As she crouched in a typical Kalaripayattu stance, eight-year-old Durga Ravikrishna stood unwavering with her sharp and forbidding stare. Durga started her journey with the steel sword and brass shield when she was just six years old and has been practising regularly for at least 10 hours a week since then. With her staunch determination and love for Kalari, Durga just became the youngest participant from Karnataka to win a gold medal at the National Championship conducted by the Kalari Federation of India at Lucknow recently. Infact, Bengaluru children are showing their prowess nationally in this martial arts. Around eight students participated from Karnataka at the National Championship which is held annually, and seven won gold and bronze medals in different categories.
Along with Durga, her 13-year- old sister Meera also won gold and bronze medal for her performance at the event. “Kalari was like this light inside me which never got extinguished all this while. I followed clean eating habits and did tremendous practise,’’ says Meera who won a Gold medal in Neduvadipayattu and Bronze for Meipayattu and Chuvadu. Meera is a student of Army Public School in the city while Durga studies at Baldwin Girls High School.
Karnataka is forging ahead with the martial art of Kalaripayattu, an ancient practice that originated in Kerala, under the guidance of Ranjan Mullaratt, who migrated to Karnataka from Kerala in a bid to propagate it.
“Kalaripayattu was an art which was not known to locals here when I started Kalari 19 years ago. It was very difficult to start a Kalari at that time. Now, I have more than 300 students dedicated to this art form. We are so proud that we are able to make a mark in the national championship every year. This year also, we got a total of 18 medals. It is nice to see that Bengaluru has taken Kalaripa yattu as its own art form,’’ says Ranjan.
The 14-year-old Gaurav R Chavan who is among the seven winners says that he had always taken pride in learning a unique art which also ensured he continued kalari classes for the past seven years.
“I made sure I increased my concentration and I practiced regularly to win at this championship. I also controlled my diet to stay fit and active,’’ he says.
For 11-year-old Vaishnavi M, her motivating factor was to be flexible and strong. It was the creativity and imagination that was fostered through Kalari that 14-year-old CA Jayaram loved the most about the art form.
“It is one of the best moments in my life because I managed to make it happen after much effort. I used to practice three to four hours a day. I maintained my diet and ate just fruits and vegetables so I could perform well,’’ explains 13-year-old Shreepradha who won two gold and a silver and a bronze.
