Gatka - The Martial Art of the Sikhs

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

Hello,

My name is Karandeep Singh and i am located in Vancouver Canada. I am from the Sikh religion started in the 1600s. Our religion has its own martial art called gatka, since it isnt very known i decided to discuss it with other martial artists...so i came to this forum. Gatka was started by our Sixth guru..he intoduced the saint soldier aspect to the sikhs. A spiritual soldier.

Some more information about gatka:
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Gatka

A Video of our team in Vancouver:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4373747731125481787&q=gatka

I will also be posting more videos as i have been taking my camera to record our stick fights...there is a upcomming competition which we will be participating in.

any questions can be asked and ill be happy to answer them

thanks.

[arnisador]

Neat! I always enjoy reading about other stick- and blade-arts.

[Brian R. VanCise]

Glad to have you hear on Martialtalk. Gatka is a fantastic martial system and I for one will be looking forward to your videos as well as conversation on your particular brand of martial arts.

[bluemtn]

Hello,

My name is Karandeep Singh and i am located in Vancouver Canada. I am from the Sikh religion started in the 1600s. Our religion has its own martial art called gatka, since it isnt very known i decided to discuss it with other martial artists...so i came to this forum. Gatka was started by our Sixth guru..he intoduced the saint soldier aspect to the sikhs. A spiritual soldier.

Some more information about gatka:
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Gatka

A Video of our team in Vancouver:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4373747731125481787&q=gatka

I will also be posting more videos as i have been taking my camera to record our stick fights...there is a upcomming competition which we will be participating in.

any questions can be asked and ill be happy to answer them

thanks.


Welcome! I know I'm interested in learning about other arts, and yours sounds very interesting! I'm looking forward to reading more!

[Carol]

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh.

Welcome, veer Karandeep Singh ji, to Martial Talk. It is good to have another Sikh here. :)

[Kacey]

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh.

Welcome, veer Karandeep Singh ji, to Martial Talk. It is good to have another Sikh here. :)

Uh... yeah... what she said! Welcome, and happy posting! :wavey:

Hey, Carol - for those of us who are not Sikhs, would you mind translating that?

[stone_dragone]

Ditto...welcome!

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

Another video made tribute to our Ustaad (master) Charanjeet Singh who Past away 3 years ago in a tragic accident along with 2 other sikhs while they were on their way to an out of town martial arts demonstration.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6505704482363165779&q=tribute+singh

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

If you want to learn even more about the history of gatka and how the Sikh religion is a warrior religion this is a very great and inspirational video of the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh and how the Sikhs took up arms and fought ruthless battles with the tyranical rulers of the time and succeeded. After watching this video you will understand why the warrior aspect is very important in a Sikh's life.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4521971303436289591&q=guru+gobind+singh

[Steel Tiger]

Nice to hear from an exponent of an Indian art. I've always been interested in the fighting arts of the sub-continent. Hope to hear more from you.

[tellner]

I've only seen Gatka a couple of times and was very impressed. Do you know of any teachers in Washington or Oregon?

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

I will for sure try to find out if i can find a teacher...im pretty sure there is..i may be wrong though...anywho ill try and find out

[Carol]

Uh... yeah... what she said! Welcome, and happy posting! :wavey:

Hey, Carol - for those of us who are not Sikhs, would you mind translating that?

It doesn't translate very well, but the Sikh religion is a martial faith. It's a battle cry from our 10th Guru that is used as a greeting.

It basically means The Khalsa (Sikh Fellowship) belongs to the Almighty, Victory, also is His.

[tellner]

Thanks Jahjaroo!

Carol, a good translation might be "The Valfather has the Sieg!" :)

[Carol]

Thanks Jahjaroo!

Carol, a good translation might be "The Valfather has the Sieg!" :)

:roflmao:
:roflmao:

Unfortunately I have to spread it around before I can rep you for that!! But there's something for all the brave b*stards.

[kidswarrior]

Hello,

My name is Karandeep Singh and i am located in Vancouver Canada. I am from the Sikh religion started in the 1600s. Our religion has its own martial art called gatka, since it isnt very known i decided to discuss it with other martial artists...so i came to this forum. Gatka was started by our Sixth guru..he intoduced the saint soldier aspect to the sikhs. A spiritual soldier.

Some more information about gatka:
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Gatka

A Video of our team in Vancouver:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4373747731125481787&q=gatka

I will also be posting more videos as i have been taking my camera to record our stick fights...there is a upcomming competition which we will be participating in.

any questions can be asked and ill be happy to answer them

thanks.

Welcome to Martialtalk! I read an article on these spiritual soldiers a year or two ago, and have always wanted to know more. Look forward to your contributions. :)

[tellner]

But there's something for all the brave b*stards.

That's one of the things that's always impressed me about the Odinist/Nordic tradition/Germanic Pagan traditions. It doesn't matter what you look like or what side you were on. If you're brave Odin welcomes you because he treasures courage no matter where it's found. That's always seemed a remarkably even-handed way of looking at the world.

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

Short video documentary and insight on gatka (BBC)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=i0MJ6c7ymEo

[tellner]

While I'm thinking of it, my first Silat teacher, one of the afore-mentioned Odinists, was given something by his teacher when he became a guru in his own right. It was a kira. Not one of the little shiny bangly bracelets you see now. This one was Old School.

