Through my readings of martial arts history, I discovered a disturbing trend. Many nationalistic Indians are trying to lay claim that martial arts and kung fu, karate, and all of the East Asian Martial arts originated from India along with the transmittal of Buddhism. Unfortunately, India today in terms of written historical text, is in a state of flux. For the last few decades after the end of British colonial rule, the Hindu nationalistic political parties have been distorting historical texts and in general the history of India to "reclaim" its history (see the Hindu Warrior's post in October 2004 here, the debate on the origins of the Taj Mahal and whether it is a Muslim or Hindu temple, and the "Institute for Rewriting Indian History"). Many of these distortions have engendered their way into the internet age on websites and have been self propagating especially with Indian writers. The result of this is that parts of the history of India in present time, has been distorted in some way as to make it difficult to separate fact from fiction. The purpose of this article is to dispel the myths that are currently being propagated by Nationalistic Indians online. In this article, Kung Fu will relate to Chinese martial arts, and Shaolin Kung Fu relates to the Kung Fu style originating in the Shaolin temples after 500 A.D.
To begin with, very few historians believe that martial arts originated from one place and spread throughout the world. Most historians believed that human beings created some form of systemic defense system as an improvement over random punching, hacking, and kicking. Most military powers in their history have invented some form of martial arts, such as wrestling and self-defense in ancient Egypt, Sparta, and Greece. Most historians believe that many of the martial arts even in Japan (lost in legend with oldest accounts possibly 27B.C.), Korea (Silla Kingdom 57 B.C.), Southeast Asia, and South Asia developed independently to some degree and perhaps mutually influenced each other centuries after their invention. Most of these martial arts share similarities possibly through influences on each other, but most likely secondary to the fact that armed or unarmed combat by human beings employs similar principles and the human body is similar. The reason why the East Asian Martial Arts are so popular today is due to the fact that they have been so well codified, their ease of use and effectiveness in self-defense, their use of scientific principles for self-defense, their focus on personal development, and especially the popular media.
The oldest evidence of Kung Fu, or Chinese martial arts, as it is practiced by the military goes back to the Zhou dynasty (1111-255 BC). The first written history of Chinese martial arts comes attributes it to the legendary reign of Huangdi of the Zhou Dynasty (1122-255 BC). Records attribute Huangdi with being the founder of China’s oldest known martial art – chang quan (long fist). The oldest reference to institutionalized wrestling in China dates to 700 B.C. Further, the Taoist monks were practicing physical exercises that resembles Tai Chi (or a soft form of Kung fu) at least during the 500B.C. era. There are texts referring to qigong like exercises from at least the 5th century B.C. During the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods (770 - 221BC), a method called Daoyin was evolved to promote health. Further, during the Warring States Period (770-221B.C.), various poetry was written down attributed to Yuh Niuy describing philosphical approaches to sword play that is read to this day by wushu practitioners. As well, there are a few statues of unarmed soldiers from the first Qin Emperor's terra cotta army that are in distinctly martial "kung fu" poses that date from the third century B.C. In 39-92 A.D. , the "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting", in the Han Book of Arms were written by Pan Kuo. Also, Hua To developed the "Five Animals Play" - tiger, deer, monkey, bear, and bird for self defense during 220 A.D. As stated earlier, the Kung Fu that is practiced today developed over the centuries and many of the later additions of Kung Fu, such as the Shaolin Kung Fu style, later animal forms and the drunken style were incorporated from various martial arts forms existing later on in China or have accurate historical data relating to their inventor.
The Indian belief that India is the origin of Kung Fu (Chinese Martial arts) and most Eastern martial artists is initially incorrect as the Shaolin style is connected in popular media with Chinese Martial arts and thus the general public thinks that it is the oldest and only martial arts in China. The belief further centers on the contention that Bodhidharma (Pu Tai Ta Mo in Chinese or Daruma Daishi in Japanese) the creator of Zen Buddhism came from India, notably south India, and spread Zen Buddhism along with martial arts from India to China sometime in 450 AD. To begin with, history does not know the origins of Bodhidharma, as most of the biography relating to him has been lost in legend. Bodhidharma has also been associated with the discovery of tea (unlikely as the Chinese have historical records of tea use predating the birth of Buddhism and even an ancient encyclopedia stating that they have been drinking tea since 200 B.C. or so) and that he could bore a hole into a wall by looking at it. Further, no historical efforts have accurately shown where he originated from, and many accounts differ. Some suggest India, others suggest Central Asia and perhaps Tibet. The earliest record existing in China suggest Persia, which is dubious.
