Questions & answers

Lemuria VAWO is the Lemuria Varmakalari Adimurai World Organization. It teaches Varmakalai, Adimurai, Silambam and Mallakhamb, holds trial classes for students and masters, offers traditional Varma therapy and teaches it, runs camps and certification, and sells traditional weapons through the Lemuria Shop, from its home ground, Thaikalam, in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu.

Yes. Trial classes are held for students and for masters (asans) of the arts. Use Book a trial class on this page or the Classes page, and the team will call you to confirm where and when the next trial batch meets.

Its home ground, Thaikalam, is in Ramanathichanputhur near Marungoor, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu 629402 — about 11 km east of Nagercoil. Confirm any visit with the team in advance.

Adimurai is the empty-hand striking art, Silambam is the art of the staff, and Varmakalai is the knowledge of the varmam points. Varmakalai sits at the advanced end of both, and has a healing side called varma vaidyam.

Only by name. The organisation is named after the Tamil tradition of Kumari Kandam, sometimes called Lemuria in English. It is a martial arts and heritage organisation, not connected with the nineteenth-century sunken-continent hypothesis or with other organisations that share the name.

Lemuria VAWO teaches all three from its home ground, Thaikalam, near Marungoor in Kanyakumari District, and lists its classes and seasonal camps on the Classes page. Beginners are welcome.

Yes. No martial arts experience is needed; training starts with conditioning, stances and footwork. When you enquire, tell the team about your experience and any injury or health condition.

Use the certificate verification on the home page or the Classes page. Enter the certificate's TPM ID or LA number to check it against the organisation's records.

Yes. Traditional Varma sessions can be requested from the Varma Therapy page. They are presented as a traditional wellness practice and do not replace diagnosis or treatment from a qualified healthcare professional.

Yes. Varma therapy is taught to students and masters as supervised, in-person study within the lineage, usually after the foundations of the martial arts. It is never taught as self-treatment. Use Ask about the course on this page to enquire.

From the Lemuria Shop at shop.lemuriavawo.org, which lists traditional weapons such as swords, veecharuval and maankombu, with Adimurai uniforms and Varma thailam. Check each product page for its specifications, availability and current price.

The official channels are Instagram (@lemuriamartialarts), YouTube (@lemuria-adimurai), Facebook (/lemuria.varmakalari). They share forms, camps and demonstrations, and link back to lemuriavawo.org.

VAWO stands for Varmakalari Adimurai World Organization. The full name is Lemuria Varmakalari Adimurai World Organization, and Lemuria VAWO is the short form.

Varmakalai, Adimurai and Silambam, taught as one progressive path, with Mallakhamb alongside them. It also teaches Varma therapy to students and masters, holds trial classes, documents the tradition's texts and lineages and offers traditional Varma sessions.

Yes, for students and for masters (asans) of the arts. Book a place from the About, home or Classes page, and the team will call you to confirm the place and time of the next trial batch.

Yes, through the Lemuria Shop at shop.lemuriavawo.org: swords, veecharuval, maankombu and other traditional weapons, with Adimurai uniforms and Varma thailam. Check each product page for availability and price.

Instagram (@lemuriamartialarts), YouTube (@lemuria-adimurai), Facebook (/lemuria.varmakalari). An account that uses the name but is not listed on this page does not speak for the organisation.

Lemuria is the English name sometimes given to Kumari Kandam, the land Tamil tradition says was lost to the sea south of today's coast. The organisation takes the name for that cultural memory and is not connected with the sunken-continent hypothesis.

The lineage's teachers are introduced on this page under Guardians and the board. When you enquire about a class or camp, ask which instructor leads it.

Thaikalam — the mother ground — is the organisation's home in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Its page describes the heritage projects, camps and how to visit.

Email contact@lemuriavawo.org, call +91 77082 44424, or use the Contact page, which routes each kind of request to the right team.

No. Training starts with conditioning, stances and footwork, and beginners are welcome. Tell the team about any previous training so they can suggest the right class.

Yes. Trial classes are held for students and for masters (asans). Use Book a trial class on this page, and the team will call you to confirm the place and time of the next trial batch.

Ask the team about the class you have in mind. Age requirements are set for each class and camp, so confirm the minimum age, timings and supervision before enrolling a child.

Loose, comfortable clothing you can move freely in. Bring water and a small towel, and tell the instructor about any injury or health condition before you start.

Not for your first class. Ask your instructor which length and weight suit you — the kambu is traditionally sized to reach about the forehead. The Lemuria Shop's buying guide explains how to choose one.

