Subaltern Sports: Politics and Sport in South Asia

by James H. Mills

Overview

This unique volume explores sports stories that contain elements of colonialism and show the rise of nationalism and the emergence of communalism; other examples show how the establishment of nationhood in a post-colonial world, the challenge of the regions to the political centre and the impacts of globalization and economic liberalization have all left their mark on the development of sport in South Asia. Quite simply, South Asian history and society have transformed sports in the region while at the same time such games and activities have often shaped the development of South Asia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781843311676
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	05/15/2005
Series:	Anthem South Asian Studies
Edition description:	First Edition, First ed.
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

James H. Mills teaches Indian history at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. He is the author of 'Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade and Prohibition 1800–1928' (OUP, 2003) and 'Madness, Cannabis and Colonialism: The 'Native-Only' Lunatic Asylums of British India, 1857–1900' (Palgrave, 2000). He has co-edited 'Confronting the Body: The Politics of Physicality in Colonial and Post-Colonial India' (Anthem Press, 2004).

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Subaltern Sports: Politics and Sport in South Asia

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By James H. Mills

Wimbledon Publishing Company

Copyright © 2005 Wimbledon Publishing Company
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84331-167-6

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CHAPTER 1

'KALARIPPAYATTU IS EIGHTY PERCENT MENTAL AND ONLY THE REMAINDER IS PHYSICAL': POWER, AGENCY AND SELF IN A SOUTH ASIAN MARTIAL ART

Philip Zarrilli

Introduction

In the well-known Bhagavad Gita section of India's Mahabharata epic, Krishna elaborates a view of duty and action intended to convince Arjuna that, as a member of the warrior caste (ksatriya), he must overcome all his doubts and take up arms, even against his relatives. As anyone familiar with either the Mahabharata or India's second great epic, the Ramayana, knows martial techniques have existed on the South Asian subcontinent since antiquity.

Both epics are filled with scenes describing how the princely heroes obtain and use their humanly or divinely acquired skills and powers to defeat their enemies: by training in martial techniques under the tutelage of great gurus like the brahmin master Drona, by practicing austerities and meditation techniques which give the martial master access to subtle powers to be used in combat, and/or by receiving a gift or a boon of divine, magical powers from a god. On the one hand, there is Bhima who depends on his brute strength to crush his foes, while on the other, we find the 'unsurpassable' Arjuna making use of his more subtle accomplishments in single point focus or his powers acquired through meditation.

Among practitioners and teachers of kalarippayattu, the martial art of Kerala on the southwestern coast of India, some, like Higgins Masters of the P.B. Kalari in Trissur, model their practice on Bhima, emphasizing kalarippayattu's practical empty hand techniques of attack, defence, locks and throws. Others, like my first and most important teacher Gurukkal Govindankutty Nayar of Thirovananthapuram's C.V.N. Kalari, with whom I have studied since 1977, follow Arjuna and emphasize kalarippayattu as an active, energetic means of disciplining and 'harnessing' (yuj the root of yoga) both one's body and one's mind as a form of moving meditation. As comparative scholar of religions Mircea Eliade has explained, 'One always finds a form of yoga whenever there is a question of experiencing the sacred or arriving at complete mastery of oneself' (Eliade 1975: 196). Even though there has been great interest in both yoga and Ayurveda (the Indian science of health and well-being) in the West, little is known about a number of Indian martial arts still practiced today. These arts are founded on a set of fundamental cultural assumptions about the body-mind relationship and health and well-being that are similar to the assumptions underlying yoga and Ayurveda. This essay is an introduction to kalarippayattu-a martial/medical/meditation discipline that has been practiced in Kerala since at least the twelfth century A.D. and, more specifically, is an introduction to the assumptions about the body, mind, and practice shared with yoga and Ayurveda which inform the way in which some traditional masters still teach kalarippayattu.

