Karate and its Indian Roots

The evolution of karate began over a 1000 years ago, possibly as early as the 5th century BC. Though the origin of martial arts appears to be somewhat obscure and little is chronicled elaborately, a very significant contribution was made by India towards its early development. A Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma (3rd son of king Sugandha, a Dravidian) set out from the western shores of India to China. Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism, also known as Da Mo in Chinese and Daruma Taishi in Japanese, was well versed in Kalarippayathu (a martial art from South India) and rich in Yogasanas. It was he who introduced this sect of the religion to the Middle Kingdom in the fifth century C.E., traveling first from southern India to Canton. It was at Shao-lin-ssu temple that he entered a cave to practice meditation. During the nine years that followed, we are told, he sat motionless before the stone wall in his cave. His concentration was so great that his legs withered, and he cut off is own eyelids to help him stay awake. When he eventually emerged from his isolation and began to teach others, he was disheartened by their lack of physical strength. They were simply unable to endure the long hours of meditation he required of them. Bodhidharma was determined to help his students overcome their physical limitations in order to assist them in their religions pursuits. He and a small group of disciples constructed the Shaolin (Shorin-ji) Monastery, where he established a fighting method for the monks based on the movements of animals, designed to strengthen the mind and body, exercises which allegedly marked the beginning of the Shaolin Style of Art Chan Fa, more popularly known as Kung Fu. The method that he set for the monks is laid down in the “EKKIN SUTRA” of the Dhamapada or the holy scriptures of Buddhism. While the historicity of these accounts is questionable, the story does convey an important lesson; from the beginning, there has been an intimate connection between the martial arts of Asia and Zen Buddhism.Returning to wilderness,

Karate is not a purely Japanese Art

Amongst the regions where Buddhism spread were the Ryukyu Islands. The main island in the chain of Ryukyu Islands is Okinawa which is located in the East China Sea between Kyushu, Japan and Taiwan. Through a constant influence of Chinese sailors and merchants, the indigenous Okinawan fighting forms were heavily influenced by Kung Fu. In the 1400s Sho Shin, the ruler of Okinawa, established a Government by culture and put a ban on use of weapons by civilians. Those who studied martial arts had to do so without any form of weaponry. In 1609 Japan invaded Okinawa, and further to the ban on weaponry, placed a ban upon anyone doing martial arts, and so martial arts training became shrouded in secrecy over the next 300 years. The art, then known as Okinawa-te or Tote (Chinese Hand, To= Chinese, te= Hand), remained clandestine until the early 1900s when Supreme Master Gichin Funakoshi, often considered as the “Father of Modern karate”, was asked to give a demonstration at the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo, which was organised by the Ministry of Education of Japan in 1922. To make the art accepted widely by the Japanese, he changed the calligraphy symbolizing “to” or “China” (which could also be pronounced as Kara) to “Kara” or “Empty”, thus naming the art Kara-te-do. The style name Shotokan was given to Funakoshi’s karate by his students. Shoto was Funakoshi’s pen name as a writer, meaning ‘pine waves’ and Kan means ‘school’. So those who trained at Funakoshi’s ‘school’ became known as the Shotokan.