There is no fixed timetable. The basic strikes and spins come in the early sessions, but fluency in the sequences takes regular practice over months and years, and depends on how often you train.

Silambam trains distance, timing, footwork and awareness, which are the foundations of self-defence, and Adimurai adds empty-hand strikes, blocks and escapes. That ability comes from regular, supervised practice over time, not from a few classes.

Silambam is the Tamil art of the staff, from Tamil Nadu; Kalaripayattu is the martial art of Kerala, with its own forms, weapons and marma tradition. The two developed side by side in the far south of India and share some vocabulary, but they are taught as separate systems.

No. Varmam study belongs to the advanced stages and is taught with restraint to students the instructor judges ready. Beginners start with the foundations of Silambam and Adimurai. Varma therapy is taught separately, to students and masters, as a supervised course.

Browse the classes and camps listed on this page, then use the relevant enquiry or booking option. Confirm the location, schedule, fee and available places with the team.

The certification section on this page describes the available paths; ask the team about the syllabus, assessment and fees for the one you are considering. Issued certificates can be verified on this page by TPM ID or LA number.

Silambam is the Tamil martial art of the staff, from Tamil Nadu. Practice is built on footwork patterns and continuous spinning, striking and guarding sequences with a bamboo staff called the kambu, and the wider system includes other traditional weapons and an unarmed component, kuttu varisai.

The name is usually traced to the bamboo of the hill country, from which the staff is traditionally cut. The art is named in classical Tamil literature, including the Silappatikaram.

Traditionally, a Silambam staff standing upright reaches about the forehead of the person who wields it. Weight and balance matter too, so ask your instructor before you buy one.

Traditionally bamboo, chosen for being light, strong and slightly flexible. Your instructor will advise on the staff that suits your height and stage of training.

The staff comes first. The wider system includes maankombu (deer horns, also called maduvu), the aruval and the sword, taught once the staff is secure, and an unarmed component called kuttu varisai.

No. Silambam is the Tamil art of the staff; Kalaripayattu is the martial art of Kerala, with its own forms, weapons and marma tradition. The two grew up side by side in the far south of India and share some vocabulary, but they are separate systems.

Silambam trains distance, timing, footwork and awareness, which are the foundations of self-defence. That ability comes from regular, supervised practice over months, not from a few classes.

Ask the team about the class you have in mind. Age requirements are set for each class and camp, a parent or guardian's consent is needed, and training is supervised.

Lemuria VAWO teaches Silambam from Thaikalam, its home ground near Marungoor in Kanyakumari District, with classes listed on the Classes page. Beginners are welcome.

Yes. Lemuria VAWO holds trial classes for students and for masters (asans). Use Book a trial class on this page, and the team will call you to confirm where and when the next trial batch meets.

Wait for your instructor's advice on length and weight first. The Lemuria Shop's buying guide at shop.lemuriavawo.org/guide explains how to choose a staff; check the shop for what is in stock.

Adimurai is the Tamil empty-hand fighting art of the far south of Tamil Nadu, historically practised in the Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts and nearby Kerala. Training builds from stances and footwork to strikes, kicks and blocks, then to combinations, locks and escapes.

It joins two Tamil words: adi, to strike, and murai, method. Adimurai is the method of striking.

No. Adimurai is a Tamil art of the far south; Kalaripayattu is the martial art of Kerala, with its own forms, weapons and marma tradition. Kanyakumari belonged to Travancore until 1956, so the arts of this border country share some vocabulary with south Kerala's, but they are taught as separate systems.

Varma adi is the application of the varmam, the vital points, within Adimurai. It belongs to the advanced stages and is taught with restraint to students the instructor judges ready, never for use outside training.

Adimurai trains empty-hand strikes, blocks, locks and escapes, together with footwork, distance and awareness. That ability comes from regular, supervised practice over time, not from a few classes.

Beginners of any background can start, since training begins with conditioning, stances and footwork. Ask the team which batch suits you, and tell your instructor about any injury or health condition. A parent or guardian's consent is needed for children.

There is no fixed timetable. The basic strikes and blocks come early, but control, combinations and partner work take regular practice over months and years, and varma adi belongs to the advanced stages.

Loose, comfortable clothing you can squat, step and stretch in. An Adimurai uniform is available from the Lemuria Shop, but you do not need one for your first class.

Lemuria VAWO teaches Adimurai from Thaikalam, its home ground near Marungoor in Kanyakumari District, about 11 km east of Nagercoil. Classes are listed on the Classes page, and beginners are welcome.

