BODYMIND WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP ON BODYMIND (MEYYKKANNU) 25-26 April 2026 YOGA HALL C V N Kalari Thiruvananthapuram As it has been transmitted throughout the orality of kalarividya practices in Kerala, the Malayalam dialect 'meyykkannakuka (body becomes eye) signifies the utmost level of accomplishement in physical compating by a matured, master practitioner of self defencing. Viewed from the available history of humans, it appears to be an unique idea about the potential of physical body getting transformed into a level of cognitive perception. Such a tradition about the bodymind or body enlightenment might help us to transcend the complications imposed by various forms of mechanistic and isolated perceptions about body and mind. Unfortunately, the practical wisdom engrained in this ideal seems to have been left unattended either by the presentday practitioners, as well as the gerneral public and academics, including cultural activists. The entire traditions of modern Science, Philosophy, Spirituality, Psychology, Cognitive science, Neurophysiology and others seem to be unaware about the liberating potential of such a cultural practice, and consequently to be left ignored at the brink of extinction. The major blockage that lies in its wider attention is found due to the prevailing reductionist historisation of kalarividya practices, according to which the entire tradition is about Martial Art, and it has significance, at the age of sophisticated warfare, only as a folklore performance. It is in the above context, the present workshop aims to explore various dimensions of the idea of bodymind as envisaged by the kalarividya tradition. For details: 9447262817 www.pillathaangi.blogspot.com MAKING SENSE OF BODYMIND Theme-note (Draft) A notion of ‘meyykannu’ (bodymind) that is available within the kalarividya tradition in Kerala signifies a modified level of cognitive capacity and selfhood attained by an individual human being in a certain special embodied action. The Malayalam compound term ‘meyykannu’ is derived from the two words meyy (body) and kannu (eye). Even though, literally it means body-eye, its suggestive sense would be a reflexive activation or energizing of the physical body of man, sometimes even without the mediation of any tactile or visual sensation, to certain happenings in the world. That way the notion of ‘meyykannu’ has the signification of ‘bodymind’ in the sense that it has a perceptive capacity of the physical body of man. However, the mind-like functioning of the body does not seem to be simply signifying the one way activation of the body in absentia of what is usually taken to be the activity of mental cognition with the involvement of physical eyes. It rather points to a simultaneous or instantaneous occurrence of cognition, decision, and action The state of meyykannu as a modified level of physical existence of man becomes possible through an embodied activity of persons in a specialized form of psycho-physical conditioning process of training. This process of conditioning of meyykannu is, in fact, a process of synchronization of the two organic activities, which appear to function differently in their normal and ordinary cases, such as mental and physical. The degree of modified level of their undifferentiated existence and functioning seems to be at variance with the degree of intensity and frequency in which the embodied training process is performed. The synchrony of mind and body, thought and action, or willing and doing that has been experience with the life-world of kalarividya tradition would, perhaps enable us to be skeptical about the prevailing assumptions about their existence and relationships. The assumptions that underlie in the usual ways of conceiving the entities/states like body, mind, spirit, soul, consciousness emphasis on their distinct ontological status. Instead, what appears to be available within the kalarividya tradition is an alternative perspective on the level of their synchronic ways of relationship and functioning. Hence, it becomes important here to show how the state of meyykannu is seen to have involving a sense of freedom as embodied well-being. This would be a matter of showing, on the one hand, how one is attaining the condition of bodymind, and on the other, how the state of bodymind enables one to get the capability of caring the state of bodyself. This would require drawing insights heavily from the experiential component of evidence materials within the tradition of kalarividya practices. In addition to that, there requires the reconstruction of the available insights which are involved in the ways of formulation and organization of practices in the history. There may have many instances of conceptual articulation of the bodymind that are available in the form of oral narratives. The oral narratives would include the experiential accounts of the practices, which are articulated in the form of household parlances, common sayings, riddles, songs, stories, morals, etc. Kalarividya, which literally means ‘knowledge of kalari’ in Malayalam signifies the whole body of knowledge and beliefs related to the traditional educational institution known as kalari where the body-oriented life-care practices are imparted. The complex of kalarividya is constituted by a vide array of sciences, skills, beliefs, rituals, myths, and visions. It would include the practices related to the aspects of knowledge such as (if put them in modern terminologies) medicine, pharmacology, anatomy, neuro-physiology, metallurgy, self-defence, martial art, astrology, magico-psychiatry, meditation, sporting, performing arts, ethico-spirituality, pedagogy, life-styles, kinesthetic, bio-aesthetics, and so on.The component of self-defence is called abhyasam (feat or defence exploit). Kalari, kalarimura, kalripayat, atimura, thattum thadavum, adithada, chilambam,are the terms by which it is being referred to in different contexts. The word ‘kalari’ simply has also been used as an idiomatic expression for the self-defence practice. However, nowadays, the entire complex of kalarividya has come to be represented by the term ‘kalaripayat’ with a view to project that this knowledge tradition is all about military practice. The contemporary appropriation of kalarividya as kalaripayat has been made following the expression ‘payat’, which signifies only those aspects of defence training exercise with and without weapons. The shift in the characterization is symptomatic of some deep-laid problems that are experienced in the modern/alien ways of perceiving or inheriting of an ancient form of knowledge practice. This would be the context in which the present attempt wants to engage with certain ways in which the modern interpretations of kalarividya, that it was entirely a martial art and so now it has more relevance as a folk performing art, have looked at some of its core ideals like ‘mayykannu’ (bodymind). As per the traditional wisdom, the accomplishment of kalari training is the level of perfection characterized as ‘meyy kannakal’ (the body becoming an eye). When the practitioner’s body transforms to the eyes he would become capable of sensing and acting momentously without the help of natural eyes. The ability of the synchronizing thought and action at the context of self-defence requirements is an achievement of enlightened or altered personality which is conditioned by the rigorous psycho-physical training that a practitioner undergoes. However, the contemporary performance paradigm of kalari has led to the estrangement of the tradition as a whole by failing to recognize its potentials. What seems to be an ‘aesthetics of estrangement’ is at work in downplaying the overall significance of the notion of meyykannu as an aesthetic-body, which was later theorized and historicized by some artistic practitioners and performance anthropologists. It is against the context of the working of such an aesthetic perceptive of ‘kalarividya’ in general and the idea of ‘meyykannu’ in particular that the present engagement wants to bring out the cultural insiders’ articulations of the experience of the state of meyykannu. This would be to bring out, on the one hand, how the way an ‘aesthetics of estrangement’ was making a drastic change in the nature of kalari practice/praxis. On the other, a welfare/wellness or self-care perspective of meyykannu as a different case against the aesthetic one brought out by the performance paradigm.