ABOUT THE MASTER

Master A. Arunachalam is from Megalingapuram (Sindupoonduai), a village in Tirunelveli district. It is well known for Silambam. Display procession of Silambam is conducted by excellent masters, during Dasara celebration (A festival of Goddess Parasakthi) every year. It inspired him so much that he joined the Silambam Gymnasium.

Arunachalam has more than thirty years of teaching Silambam to a variety of student populations. Countless awards have been given to Arunachalam, including but not limited to, The Siharam (2007), The Apoorva (2006), The Merit (2004) and the Kalai Nanmani (Awarded by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 2008). In addition, he has organized competitions such as winning the State Championship at Palayamkottai in 1990.

Folklore Resources and Research Centre, St. Xavier’s college, Palayamkottai gave due recognition to his work by publishing it in Tamil.

In January, 2015, Master Arunachalam has presented a paper on Silambam titled “Tamilar Veera vilayaattukal” in the Ninth international conference – seminar on Tamil studies, held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He is presently promoting and teaching the art of Silambam at his Gym located in Thenkasi, Thirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu. It is considered to be the core base of the southern warrior style Silambam.

Testimonial

"I went through Silambam”,
What an excellent job!
It is the most comprehensive and
authentic research work on Silambam,
the age old martial art”.

-- Testimonial by R. Venkitachalam, Kalari Asan, Kollam, Kerala

history of silambam

India is a big nation. We are proud of our country for giving birth to kinds of arts. Silambam fight is one such art. This Martial art origin from Tami Nadu in South India. Tamil Nadu has rich tradition and heritage which spans a period of over three thousand years. So they have their own Distrint. Bravery, games, sports, art, architecture, dance etc.,

The word “Silambam” means either a mountain or merely to sound (as verb-. While the Silambam fencers are fighting, the weapon makes sound. This might have been the cause for its being named as “ Silambam”. At the same time a number of ancient Tamil Palm Leaf manuscripts refer to the art “Silambam”. There are verses that describe the techniques of staff fencing.



An age-old art of fencing, silambam dates back to 10,000 B.C., (paleo-Lithic stone weapons found at Sayarpuram at Tirunelveli and Pallavaram at Madras - now exhibited at Madras Musium) when paleo-Lithic and Neo- Lithic men used it as a method of defense and attack against animal and human enemies, in Tamilnadu . The archeological evidences are found. The catalogue of Pre-historic Antiquities from Adicha Nallur by Alexander Rea-Mad-1915 gives a list of Silambam weapons which contains thirty-two names. Spear, lance, dagger, barbed javeline, double-edged sword, trident, barbed arrow head, sword, curved knife, hooks with two carved rods sacrificed sword, arrow-head, javeline, axes, sulams, shield a curious weapon small dagger, small lance with blade dagger with tapering point, swords with curved and tapering with points, lance with tapering blades and hollow handles, knife, reaping hook or curved knifes of various format.



All these names of weapons could be collected from the Tamil Palm-leaf Manuscripts by Rea. The weapons mentioned by Rea are now on display in Chennai Museum at Tamilnadu. Archeological evidence for which date back 1800 B.C., (optically stimulated Luminiscence date conducted at Manipur - India) when wood had given way to iron. This goes to prove that Silambam is probably the oldest marital art in the world.

Silambam can well be called as the unique marital – art of Tamil Nadu It is widely believed that it was the Tamils who have introduced it to the other parts of the country. It is said In 522 A.D., an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhi-Dharma, a Pallava Prince of Tamil Nadu arrived at the court of the Chinese Emperor Liang Nuti of the 6th dynasty. The emperor greeting him and granted him permission to a Buddhist monastery called The temple of Shaolin’ There Boddhi-dharma taught the Chinese monks, Natasari (A bare handed fights) a very ancient Indian martial art so that they could defend themselves against the frequent attacks of Bandits. All Asian martial arts, especially those of Japan and China recognize their origin in the Shaolin Temple and worship Boddhi-dharma whom the Japanese call Dharumma.

Staff and Boomerang are the ancient weapons of Silambam used by Australian aborigines and Dravidians. All Australians are supposed to be descended from Dravidians who migrated about 15,000 years ago from South India. The Boomerang of Southern India in the Chennai Museum possesses three from the Tanjore Armoury and another one is in Tirunelveli Museum from Sivagiri. The British Cal, Welsh observed thus in his ‘Military Reminiscences’ who (Chinna Maruthu Pandiyar- first taught me to throw the spear, and hurl the collery stick, a weapon scarcely known elsewhere, but in a skillful hand, capable of being thrown to a certainty to any distance within one hundred yards.



Silambam songs and verses in Tamil wherein we have various references to the fact that there were silambam ‘gurus’ and also ‘silamba-koodam (hall of silambam) at the foot of “Podhigai” mountain. When St. Agasthiyar went to learn “Silambam” to the mountain called “Vellvi malai” in Kanyakumari District there also many martial arts including “Silambam” were being taught. Some of those lines are given below:- “Iru vendru amirdhaa rasam kollum poedhu/inbamudan Silambirukkum vagaiyaich cholli / karu vendra pujapilamum kalandhu solli/thiru vendra mandhirathin dheerkkam solli / sivakayilai podhigayil irundhu kondu / guruvaana guruveduthu aadinanae’. From these lines the fact that the ‘guru’ of ‘silambam’ was dwelling in the mountain region called “podhigai-malai”. Though these lines are dated 500 A.D., as per the ancient Tamil Classics Agathiyar had reached mountain “Podhigai” at the time of Lord Shiva’s marriage we can take the content of these lines to be more than 3500 BC years old.



The History goes that in the 18th century, when the British attacked the great Tamil war general Veera Pandiya Katta Bomman, his brave soldiers defeated the British with just their expertise in Silambam. In the songs called “Kattaomban Kummip Paadalgal” we have various references to this. Here are some of the lines:- “Aan Pillai Poela edhirthu vandhu /nindradhu aaradaa satraenum anjaamal / ponn kattuk kambadi (Silambam- veezhaa munnam / oedip poengaladaa vellaith thoongalgalae. roughly translated these lines, warn the white men to run away lest they be attacked by “Silambam-Kambadi”.

Silambam is not to be regarded as just a weapon used in self-defense. It had played an integral and very important role in the festivals and cultural events of Tamil Nadu. During temple-festivals men used to display their skill in “Silambam” in front of the chapparam (temple-car- in which the idol of god would be placed and taken around in a procession.

All above messages have taken, "Silambam from Tamilnadu" – Written by A.Arunachalam, released by FRRC, Palayamkottai.

gym location

The Gym is located in the middle of natural beauteous location in western guts of south India

testimonials

courses offered

awards

Limca Book of Records

Awarded by Chief Minister of Tamilnadu

Awarded by Collector of Tirunelveli District

Awarded by Educational Minister of Tamilnadu

Awarded by World Silambam Federation - Malaysia

Awarded by foreigner

Cash Award for Silambam Book-1

Cash Award for Silambam Book-2

Kalainanmani Award by Tamilnadu Government1

books