Yes. Lemuria VAWO holds trial classes for students and for masters (asans). Use Book a trial class on this page, and the team will call you to confirm where and when the next trial batch meets.

A practitioner discusses your concerns and explains the traditional manual techniques they propose to use. Ask questions before the session, and tell the practitioner immediately if any touch is uncomfortable.

Some points can feel tender when worked, but the techniques are generally gentle. The focus is on precision, not force, and you can tell your practitioner at any time if something is uncomfortable.

There is no universal number. Discuss the purpose, schedule, cost and limits of the traditional service before booking. Seek a qualified healthcare professional for diagnosis or treatment of a medical condition.

No. The service is presented as a traditional wellness practice and does not replace medical diagnosis, treatment or emergency care from a qualified healthcare professional.

Loose, comfortable clothing. The practitioner will explain what the techniques they propose involve, and you can ask for any adjustment.

Anyone who is pregnant, has had recent surgery or a fracture, takes blood-thinning medication, has osteoporosis or a heart condition, or has a symptom that has not been diagnosed. Speak to your doctor first.

No. Both involve pressure at points of the body, but Varma comes from the Tamil Siddha tradition, with its own texts, point names and methods, while acupressure comes from Chinese medicine.

Lemuria VAWO offers traditional Varma sessions at its lineage centres. Book a consultation on this page to see the centres taking bookings and their open days, or see the centre list on the Contact page.

Yes. Lemuria VAWO teaches Varma therapy to students of the lineage and to masters, in person and under supervision, usually after the foundations of the martial arts. It is never taught as self-treatment. Use Ask about the course on this page, and the team will call you.

Use Book a consultation on this page to request a session at a lineage centre, or send an enquiry. You can check a booking afterwards from the booking status page.

In the Varmakalai tradition the body is mapped with 108 principal varmam — points the tradition names and locates. They are grouped as 12 padu varmam, regarded as the most serious, and 96 thodu varmam, the secondary points.

In Varmakalai they are studied for self-defence, taught with restraint at an advanced stage. In varma vaidyam, the healing side of the tradition, trained practitioners work with them using manual techniques. Neither is something to attempt without a qualified teacher or practitioner.

The tradition holds that the padu points in particular are dangerous when mishandled. That is why varmam study comes late in training, why learners never apply pressure to untrained partners, and why therapeutic work is left to qualified practitioners.

Padu varmam are the twelve principal points the tradition regards as most serious. Thodu varmam — thodu means touch — are the ninety-six secondary points of the count, regarded as less grave.

Both describe vital points of the body. Varmam belongs to the Tamil tradition — Varmakalai and the Siddha system — and counts 108 points; marma belongs to the Sanskrit tradition of Ayurveda and Kalaripayattu, and the Sushruta Samhita counts 107.

Thilartha varmam, between the eyebrows, is traditionally counted first of the twelve padu points.

No. This page is an educational reference to the tradition. Varmam is learned in person from a qualified teacher, and nothing here is instruction for self-treatment or for applying pressure to anyone.

Kumari Kandam is the name Tamil writers use for a land said to have lain south of the present Tamil coast and to have been lost to the sea. The idea draws on medieval commentaries describing the first two Tamil Sangams, held in cities later 'seized by the sea'.

There is no geological evidence of a sunken continent south of India, and plate tectonics replaced the idea in the twentieth century. Kumari Kandam is best understood as Tamil cultural memory — a literary tradition that some writers connect with real coastal flooding.

Lemuria was a scientific hypothesis, proposed by Philip Sclater in 1864 to explain lemur fossils in Madagascar and India. Kumari Kandam is a Tamil tradition of a land lost to the sea. Tamil writers linked the two in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The English zoologist Philip Sclater, in 1864. He suggested a land bridge to explain why lemur fossils were found in both Madagascar and India; the theory was abandoned once plate tectonics explained the same evidence.

In the account given in the commentary on Iraiyanar Akapporul, the first Sangam met at Then Madurai and the second at Kapatapuram, and both cities were lost to the sea. The third met at Madurai, and the surviving early Tamil poetry is named Sangam literature after it.

Kadalkol means seizure by the sea. It is the word Tamil sources use for the floods said to have swallowed the southern Pandyan lands and the cities of the early Sangams.

Mauritia is a fragment of ancient continental crust that geologists have identified beneath Mauritius and the surrounding seafloor. It broke away tens of millions of years ago, long before there were people, so it is a geological footnote to the legend rather than evidence for it.

