Varmam – In Brief
The Indian subcontinent,with its many rich civilizations which kept sprouting and shifting over the ages, has made valuable and major contributions to healing and life sciences, since time immemorial. ‘Varmam’ is an integral part of the ancient Tamil literature and practice that originated in the land of Tamilians. It is also believed to be the mother of many other martial art forms present today in other parts of India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Japan, and other parts of the world. This resulted when the kings of dynasties in the Sangam and medieval era, like Raja Kesari Varman (popularly known as Raja Raja Chozhan) and Suryavarman II (credited with building the Angkor Wat group of temples), themselves believed to be proponents of forms of this art, spread their empire to various parts of the world.he Indian subcontinent,with its many rich civilizations which kept sprouting and shifting over the ages, has made valuable and major contributions to healing and life sciences, since time immemorial. ‘Varmam’ is an integral part of the ancient Tamil literature and practice that originated in the land of Tamilians. It is also believed to be the mother of many other martial art forms present today in other parts of India, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Japan, and other parts of the world. This resulted when the kings of dynasties in the Sangam and medieval era, like Raja Kesari Varman (popularly known as Raja Raja Chozhan) and Suryavarman II (credited with building the Angkor Wat group of temples), themselves believed to be proponents of forms of this art, spread their empire to various parts of the world.The origin of the science of ‘Varmam’, however, is believed to be coterminous with the origin of human existence and although the related literary works are dated around 6th Century CE, the oral traditions of Tamil language are much older, and Tamil as such is celebrated as one of the most ancient and enduring languages of the world. This is in tandem and consistent with the practice of that period, displaying stronger oral traditions in literature than in written form, and explains why no other older literature on this and many other such subjects exist.The Lemurian continent or the Kumari Kandam has been the first place on earth to experience the origin of life on the entire earth, as also propounded by many other theories and fossil studies relating Madagascar to present India. ‘Varmam’, literally translated as the “Science of life-force”, is inferred to be more than 5,000 years old. When Lemurians(read Tamilians) were at the culmination of their civilization, the continent of Lemuria alias Kumari Kandam was engulfed by the sea and sunken as the result of a cataclysmic event, except for a tiny piece of land called ‘Kumari’ – land where the ‘Varmam’ Therapy was left behind for the world to experience. Varmam Practice ‘Varmam’ has been traditionally practiced by Tamilians both as a martial art for self defense and also for healing. The vast knowledge of this tradition has been transferred orally for generations within the families. The basic understanding of the skeletal system, and the trigger points of the nervous system are deeply and precisely defined in the Varmam system extending the knowledge of instant relieving methods. The books related to Siddha System of Medicine, deals with the art and science of injury and fracture diagnosis.History of VarmamAs per Indian mythological legends, Lord Siva who is considered as the First Siddha, while on his way to Sivagiri hills with his wife Parvathi,saw a hunter in an unconscious state, fallen from a tree. Immediately, Siva hit the hunter using His golden wand and the man regained his consciousness instantly. Parvathi asked Siva to explain the process, and Siva detailed at length the ‘Varmam’ points and their manipulation techniques to her.As per another legend from a book titled, Varma Kaviyam, once, Siva’s son Murugan (or Karthikeyan), was about to leave with an army of soldiers to defeat Soorapadman, a very strong demon king. Siva had also narrated to his bull, Nandi, the tools such as PaduVarmam(extreme, 12), Thoduvarmam(touch, 96), Thattumuraigal (hitting mechanisms) and Thadaimuraigal (defense mechanisms). Parvathi explained to her son, Murugan, the techniques she learnt from Siva, and emphasized that they were the only tools he can rely on to defeat and destroy a demon as strong as Soorapadman. Murugan acquired this knowledge of the art and science of ‘Varmam’ from his mother and went to the battlefield and came back with a glorious victory against Soorapadman, which is hailed to this day as ‘Soorasamharam’ in the temples of Thiruchendur and many other places.As per another legend from Dakshinamoorthy Kaviyam, later, Murugan himself lived in the caves of Velimalai, near Kumarakoil in the district of Kanyakumari. He paid respects to Sage Agasthiyar who visited the place and preached him Silambam, Panchapatchi Sasthram, Kaal Balam, Puya Balam, Narambu Kutrangal, Manthras and assigned Agasthyar to be the Teacher of all teachers.Another legend goes that Lord Murugan preached all the knowledge he acquired including ‘Varmam’ to Boghar in Palani, in the form of Dhandayudhapani.In this way, as per our ancient legends, we can understand that Varmam has found its divine path from Siva to Parvathi to Murugan to Agasthiyar and Boghar and onwards to many others like us. VarmamSites / Points – 108The life force flows like a stream flowing from one point to another in its own path where the body, mind and the soul intersects and communicates. In case any obstruction happens on this path, there will be a disruption in the flow and this disconnects the continuity of the flow and that energy will stagnate nearby adangal which in turn will cause an imbalance in the life force at the points situated at, before and after around this obstacle and will lead to deficiencies and diseases relevant to that point. Varmam not only applies to human but to any living being and the stimulations can be observed in each one of them. Response to stimulus is also a varmam stimulation.
Naadi
There are ten naadis or pulse according to the flow of energy in any living body as mentioned below:• Choozhumunai naadi• Pinkalai naadi• Idakalai naadi• Siguvai naadi• Purudan naadi• Kandhari naadi• Aththi naadi• Alambudai naadi• Sangini naadi• Vayasini naadi• Guru naadi• Vishvodhana naadi
Varmam points defined from any aspect would always result in the same 108 from the various literary works inferred for reading. The following gives a very rough outline of the same which we will be discussing in the upcoming books.
Body structure.
Any living organism is made of 8 units of measurement called jaan (sir tell me about the 8 jaan udambu * 12 concept Thodu and Padu Varmam a. There are 12 Paduvarmam and every one of them is associated with 8 Thoduvarmam and hence there are 12 * 8 = 96 Constitution / Tridosha The varmam points are also categorise as the body constitution of an individual.