Secondly, historical records suggest that Bodhidharma might have taught the Shaolin monks meditation exercises in 500A.D.; however, historical evidence has shown that the Shaolin monks during this time and before this time (the Shaolin temple predates Bodhidharma) harbored retired soldiers, who taught the monks self defense styles that they had learned during military training and that were preexisting in China. Not only that, various meditation exercises such as those within Taoism and Tai Chi that simulate martial arts, existed before this time that predates Bodhidharma by a millenia, and were being practiced by the monks previous to 500A.D. The Shaolin monks, in order to protect themselves from bandits and criminals around 500A.D, began to codify what they learned into a "Shaolin" Kung-Fu style; however, the development of Kung Fu (or general martial arts in China) goes back centuries before this.
Third, unfortunately, there is very little historical evidence to lay claim to the Indian contention that their various martial arts predates East Asian martial arts. Mythology does exist in India as to their creation of martial arts going back a few thousand years, but mythology exists in every culture even Persian culture relating to the origins of martial arts going back a few thousand years. Mythology does not equate historical evidence. The earliest written reference to kalapriyyattu goes back only to the 16th century A.D. by the Portuguese in British India. During that time they noted that it was a form of dance/martial arts practiced by citizens of Kerala and that the citizens had perhaps been practicing it since the 13th century A.D. During the 18th-19th century A.D., the British outlawed it in Kerala and the practice decreased substantially. In fact, the various Indian martial arts, especially Kalaripayattu, had very few practitioners before the advent of the modern age and especially the "Bruce Lee" era. With the worldwide interest in the Eastern Martial Arts, the Indian Martial arts began flowering once again. Contemporary Indians in India were just as fascinated with Kung Fu as regular Americans in America were. Very little historical evidence suggests that Indians were practicing their martial arts as it is in its current form even two centuries ago. What historical evidence exists suggests that the East Asian martial arts predates the current Indian martial arts. Whatever similarities exist are either due to the innate requirements that the human body requires in order to defend itself, or were additions to the Indian martial arts, possibly through Mongol or Muslim conquest later on or within the last century with international trade.
The first historical interpretation of the origin of the Kalari system was given by Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai. He points out that this fighting art emerged during the 12th century from the military exigency of the "Hundred Years War" between the Cheras and the Cholas. This theory was reiterated by later writers without question. Today, as the concept of Hundred Years War has been questioned and rejected, the theory of the origin of Kalari during this War, has lost its ground. Moreover, it is unlikely that a martial system will emerge suddenly from a war.
As stated earlier, the oldest suggested existence of Kalarippayyattu date back to the 13th centuries A.D. The earliest recorded evidence of kalarippayyattu date from Portuguese descriptions during the latter 16th-17th centuries. It is more likely that the Chinese martial arts greatly influenced Kalarippayyattu after the incursion of the Mongols from China into India during the 13th and 14th century A.D. or the incursion of the Muslims.
Another interesting concept is the idea of "chi" or life force energy. Many Indian historians contend that they invented this concept with their ideas of "prana." However, historical evidence suggests that various cultures have a similar concept, even within SouthEast Asia and South America. Historically, "Chi" developed from Taoism and Lao Tse Tung from concepts that predate 500B.C., and this invention predates that of Buddhism's introduction introduction to China. Further, Tai Chi, which is the soft form of martial arts exercise developed with Taoism also predates Buddhisms introduction to China, and historical books related to its breathing exercises go back to at least 500 B.C. Finally, Indian contention that Karate and Kalarippayattu share common ancestry due to their similar sound is doubtful as both words are Anglicized constructions for English speaking people of multiple Japanese and Indian words, both of which have totally unrelated meaning. Kara-Te in Japanese means "Empty Hand." In India, "Kalari" is an arena for combat; "payat" stands for a system of combat.
The historical inaccuracies that are being propagated by nationalistic Indians on the web and in print are concerning. Even today, some Indian children are being taught that the East India Trading Company was created in India, when in fact, it was a British company. As to the influences of the various martial arts of India and China on each other, no one knows as no true documented evidence exists.
However, it is a long stretch of the imagination to believe that all of the East Asian Martial Arts or even Chinese martial arts had their origins in India through some legendary traveling pacifistic monk. The historical inaccuracies are dangerous for India, as the Indian martial arts should be a source of cultural pride for Indians. However, by stretching the truth, at times fabricating the truth, and making fallacies of reasoning, nationalistic Indians today are lending doubt to the whole history of Indian martial arts.