Some traditional masters (like Drona and Arjuna) foreground yoga in their practice of kalarippayattu, while other masters not discussed here follow other paradigms of teaching and practice, like Bhima mentioned above. In an increasingly heteronomous society, in which traditional practitioners must vie for students with karate teachers who often emphasize immediate 'street wise' results, the paradigms, beliefs and practices discussed in this essay are in a constant process of negotiation with competing paradigms and practices, and, therefore, are only more or less observed by teachers today. Some of the concepts and phenomena discussed here such as 'meditation', 'the sacred', 'oneself', 'power' or 'purity' are neither transparent nor self-evident. What is considered 'sacred', 'the self', 'power', 'pure' or 'meditation' is particular to each interpretive community, history and context. What is 'sacred' or 'pure' to a brahmin male Malayali born in 1924 will be different from what is 'sacred' or 'pure' to a male Nayar kalarippayattu fighter of the thirteenth century, a male Sufi Muslim of Kannur born in 1965, an American male born in 1947 who has never been to Kerala or India or a European woman born on the continent who has practiced yoga since her youth and eventually turns to a study of kalarippayattu. Historical, social, religious, gender and ideological positions constitute quite different frames of reference and interpretative categories through which the 'sacred', 'self' or 'pure' will be read and understood.

Under the influence of 'new age' religious assumptions or other potentially reductionist ways of thinking, too often in the United States there is a humanist tendency to erase cultural difference, disregard history, and to participate or otherwise be involved in romantically projecting onto South Asia an Orientalist essentialism (Said 1976; Inden 1986). Too often accounts reify the self and the 'spiritual' as if all experiences that might be appropriately discussed as in some way 'spiritual' were singular and universal. Most problematic is our Western tendency to project our hegemonic notion of the self as unitary and individual onto 'selves' in other cultures (Marriott 1976; 1977; 1990). As anthropologist Clifford Geertz notes:

The Western concept of the person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment and action organized into a distinctive whole and set contrastively both against other such wholes and against a social and natural background is, however incorrigible it may seem to us, a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world's cultures ... [We need to] set that concept aside and view their experience within the framework of their own idea of what selfhood is (1983: 59).

As cultural theorist Richard Johnson asserts 'subjectivities are produced, not given, and are therefore the objects of inquiry, not the premises or starting points' (1986: 44). Following both Johnson and anthropologist Dorrine Kondo's (1990) thoughtful ethnographic study of the 'crafting' of selves in Japan, I assume here that 'self' as well as the 'agency' and 'power' which might accrue from the practice of a martial art like kalarippayattu are context-and paradigm-specific — i.e. that they are variable and provisional. In this view self, agency and power are never 'absolute' but rather are 'nodal points repositioned in different contexts. Selves [agency and power] in this view can be seen as rhetorical figures and performative assertions enacted in specific situations within fields of power, history, and culture' (Kondo 1990: 304). Kalarippayattu is a set of techniques of body-mind practice through which particular 'selves' are understood or assumed to gain particular kinds of agency and power within specific contexts. Consequently, a martial practice like kalarippayattu becomes one means of 'crafting' a particular self and, therefore, is a 'culturally, historically specific pathway ... to self-realization ... [and/or] domination' (Kondo 1990: 305). The particular self crafted and realized in a Sufi Muslim kalari in northern Kerala will be different from the self crafted in a militantly radical Hindu kalari or the self crafted by learning kalarippayattu in the United States from an American teacher who might emphasize a 'self-actualized self.'

With these caveats in mind I turn to a brief historical overview of kalarippayattu and the nature of power for the martial artists of the past and then to a more specific examination of the ways in which some of today's kalarippayattu masters understand yoga, Ayurveda and power in interpreting their practice and, therefore, in crafting their 'selves'.

History and the Kalarippayattu Tradition

Two traditions of martial practice from antiquity have influenced the history, development, subculture and practice of kalarippayattu: Tamil (Dravidian) traditions dating from early Sangam culture and the Sanskritic Dhanur Vedic traditions. Although a complete account of South Indian martial arts in antiquity must be left to South Asian historians of the future, this necessarily brief description outlines a few of the salient features of the early Sangam Age fighting arts, focusing in particular on the Dhanur Vedic tradition and its relationship with the yoga paradigm.

