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Vital aspects
THE ASHTAVADIVA or eight animal postures (elephant, wild boar, horse, lion, cat, snake, fish and peacock), though not as pronounced as in a dance mime, are more or less the on-your-mark stands to be taken judiciously assessing the power of the opponent.
* The armed contest is mostly with iron weapons like sword (with or without shield) and dagger or the wooden long and short staffs (sticks).
* Metrical, quick calculative, gliding movements mark the unarmed combat and self-defensive staff fight.
* The idea behind the long sword fight is to keep the enemy at an arm's distance and engage him in a duel that would tire him out.
* The dagger thrust display brings the combatants into physical proximity risky enough to drive the dagger down one another.
* The single sword fight is taught as a last ditch effort by the defender when disarmed in an armed combat.
* The short staff fight too is nerve-racking even as it involves short little jumps into the air as an escape mechanism when the staff is aimed to destabilise the opponent by hitting across the feet or legs.
* In the final stage of learning comes the chavati pongal where both combatants are taught to rise into the air and also the marma chikitsa which marks the 107 vital parts of the body physiology prone to attack.
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