Martial Arts Gear
Karate Statues
India It is generally accepted the karate had its beginnings in India around 450 A.D. Oral tradition tells us of a wealthy Indian Prince who experimented with slaves by jabbing them with needles to find the weak parts of the body. He also watched animals as they fought. He noticed how, for instance, the Tiger tensed its body before spinning into action and how it used its claws to tear its opponent. He also watched the movements of other animals and adapted them to the human body. Having done this he experimented on the slaves, this time using actual punches and kicks instead of needles discover where and how to strike to achieve the desired effect. According to the legend over 100 slaves were killed in this bizarre experiment. Unarmed combat was an integral part of early Indian culture. The warrior class named the Kshatriya were the dominant strata in the early Indian society. This group antedates Buddhism and has a direct relationship to at least one early fighting style. The first written evidence of a weaponless fighting art is in the Buddhist stricture called the Lotus Sutra, translated by Fa Hua San Ch'ing in Chinese. It mentions a "pugilistic art" called Hsiang Ch'aHsiang Pu in Chinese which means, "mutual striking". The Lotus Sutra also mentions a fighting art called Nata, which apparently had dance like movements similar to chu'an fa katas. A bare handed martial art called VaJramushti, which was practiced by the Ksha'triya warrior class, seems to be the first real karate-like technique. Many early Buddhist statues of Deities such as the Nio Bodhisattvas seem to be executing karate like strikes and are usually in exact karate stance.
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