From the early Tamil Sangam 'heroic' (puram) poetry we learn that from the fourth century B.C. to 600 A.D. a warlike, martial spirit was predominant across southern India. The importance of the martial hero in the Sangam Age is evident in the deification of fallen heroes through the planting of herostones (virakkal or natukal 'planted stones'), which were inscribed with the name of the hero and his valourous deeds (Kailaspathy 1968: 35) and worshipped by the common people of the locality (Subramanian 1966: 30). Certainly the earliest precursors of kalarippayattu were the Sangam Age combat techniques, which fostered the growth of a heroic ideal. However, there can be no doubt that the techniques and heroic ethos, at least of Kerala's kalarippayattu, must have been transformed in some way by the merging of indigenous techniques with the martial practices and ethos accompanying brahmin migrations from Saurastra and Konkan, down the west Indian coast into Karnataka and eventually Kerala (Velutat 1976; 1978). Important among early brahmin institutions were the salad or ghatika, institutions that were:

Mostly attached to temples where the cattar or cathirar, proficient in Vedas and sastras and also military activities, lived under the patronage of kings who considered their establishment and maintenance a great privilege (Narayanan 1973: 33)

Drawing on inscriptional evidence, M.G.S. Narayanan has established that the students at these schools were cattar, who functioned under the direction of the local village brahmin assembly (sabha), recited the Vedas, observed brahmacarya and served as a 'voluntary force' to defend the temple and school if and when necessary (Narayanan 1973: 25–26).4 The eighth century Jain Prakrit work, Kuvalaymala by Udyotanasuri from Jalur in Rajasthan, records a clear picture of the nature of these educational institutions:

Entering the city he sees a big matha. He asks a passerby 'Well sire, whose temple is that?' The person replies 'Bhatta, oh Bhatta, this is not a shrine but it is a matha [monastery, residential quarter] of all the cattas [students]'. [On entering the matha] ... he sees the cattas, who were natives of various countries, namely Lata Karnata, Dhakka, Srikantha ... and Saindhava. They were learning and practicing archery, fighting with sword and shield, with daggers, sticks, lances and with fists and in duels (niuddham). Some were learning painting (alekhya), singing (giya),musical instruments (vaditra), staging of Bhanaka, Dombiliya, Siggadaiyam and dancing. They looked like excited elephants from Maha-Vindhya (Shah 1968: 250–252).

Along with other brahmin institutions the salad and the cattar played a role in the gradual formation of the distinctive linguistic, social, and cultural heritage of the southwest coastal region, although the degree of influence was certainly in direct proportion to the density of brahminical settlement and local influence. M.G.S. Narayanan dates this period of change between the founding of a second or new Cera capital at Makotai under Rama Rajesekhara (c.800–844 A.D.) and its breakup after the rule of Rama Kulasekhara (1089–1122 A.D.). Before the founding of the Makotai capital Kerala was 'a region of Tamilakam with the same society and language'; however, in the post-Makotai period Kerala became distinctive in many ways from the rest of Tamilakam (Narayanan 1976: 28).

Historians have dated the emergence of kalarippayattu as a distinct martial tradition to the extended period of warfare in the eleventh century that saw the demise of the second Cera kingdom (Pillai 1970: 241). During the war, some brahmins continued to be trained in arms themselves, trained others, and actively participated in fighting the Colas (Pillai, 1970: 155, 243–244). Although the salads themselves declined with the end of the Cera Kingdom and the division of Kerala into principalities, Brahmins in Kerala continued to engage in the practice of arms in some sub-castes. Known as cattar or yatra brahmins and considered degraded or 'half' brahmins because of their vocation in arms, these groups continued to train, teach, fight, and rule through the martial arts for several centuries. The legendary Kerala brahmin chronicle Keralopathi confirms brahminical sub-caste involvement in teaching and bearing arms. The chronicle tells that Parasurama gave the land to the brahmins to be enjoyed as 'brahmakshatra' (a land where brahmins take the role of ksatriyas) and adds that:

3600 brahmins belonging to different settlements or gramas accepted the right to bear arms from Parasurama. They are described as ardhabrahmana or half-brahmins and valnampis or armed brahmins and their functions are mentioned as padu kidakka [restrain offenders], pada kuduka [military service] and akampadi nadakukkuka [guard service]. They are said to be divided into four kalakams [a colloquial form of ghatika or the organizations of brahmincattarto defend the land] called Perincallur, Payyanur, Parappur and Chengannur respectively. These kalakams nominated four preceptors or rakshapurushas for the duration of three years with the right to collect revenue (Narayanan, 1973: 37–38).

