CRA’P Presentations – Talks 2024
The Centre KALARIGRAM of Auroville, India, comes back to CRA’P, and the Centre HINDUSTAN KALARI SANGAM of Calicut, India, that is coming for the first time. With them we organise three weeks of activities based on Kalaripayattu, a millenary tradition of knowledge and practices about martial arts, health and spirituality.
Between the 9 and 28 September, with the collaboration of Mollet del Vallès City Council, we will venture into this ancestral tradition and its legacy guided by Lakshman Gurukkal and Shatrughnan Gurukkal, two renowned masters and their young talented disciple Amrutha E T.
THE TRADITION OF KALARIPAYATTU AND ITS LEGACY
MARTIAL AND PERFORMING ARTS – HEALTH – SPIRITUALITY
21 September
11h a 18h at CRA’P (Mollet del Vallès)
This working day is based on an encounter and dialogue with Lakshman Gurukkal in order to introduce us into the wide knowledge of this ancestral and holistic tradition of South India. We will talk about Kalaripayattu, Ayurveda, Tantra, and the ancient Sanskrit treatise of the performing arts Natyashastra. Demonstrations of Kalaripayattu will be performed by Amrutha E T, as well as Sri Vidya Tantra rituals.
The Kalaripayattu has lent extensively to Ayurveda, as much as it has borrowed from it. Also, the Kalaripayattu is related to certain traditional art forms like the Kathakali and Theyyam from South India. Also, the Kalaripayattu’s spiritual background is Tantra, the celebration of the union of Shiva and Shakti, thus the union of the male and female energies in one’s consciousness, in one’s being.
This working day is open to all interested, and it offers us a time and space to talk about all these issues that in the Kalaripayattu are interwoven: health, art and spirituality.
With Lakshman Gurukkal, Shatrughnan Gurukkal and Amrutha E T
Fee:
50€ meal included (40€ collaborators of CRA’P) / 30€ half day (25€ collaborators of CRA’P)
Registration:
info@cra-p.org / +34 666 763 504
Lakshman Gurukkal is one of the few rare and revered Gurus of Kalaripayattu, Ayurveda and Tantra. Following the tradition of family lineage, he had started learning Kalaripayattu at the tender age of 5 under the tutelage of his father Guru Veerasree Sami Gurukkal. In his growing years, he also learnt from his father the art and science of Ayurveda. He has been awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, with the title of Senior Fellowship (in Kalaripayattu and Natyashastra). He has a post graduate degree in Advaita Vedanta from Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, at Deemed University under the Ministry of Human Resource Development in New Delhi. He worked as a Lecturer in Martial Arts at the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala. He is the director of Hindustan Kalari Sangam, the family centre in Calicut, Kerala. In 2010 he founded Kalarigram in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, an international research centre on the applications of Kalari for empowering the younger generations with the core principles of the ancient wisdom and its tools to develop an engaged and responsible human being.
The Kalarigram centre is based in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India. It is structured as a holistic Kalari gurukulam, and was founded by Lakshman Gurukkal in 2010. It trains artists from all over the world. Kalarigram’s visit aims at imparting traditional Indian wisdom of body-mind training, performing arts and spiritual practice.
Shatrughnan Gurukkal with over 40 years of profound experience in the field of Kalaripayattu, he was initiated into the practice of Kalaripayattu and traditional Kalari medicine when he was 7 years old, learning under the strict tutelage of his father Guru Veerasree Sami Gurukkal. He is also prominent in another equally important aspect of Kalaripayattu, the traditional Kalari Marma Chikitsa, a massage-based treatment system considered to be the medicine of Kalari. With his dedication he has sharpened his practice, which focuses on orthopaedics and rejuvenation of the body, turning it into an art, and today he continues his research mainly at the Hindustan Kalari Sangam centre in Calicut, Kerala. He is a regular contributor to Kalarigram, the Kalaripayattu Performance Practice Research Centre and School of Kalaripayattu in Auroville run by his elder brother, Lakshman Gurukkal.
Amrutha E T, practitioner and trainer at Hindustan Kalari Sangam. She comes from a family dedicated to both practicing and teaching Kalari. Hindustan Kalari Sangam operates under the patronage of VeeraSree Sami Gurukkal. She has learned from and practiced with Lakshman Gurukkal, Shatrughan Gurukkal and Radhika Gurukkal. Born into a Kalari family, She was exposed to the art from a young age and had the privilege of being in constant contact with Gurukkals both during and after practice, which has given her the opportunity to learn all the nuances of the practice.She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Communication Engineering and a Diploma in Panchakarma Ayurveda therapist.
Hindustan Kalari Sangam, is an ancestral well renowned Kalaripayattu training center and Ayurvedic healing practice in Calicut, Kerala. Established during the year of 1950, under the patronage of Guru Veerasree Sami Gurukkal. Kalaripayattu is a very ancient martial art form, and has been designed for the holistic development of human beings – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.