Lemuria VAWO — the Lemuria Varmakalari Adimurai World Organization — takes the name for the Kumari Kandam tradition and the cultural memory it carries. It is a martial arts and heritage organisation, not connected with the sunken-continent hypothesis.

Mallakhamb is an Indian discipline of holds, balances and acrobatic postures performed on a vertical wooden pole or a hanging rope. The name joins malla (wrestler) and khamb (pole): it began as a training aid for wrestlers.

In India. The earliest literary mention is in the Manasollasa of 1135 CE, by the Western Chalukya king Someshvara III, and the modern revival is credited to Balambhatta Dada Deodhar, teacher to the Peshwa Baji Rao II.

Three are practised in competition: pole Mallakhamb on a fixed upright pole, hanging Mallakhamb on a suspended pole, and rope Mallakhamb on a hanging cotton rope.

A smooth hardwood such as teak or sheesham (Indian rosewood), kept oiled — traditionally with castor oil — so that it can be gripped safely. A competition pole stands about 2.6 metres tall and tapers from about 55 cm round at the base to about 35 cm at the top.

A competition pole stands about 2.6 metres tall and tapers from about 55 cm round at the base to about 35 cm at the top. Training poles can differ; your instructor will start you on the right apparatus.

No. It was demonstrated at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, and today has national championships in India and a world championship, first held in Mumbai in 2019.

Training is progressive and supervised, so students start with the basics whatever their background. Ask the team about age, fitness and health requirements before joining.

Use the Classes page to contact the team. Confirm instructor supervision, equipment, eligibility and current availability before attending.

Seasonal training camps, workshops, immersions and retreats in Varmakalai, Adimurai and Silambam. Each listing on this page gives the event's dates, venue and description.

Open the event on this page to read its details, then contact the team to register. Confirm the fee, places, programme and any accommodation before booking travel.

It depends on the event. Its description says whether it suits beginners, continuing students or both, and the team can advise if it does not.

Comfortable training clothes, a water bottle and a small towel, any personal medication, and your own staff only if your instructor has asked you to bring one.

Many gatherings take place at Thaikalam, the organisation's home near Marungoor in Kanyakumari District. Each event lists its own venue.

Thaikalam — the mother ground — is the home of Lemuria VAWO in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. It hosts training, seasonal camps and the organisation's heritage projects.

In Ramanathichanputhur, beside Marungoor, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu 629402 — near Suchindram and about 11 km east of Nagercoil.

Nagercoil Junction, about 8 km away, is the nearest major railway station, and Thiruvananthapuram International is the nearest international airport. Local buses run to Marungoor from Nagercoil, Suchindram and Kanyakumari.

Residential boarding is available for intensive seasonal camps and retreats. Confirm places and accommodation with the team when you enquire.

Check the Classes and Events pages, and confirm dates, travel arrangements and any accommodation directly with the team before making plans.

Each mission on this page shows its progress and accepts contributions through its card. You can also join the association with the button at the foot of the page.

Ekalaivan is Lemuria VAWO's digital research and learning programme. It preserves palm-leaf manuscripts and oral teachings, records the forms, and offers structured distance learning that leads to in-person immersions at Thaikalam.

Ekalaivan is the Tamil form of Ekalavya, the Mahabharata archer who, turned away by the teacher Drona, learned by practising before a clay image of him. The programme is named for students who learn the lineage from a distance.

You can study the history, terminology, conditioning and solo footwork online, but partner work, weapons and varmam must be learned in person from a qualified teacher. Ekalaivan's modules lead to in-person immersions for that reason.

Use the Enter the digital dojo link on this page.

Contact Lemuria VAWO to confirm which research or learning opportunities are currently available. The Classes page provides enquiries for training.

For classes, camps and membership, use the enquiry forms on this page so your request reaches the right team. For anything else, email enquiry@lemuriavawo.org, message us on WhatsApp at +91 77082 44424, or call +91 77082 44424.

Please arrange a visit with the team in advance, so someone can expect you and show you around. Thaikalam is near Marungoor in Kanyakumari District, about 11 km east of Nagercoil.

Use Book a session on this page, or Book here on any centre below, to choose a centre and a session online. You can also call the centre's reception.

Open the booking status page and enter your registration number and the last four digits of the phone number you booked with.

The Lemuria Shop at shop.lemuriavawo.org handles its own orders, deliveries and returns. Use the contact page on the shop.

Email contact@lemuriavawo.org with the subject “Privacy request”, saying what you would like us to do. The Privacy Policy explains your rights.