Varmakkalai

GS PAPER I: Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context: 25 years of ‘Indian’movie, ‘Aasaan’ Rajendran, taught ‘varmakkalai’ to Kamal Haasan.

About Varma Kalai:

• It is an Indian traditional art of vital points.
• It originated in present-day kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.
• It combines massage, alternative medicine, traditional yoga and martial arts in which the body's pressure points (varmam) are manipulated to heal or cause harm.
• The healing application called Vaidhiya Murai is part of Siddha medicine (siddha vaidyam).
• Its combat application is known as Adimurai (it includes a component called Varma Adi, meaning "pressure-point striking") can be done either empty-handed or with a blunt weapon such as a stick or staff.
• Varma Kalai is usually taught in the advanced stage of Adimurai, Kalaripayattu, and Silambam in Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively; strikes are targeted at the nerves, veins, tendons, soft tissues or ligaments, organs and bone joints.

https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/how-kamal-haasan-learnt-varmakkalai-for-indian/article34489479.ece?homepage=true