Firstly, before you read my brief description of Shastar Vidiya, please check out shastarvidiya.org for the real thing!
Above is a picture taken from a demonstration of Shastar Vidiya at the annual Martial Arts Show at the NEC, Birmingham.
Shastar Vidiya is a combat art from the the battlefields of North India. Sikhs are perhaps the last of the martial races who fought using these skills nearly two centuries ago. However, Shastar Vidiya traces its origins even further back than this Indian medieval period.
Shastar Vidiya encapsulates the totality of the martial arts and traditions of the many races and peoples who have lived and traveled through the fertile lands of the Punjab, i.e. North India. In the rich Akhara oral tradition the art traces its way back to the most primordial Indian deity, or better still, the primordial shaman, most commonly known as Shiva. Similar to the Herculean mythology relating a lineage back to the Gods such as Zeus, each of the great warrior traditions link themselves to the pre-Vedic deity Shiva. Within the Sikh tradition it is the tenth Guru - Guru Gobind Singh [who also traces his own lineage back to such ancient Indian dynasties] who reignited fully this warrior tradition through his creation of the Singh Khalsa in 1699.
The martial school to which I belong was established in 1661 at the behest of the father of the aforementioned Guru Gobind Singh by Baba Darbara Singh - after whom this school is named. My teacher, Gurdev Nidar Singh Nihang, is the ninth such teacher since its inception in 1661.
To the best of my knowledge this school, and by extension my teacher, is the last surviving element of this art which has had potentially millions of practitioners over thousands of years.
Shastar Vidiya is a complete art having systems of teaching which range from personal self-defence up to and including the raising and training of elite soldiers. It therefore is stupendously large and requires a full time commitment.
I therefore concede that both in practice and understanding this blog can never do justice to this art and my Gurdev.
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