Kalari healing therapies have been proven effective over hundreds, if not thousands of years on the battlefields of Southern India. The ancient tradition of physical and pranic (energy) treatment promotes healing at the deepest level. Treatments follow the fundamental principles of India’s medicinal system, Ayurveda (Ayur=Life / Veda=Science), and have also been influenced by Siddha medicine and other regional Indigenous knowledge systems.
Like Chinese and Tibetan medicines, Ayurveda views a human being as a microcosm of the natural world. Treatments assist the body to return to a state of balance so that it can ultimately heal itself.
As Phillip Zarrilli explains, what distinguishes the Kalari therapist’s medical expertise from that of other specialists is their psychophysiological training as a martial artist. This gives the practitioner extraordinary control over their body and thus control of the vital energy or wind (prana vayu). The efficacy of treatment is based on this ability to control and channel prana (energy) while giving treatments.
For further information download Phillip B. Zarrilli’s (PH. D) article “The Kalarippayattu Martial Master as Healer: Traditional Kerala Massage Therapies”
- Prana Chikitsa (Energy Treatment)
- Kalari Uzichil (Kalari Physical Therapy)