Urumi.

Posted by gail in Sports on June 29, 2007 at 11:36 am


These men are sparring, not with whips, but with swords — flexible, sometimes multi-bladed, swords called urumi or chuttuval. According to Answers.com:

[The urumi is] a long sword made of flexible steel, sharp enough to cut into flesh, but flexible enough to be rolled into a tight coil. It was used and still can be found in Kerala, and is one of the weapons learned by practitioners of the martial art of Kalaripayattu. It was most popular in the North Malabar Coast of Kerala state, India, and is often mentioned in the ballads of the region.

The flexible sword is called Urumi in the Northern System of Kalaripayattu and Chuttuval in the Southern System. The word Chuttuval . . . is derived from the Tamil roots Chuttu . . . (coil/spin) and Vaal . . . (sword) and means Coiled Sword, a very apt description of the way the sword is maneuvered by the swordsman. Since the sword is flexible, and worn curled around the waist or bundled into the belt, it has to be straightened out, which is generated by turning it around the wielder’s body mostly in a vertical plane. Urumi is still practiced in all kalaris.

An interesting side note: the word urumi comes from Malayalam, a Dravidic language with the distinction of being a palindrome.



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COMMENT

9 comments to "Urumi."

  1. Ant
    June 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am

    That image is too big. Shrink it down please! I am running at 800 pixels width. :(

  2. TubbyCat
    June 29th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

    Yeah, you really might want to cut it down a bit.

  3. Alex
    June 29th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

    Done. “cut” it down a bit - hahaha TubbyCat! Neatorama readers are so witty!

  4. gail
    June 29th, 2007 at 12:30 pm

    Oops, sorry. I didn’t notice. It’s only 400 pixels wide on my blog and I thought that was the one I put up.

  5. Colt Seiver
    June 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

    I’ll bet those guys can use tape measures like nobody’s business.

  6. Ajan
    June 29th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

    “it has to be straightened out”??? what crap?
    It is rolled before the fight and is uncurled towards the opponent..it’ll luk as if hes hurling it towards the opponent. Luks like answers.com has lot of carp about Indian stuff. I’m an Indian.. Lemme explain
    In Malayalam, Kalari means “place, open space, threshing floor, battlefield.”..payal means “to learn, speak;” payttuka, “to exercise in arms, practice,” and finally payattu having the idiomatic meaning, “fencing exercise, a trick.”
    The training is mainly divided into four parts consisting of Meithari, Kolthari, Ankathari and Verumkai.
    The above sword fight looks as if,only attacking is taught in Kalaripayattu. But infact, 90% of this martial art has defence. Totally different from Kung fu ,Karate and other stuff. The last one Verumkai is extremely dangerous,includes arm locks, grappling, and strikes to the Pressure Points (Marmam), the vital points of the body. The Gurukkal(Master) teaches knowledge of Marmam only to those students whom he trusts, restricting knowledge to the very few.

  7. Alex
    June 29th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

    Am I the only one noticing they’re fighting in some fancy underpants?

  8. Trey
    June 29th, 2007 at 1:29 pm

    i was just thinking that alex !

  9. Alex
    June 29th, 2007 at 2:17 pm

    … and that guy in the middle thinking “I get winner, and with this real sword, it’ll be a piece of cake.”


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