is now extinct and the Tamil style of "AdiMurai" is classified as the southern Kalaripayattu.  Legends like Unni aarcha, Aromal Chekavar andlegendary Kalari trainers like Narayan Gurukkal belonged to the Ezhavas clan. Kalaripayattu was spread across to the Chineseborders by Bodhidharma, who was a Buddhist monk. (underscoring mine)

Theoriginal style was practiced in Kerala primarily by the Ezhavas, the Kalari hasBuddhist origins related to the Ezhava community, who where believers of Shaivismand Buddhism.  Other castes like Nairslearned the trade from the Ezhavas. The southern style, called “Adi Murai”, was practiced largely bythe Nadars and has features distinguishing it from its other regionalcounterpart.  Northern Kalaripayattu isbased on elegant and flexible movements, evasions, jumps and weapons training,while the southern "Adi Murai" style primarily follows hard impact-basedtechniques with priority on empty-hand fighting and pressure point strikes.  Both systems make use of internal and externalconcepts.

Someof the flexibility training methods in northern Kalaripayattu are applied inKeralan dance forms, and Kathakalidancers who knew martial arts were believed to be markedly better than theother performers.  Some traditional Indiandance schools still incorporate Kalaripayattu as part of their exercise regimen…

Kalaripayattu underwent aperiod of decline when Velu Thampi Dalawa terminated Chekavar Ezhava warriorsfrom the Travancore army in the 1800s.  Theseterminated soldiers joined the British Army and went on to kill Velu ThampiDalawa.  The British eventually bannedNairs from practicing Kalaripayattu and the Nair custom of holding swords, soas to prevent rebellion and anti-colonial sentiments.

The resurgence of publicinterest in Kalaripayattu began in the 1920s in Tellicherry by EzhavaKalari trainers, as part of a wave of rediscovery of the traditional artsthroughout South India and continued through the 1970s surge of generalworldwide interest in martial arts... (source: Wikipedia)

Takenote how the first two syllables of Kalaripayattu, which are pronounced as “Kele”sounds very similar to the Moluccan “Tjakalele”, the Central Luzon term for theFMA of “Pagkali-kali”, and the traditional name of the FMA according to Fr.Aglipay of “Kali”…

Thereis also a traditional Keralan dance called “Kathakali” - the better performersof which are also practitioners of “Kalaripayattu”…