Dravidian Martial Arts
India is home to a variety of fighting styles. In Sanskrit they may be collectively referred to as śastravidyā or dhanurvidya. The former is a compound of the words śastra (weapon) and vidyā (knowledge), meaning "knowledge of weapon" or "knowledge of the bow". The latter term derives from the words for bow (dhanushya) and knowledge (veda), literally the "science of archery" in Puranic literature, later applied to martial arts in general. The Vishnu Purana text describes dhanurveda as one of the traditional eighteen branches of "applied knowledge" or upaveda.
In Tamil, they are known by the umbrella terms kaḷarik kalai (Tamil: களரிக் கலை) "art of the battleground" or taṟkāppuk kalai (தற்காப்புக் கலை) "art of self-defence".
Famous quotes containing the words martial and/or arts:
“The country in the town. [Rus in urbe.]”
—Marcus Valerius Martial (c. 40–104)
“What ails it, intrinsically, is a dearth of intellectual audacity and of aesthetic passion. Running through it, and characterizing the work of almost every man and woman producing it, there is an unescapable suggestion of the old Puritan suspicion of the fine arts as such—of the doctrine that they offer fit asylum for good citizens only when some ulterior and superior purpose is carried into them.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)