9. Kaḷarippayaṟṟ˘ in Performance: Adoptions and Adaptations of a South Indian Martial Art
Embodied Reception - South Asian Spiritualities in Contemporary Contexts - Henriette Hanky
Lucy May Constantini [+]
Open University
Description
Kal.arippayarr is a martial art with an allied medical system that originated in South India in what is now the modern state of Kerala. Its long and complex history includes a revival from near-extinction in the early twentieth century, whose features parallel the creation of modern yoga in the same period. While still a niche activity, kalarippayarr’s visibility has increased in recent years. I argue that an important factor in the dissemination of kalarippayarr beyond Kerala and its historical quasi-temple environment is its adoption by contemporary dancers in India in the last half of the twentieth century, both in their training and in performance. This chapter examines the imbrications between kalarippayarr’s home context of the kalari-temple and the fertile ground of the Indian contemporary dance scene. My research focuses on the CVN lineage, part of “northern style” or “Malabar” kalaris, so-called because they originate in the Malabar region of northern Kerala. I draw on my relationship with CVN Kalari Sangham in Thiruvananthapuram which began in 2002, and has, since 2010, included eight extended periods of intensive study and training. My first encounter with this kalari was among dance artists at an international choreographic laboratory in Bengaluru, and so this chapter contains autoethnographic as well as more conventional ethnographic elements.