We wish to extend our warmest welcome to you, our lovely readers. As you can guess by the title, this blog is dedicated to martial arts. We wanted to create a blog, a space of learning, that encompasses the history, practice, and philosophy of various martial arts.
We want to use our welcome post to tell you a bit more about martial arts themselves like where they come from and what their essence is.
History of Martial Arts
Let’s start off by dissecting the term “martial art”. Martial is something relating to war and it comes from the name Mars, given to the Roman god of war. The term “martial art” emerged around the 14th century to describe European fighting arts, now known as Historical European martial arts.
With that ends the easy part; the hard part is to trace the origins of martial arts. Nobody can tell for sure when the first martial art was invented, but what we know is that humanity has practiced them for at least a few millennia.
What we know is that martial arts developed all around the world, from the most western islands to the Far East, at different points of history. Some of them developed on their own, meaning that a specific tribe or nation invented them, while others borrowed ideas from existing forms of martial arts belonging to a different tribe or nation (e.g., Chinese martial arts inspired many others).
Although we can only guess which was the first martial art, due to the lack of historical recourses, there is a mighty contestant for that title – the Indian Kalaripayattu. It has mythical origins, which will fascinate every martial art enthusiast.
The creator of the martial art is thought to be Parashurama, the sixth incarnation among the Dashavatara of the Hindu god Vishnu. It’s said that Parashurama learnt Kalaripayattu from Shiva and taught it to the people of Kerala who still practice it today. These sacred origins encapsulate the essence of martial arts, the symbiosis of combat and spirituality.
Every martial art you can find is not simply a system of techniques and their application, but a philosophy to live by. You cannot ignore the moral teachings of the creators and the masters if you ever want to perfect a martial art; there is no martial art without them.
Still, it would be silly to claim that the techniques do not serve an important role. Each one of them was specifically tailored to serve a specific function. Many of the martial arts, if not all, devote a significant amount of time to the practice of forms (pre-arranged movements), which are often performed alone.
This not only preserves the original art, but it also exemplifies the importance of perfecting every motion to perform gracefully with a partner. It’s also the common link between martial arts coming from all around the world – they have systemized techniques.
Thank You
Whatever your reason is for visiting this blog, we hope we can satisfy your desire to learn about various martial arts. Thank you for your support!