Although the cattar continue to be mentioned in Kerala's heavily Sanskritized Manipravalam literature between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, these formerly well-respected brahmin scholars and practitioners in arms are depicted as living decadent lives. References find them 'wearing weapons with fresh blood in them' engaging in combat, demonstrating feats with their swords and touting the prowess of cattars in combat (Pillai 1970: 275). Whatever the caste or religion of the medieval practitioners of kalarippayattu all practiced their martial art within a socio-political environment which was shaped by a constantly shifting set of alliances and outbreaks of warfare between feuding rulers of petty principalities. Since practitioners had pledged themselves to death on behalf of their rulers, they were obliged to develop both the mental power and battlefield skills that would allow them to sacrifice themselves in order to fulfill their pledges.

Following J. Richardson Freeman's recent research on the nature of teyyam worship in North Malabar to which kalarippayattu practice and martial heroes are integrally linked, it is clear that for the medieval Malayali practitioners of kalarippayattu the 'world' within which they exercised their martial skills was shaped by a religious and socio-political ideology in which 'battle serves as a dominant metaphor for conceptualizing relations of spiritual and sociopolitical power' (Freeman 1991: 588). Following Hart's research on the early Dravidian notion of power (ananku) as capricious and immanent, Freeman convincingly argues that in medieval Kerala 'the locus of divine power is not primarily, or at least usefully, transcendent but immanent and located in human persons and their ritual objects' (Freeman 1991: 130). The martial practitioner was compelled to harness through whatever techniques might be at his disposal those special, local and immanent powers that might be of use to him in fulfilling his pledged duty to a ruler.

Power and Agency in Classical Contests

It seems likely that at least some of the distinctive traits of Kerala's kalarippayattu crystallized during the intensive period of warfare between the Cholas and Ceras and that such developments were at least in part attributable to the mingling of indigenous Dravidian martial techniques dating from the Sangam Age with techniques and an ethos imported by brahmins and practiced in their salai, especially in the northern and central Kerala region where brahminical culture became dominant and kalarippayattu developed. It is not insignificant that some present masters trace their lineages of practice to 'Dhanur Veda' and claim that the texts in which their martial techniques are recorded derive from Dhanur Vedic texts. Although the Dhanur Veda, to which present-day kalarippayattu masters refer, is literally translated as the 'science of archery', it encompassed all the traditional fighting arts. The explicit concern in Dhanur Veda texts is not with battlefield strategies, but rather with training in martial techniques. Like the purana as a whole, the Dhanur Veda chapters provide both 'sacred knowledge' (paravidya) and 'profane knowledge' (aparavidya) on the subject. The Dhanur Veda opens by cataloging the subject, stating that there are five training divisions (for warriors on chariots, elephants, horseback, infantry and wrestling) and five types of weapons to be learned (those projected by machine [arrows or missiles], those thrown by the hands [spears], those cast by hands yet retained [noose], those permanently held in the hands [sword] and the hands themselves [249: 1–5]). Regarding who should teach, we are told that either a brahmin or ksatriya 'should be engaged to teach and drill soldiers in the art and tactics of the Dhanur Veda' because it is their birthright, while shudras can be called upon to take up arms when necessary if they have 'acquired a general proficiency in the art of warfare by regular training and practice'. Finally, 'people of mixed castes' might also be called upon if needed by the king (249: 6–8) (M.N. Dutt Shastri, 1967: 894–5).

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Subaltern Sports: Politics and Sport in South Asia by James H. Mills. Copyright © 2005 Wimbledon Publishing Company. Excerpted by permission of Wimbledon Publishing Company.
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Contributors to this Volume; Introduction; 1. 'Kalarippayattu is Eighty Percent Mental and Only the Remainder is Physical': Power, Agency and Self in a South Asian Martial Art; 2. Empowering Yourself: Sport, Sexuality and Autoeroticism in North Indian Jori Swinging; 3. Indigenous Polo in Northern Pakistan: Game and Power on the Periphery; 4. 'The Moral that can be Safely Drawn from the Hindus' Magnificent Victory': Cricket, Caste and the Palwankar Brothers; 5. The Peasants are Revolting: Race, Culture and Ownership in Cricket; 6. The Social History of the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, 1829-2003; 7. Warrior Goddess Versus Bipedal Cow: Sport, Space, Performance and Planning in an Indian City; 8. 'Nupilal': Women's War, Football and the History of Modern Manipur; 9. 'Playing for the Tibetan People': Football and History in the High Himalaysia; 10. Community, Identity and Sport: Anglo-Indians in Colonial and Postcolonial India; Notes; Bibliography