Meet Kerala's Sword-Fighting Great-Grandmother Keeping Marital Art Alive
NDTV
Meenakshi Amma has been a driving force in the revival of kalaripayattu, as the ancient practice is also known, and in encouraging girls to take it up.
Deftly parrying her son with a bamboo cane, Meenakshi Amma belies her 78 years with her prowess at kalari, thought to be India's oldest martial art.
The great-grandmother in Kerala, southern India, has been a driving force in the revival of kalaripayattu, as the ancient practice is also known, and in encouraging girls to take it up.
"I started kalari when I was seven years old. I am 78 now. I am still practising, learning and teaching," the matriarch of the Kadathanad Kalari Sangham school, founded by her late husband in 1949, told AFP.
"When you open the newspapers, you only see news of violence against women," she said.
