Mallakhamb or mallakhamba is a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope. The word also refers to the pole used in the sport.

Mallakhamb derives from the terms malla which denotes an athlete or wrestler and khamba which means a pole. Mallakhamb can therefore be translated to English as pole gymnastics.

The earliest recorded reference to mallakhamb is found in Somesvara Chalukya's classic Manasollasa (1135 AD). Originally mallakhamb was used as a supporting exercise for wrestlers. Although known to have been practiced in medieval Maharasthra and Hyderabad, the sport does not become visible in practice and well recorded until the 18th century when it was revived by Balambhatdada Deodhar, the fitness instructor of Peshwa Baji Rao II during the reign of the Peshwas. His student Balambhattdada Deodhar realized that only major grips can be developed with a pole and thus used cane instead. Subsequently, the unavailability of cane resulted in rope mallakhamb. Today it is used more as a performance art rather than a method of training.

Kalaripayattu is an Indian martial art. One of the oldest fighting systems in existence, it is now practiced in Kerala, in contiguous parts of Tamil Nadu and among the Malayali community of Malaysia. It was originally practiced in northern and central parts of Kerala and the Tulunadu region of Karnataka.

Kalaripayattu includes strikes, kicks, grappling, preset forms, weaponry and healing methods. Regional variants are classified according to geographical position in Kerala; these are the Northern style from Malabar region in north Kerala, the Central style from inner Kerala and the southern style from Travancore region of south Kerala. The southern Payattu system is now extinct and the Tamil style of "Adi Murai" is classified as the southern kalarippayattu.

The northern style was practiced in Kerala primarily by the Nairs and Yatra Brahmins, as well as the small Chekavar subcaste of the Ezhavas, some Muslims and Christians. The southern style, called Adi Murai, was practiced largely by the Nadars and similar castes; it has features distinguishing it from its other regional counterparts. Northern kalaripayattu is based on elegant and flexible movements, evasions, jumps and weapons training, while the southern "Adi Murai" style primarily follows the hard impact based techniques with priority in empty hand fighting and pressure point strikes. Both systems make use of internal and external concepts.

Some of the flexibility training methods in northern Kalaripayattu are applied in Kerala dance forms and kathakali dancers who knew martial arts were believed to be markedly better than the other performers. Some traditional Indian dance schools still incorporate kalaripayattu as part of their exercise regimen.

Source: Wikipedia

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