Coimbatore:

At the age of 84, T A Angappan twists and spins the silambam (bamboo stick) with the flair and agility of a five-year-old child. Angappan was trained in Silambattam, a local martial artform, at the nascent age of seven by his father at Tiruchengode in Namakkal district.

Angappan not only learnt the martial art, but also took an oath to promote the ancient artform and trained youngsters to take it up professionally.

Today, Anagappan, at 84, still continues to teach Silambattam and has thousands of students across the state. He visits Coimbatore once in two months to train his students and also holds a free summer camp at R S Puram during the summer vacation where hundreds of students take part and learn the martial art for 15 days.

“I want more girls than boys to learn this art,” he says. In 1964, he demonstrated the artform at the Mariamman Kovil temple festivities. In a bid to pursue parents to send their daughters to train in the martial art, he dressed one of his male students as a girl in one of the performance.

“Even after my persuasion, none of the families were willing to send their daughters. So I made a boy dress like a girl and perform. After watching that, I got one student from Salem who was acting in films and theatre. It’s only after she stepped up, did other girls also start joining the classes,” said Angappan.

Angappan was born to a weaver and said his father taught him the martial art daily after he got back from work. “From 9pm till midnight, me and my father would practice Silambattam. But there was no compromise with my education and I finished my SSLC and then got a job in a co-operative society,” Angappan said. It’s only after a friend recommended him to become a physical education teacher at a school, is when Angappan decided to teach Silambattam professionally.

“None of the schools then wanted Silambattam to be taught in schools, even government schools were not interested. I had to insist, a chief education officer of Tiruchengode to let me demonstrate the martial art. I trained a batch of children for an hour and after the demonstration, the officer agreed to allow Silambattam to be taught in government schools,” he said.

Angappan said the main reason for the martial art not being taken up as a professional sport is because of lack of qualified teachers.

“There should be at least one well-known teacher for the art to grow internationally. Though Silambattam associations have been set up in Malaysia, it is still only a state-level sport there,” said Angappan.

He was part of an Indian delegation to Russia in September 1987, where 11 of his students demonstrated their Silambattam skills. “The tour opened the gates for the martial artform to be recognised internationally and be given more consideration in India,” he said.

Angappan, who has been a true ambassador of Silambattam, said the art needs to grow among people in its true form. “I have hundreds of students who promote others to take to the sport. I do not wish for it to be commercialized and lose its essence. Many think the of it is as just a tool for fighting, but Silambattam is an art and helps one grow as a person, just like Kung-fu, Kalari or Karate,” he said.

Many cinema stuntmen have been trained by Angappan in the art. “They taught me sword fights and I taught Silambattam in return,” he says

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / by Komal Gauthami, TNN / May 23rd, 2016