Legends say that around 525 AD an Indian Buddhist monk named Bodhidharama traveled to China and preached at the Shaolin temple. On finding the monks weak and listless, Bodhidharama taught them the indian martial arts-Kalaripayattu. He taught them the eighteen adavukal (adavu = technique) of Kalarippayattu. There this martial arts was called as Shaolin Kungfu. Other forms of martial arts such as Ka
rate, Judo, Silat, Thai Boxing etc took birth from Shaolin kungfu and their modified forms were spread by different masters to various parts of the world. However in the process of modification, the various benefits of Kalaripayattu, which was the mother of all arts, were lost. Realizing that unhealthy and illiterate people will a disaster for this world, a group of kalari gurukanmar( masters ), travelled to various parts of South India and learnt many rare skills of Kalaripayatu from different masters. They then combined all their knowledge and made a new syllabus and taught this all over India. Jamal Kottol, a son of one of these masters, studied about different martial arts and imbibed only the good things and incorporated them into this syllabus and in the year of 1987 started a new association called International Dynamic Kalari (IDK Martial Arts) under the Indian government. In his lifetime, he promoted this martial arts to different countries.
