Indian Martial Arts - Ek Iti ...

The Singhbhum and Saraikela areas are situated on the Chota Nagpur plateau, now a part of Jharkhand State. The tribes of these areas practice a martial art from time antiquity which later came to be known as Pari phari Khanda. Singhbhum was ruled by Darp Narayan Singh in 1205 AD and he inducted the tribesmen into his army and all the soldiers were trained in the Martial Art. Adivasi version of the Pari Khanda dance is called Sastriya Nritya. The dance portrayals are mostly enactments of hunting scenes and self-defense. It is believed that the existing martial art form of the Singhbhum soldiers was called Pari Khanda. Many Gurus such as Upendra Biswal and Banmali Das who started imparting Pari Khanda training to soldiers also kept on improvising on its techniques. The mughals, the British and even the Marathas tried to conquer this region but in vain. During the 1760, Orissa and Bengal was ceded to the East India company by the Mughals, the kings who had never acceded their territory to the Mughals opposed this fiercely and the British met with little success. In 1857, Raja Arjun Singh fought with his Pari Khanda experts and gave the British a tough time for several months and was never captured. Later in 1900 Birsa Munda, a 25 year old Pari Khanda warrior revolted against the acquisition of land of the tribes by the Zamindars. In the 18th century few soldiers started to entertain their fellow soldiers by performing the movements of Pari Khanda that became the basis of the Chau Dance. The decline of the practice of the martial art began as the monarchy ended and modern firearms came into practice. However, the martial art has managed to survive in the guise of a dance form.