It's made out of wootz and is an equilateral triangle in cross section. The sides are about an inch long. It's slightly flattened on one side and hangs loose on the wrist. Move it up to just a few inches below the widest part of the forearm, give it a quarter turn, and it locks into place. From what he says it has no problem at all giving really nasty percussive cuts or stopping steel pipes powered by drunken rednecks who buck hay bales for a living.

His teacher also has or had one of the old-style "combs". It's basically a two-pronged spring steel swordbreaker that could reach all the way to the bottom of the peanut butter jar if you know what i mean.

Let's see. A sword breaker, something to guard the sword arm, a dagger, pants you can ride in and a hat that can stop at least one shot from a sword or mace. Those are some pretty hardcore accessories. You won't be underdressed for nearly any serious social occasion :)

In any case, I'm getting my casting skills back and am making copies of his kira in silicon or phosphor bronze.

[charyuop]

I am very impressed by this Art. Above all in the second video, the tribute to the late Master. It is unbelieveble how they can be so precise in both attacking and defending at such a great speed. It all comes pretty clear when the Master defends and counter a couple of times with a man in a very slow way. You can tell there that those quick movements are made of many small movements carried out with great precision.
Amazing...

Forgive my ignorance in this Art, but is there also bare hand fighting or this is an Art based only on the use of weapon?
And what is that circular weapon that they keep spinning? By the effort they seem to put in rotating it I would say it is pretty heavy...

[10,000 Hit Combo]

Very interesting. I'm not much into weapons though. I bet they have some great unarmed techniques.

[Langenschwert]

Welcome aboard! Nice to see more Canadians and sword enthusiasts here!

Best regards,

-Mark

[Jhajaroo.Singh]

I am very impressed by this Art. Above all in the second video, the tribute to the late Master. It is unbelieveble how they can be so precise in both attacking and defending at such a great speed. It all comes pretty clear when the Master defends and counter a couple of times with a man in a very slow way. You can tell there that those quick movements are made of many small movements carried out with great precision.
Amazing...

Forgive my ignorance in this Art, but is there also bare hand fighting or this is an Art based only on the use of weapon?
And what is that circular weapon that they keep spinning? By the effort they seem to put in rotating it I would say it is pretty heavy...


Yess...well when you first learn gatka you learn the foot movments and how to move around...the movements are very open. Ex. The sikhs were always outnumbered in battle against the enemy so they needed something so that they cuold move aroudn and fight multiple oppenents at a time as demonstarted by our late master when he was taking on the whole team...as you can see combining those steps and strikes is very effective on taking on many oppenents.
And yess there is bare hand fighting but since not many people have been educated about gatka it has been lost...lost but not completlely...many people still teach bare hand fighting but it is always with dagger...our later master had taught it..but there is more to it than just that..again its something weve lost but we need to revive becasue its still out there...but for the most this art is mostly weapon based right now.

As for the Circular weapon...its called a "Chaker" it represents god has no start and no end...because of its circular shape...these are made a net material with heavy wooden balls on the ends to balance it so it keeps spinning...today these are made of nets but when sikhs used them in battle they were made of chains with mases on the ends and sharp objects...there were used by putting men infront and making a wall of spinning chakars so the arrows of them enemies would not be able to get through to the sikhs. Many people think this would tangle the chaker but the metal chains would just knock the arrows strait to the ground. It was a very tiring proccess but the soldiers were able to switch roles and also throw the chakers to eachother.

Stick sparring is also a very essential part of gatka...it is one of the first things taught. First you learn al of the strikes to the body and how to block them...Defending is more important that attacking...As our master said why attack when you wont no how to defend, the one who knows how to block is more succesful..block your hit and then strike...dont strike at the same time as the other. block their hit since it protects yourself from an attack and second it opens up much more space on the oppenents body before they can get back into their position. block and quiclky strike back. I still remember how we trained for blocking. we would take turns with him..we were not allowed to strike until we blocked..he was reallly quick and we never could tell where his stick would end up going...and when he hit..he hit hard..But in the end it was all worth it, we learned what he wanted us to learn. There are many gatka players in the world who are really good and quick at attacking but they cannot block very well.

Anyways there are many weapons that we use...if you saw the long strip of metal that our master was swinging around it was used in the forests if there were any enemies hiding to attack the sound of the weapon was very loud and it would scare the enemies away or it would slice them as it would go through bushed and around trees.

i will be posting some of our stick fights as soon as our next practice...this weekend. Alright..feel free to ask anymore questions...ill be happy to answer

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

Nice vids. Like 10,000 lions.

D.

[tellner]

Then there's the multi-bladed ribbon whip-sword. I think it's called the urumi. This must be Sanskrit for "43 times more likely to kill you and your entire squad than the enemy".

[CuongNhuka]

Sikh, intresting. Aside from a Martial Artist, I'm also a bit of a philosopher and theologan. So expect me to ask you and Carol about your faith at every oppertunity I get. just warning yah! Oh, and ah my Great Aunty lives up in the iceberg you folks call home.
welcome to Martialtalk!