Kalarimarmam — Meithari Vital Points
Kalarimarmam — Meithari Vital Points is a Hindu / Kerala martial tradition — Kalarippayattu kalarimarmam body system as transmitted through the lineage Kalarippayattu (Kalari Payattu) teaches knowledge of marmam, or vital bodily loci, within the progressive meithari body-training curriculum and its later unarmed applications. This system records the assignment's compact 18-point kalarimarmam striking-target set as a front-view practice map, with Phillip Zarrilli's When the Body Becomes All Eyes as its principal scholarly-modern source. It is a striking-practice map, not a complete 107/108-point marma catalogue or a Kalari chikitsa treatment protocol.. This page lists every point in the system with sourced placements and links to cross-tradition correspondences curated for The Body Spiritual.
Open in interactive explorerPrimary sources
- Phillip Zarrilli, When the Body Becomes All Eyes: Paradigms, Practices, and Discourses of Power in Kalarippayattu, a South Indian Martial Art (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000 paperback edition (originally published 1998), ISBN 0195655389) — Principal academic ethnography for the embodied, martial, medical, and vital-spot contexts of Kalarippayattu; Zarrilli's discussion of marmas is the primary scholarly-modern anchor for this system.
- Lorna Srimathi Dewanar, Kalaripayattu source texts (Source-text compilation cited in the assignment brief; edition details not supplied) — Used for the named meithari kalarimarmam target set; individual kalari lineages vary in terminology, ordering, and point grouping.
- Government of Kerala, Marmavidya and Marmas — Kalaripayattu (Kerala Tourism web publication, accessed 2026-08-23) — Official contextual reference distinguishing southern and northern Kalari marma enumerations and placing marmavidya alongside combat training.
Known lineage variants
- Kalari lineages distinguish southern and northern enumerations and may use different Malayalam or Sanskrit names, orderings, and groupings for marmas; this file preserves the assignment's descriptive English target names rather than claiming a universal canonical list.
- The 18-point set is a compact meithari striking-practice synthesis, not the 107-point northern or 108-point southern marma inventory and not a clinical classification of injury prognosis.
- The front-view coordinates are editorial projections of named body regions, not measurements from a historical diagram. Anatomical right is x < 0.5 under the corpus convention; the jaw-hinge and instep entries collapse paired targets to one attention anchor so the requested 18-point set remains legible, and their uncertainty radii are widened accordingly.
- The liver and spleen entries are strike-zone projections over the upper abdomen, not organ contours or claims that a surface mark identifies the full organ. No claim is made that this map substitutes for instruction, diagnosis, or treatment by a qualified kalari practitioner.
Related systems
No other systems share this tradition label.
Points
- Right temple — Temporal strike target — anatomical right
- Left temple — Temporal strike target — anatomical left
- Jaw hinge — Mandibular hinge target — paired locus collapsed to one anchor
- Right carotid region — Lateral throat target — anatomical right
- Left carotid region — Lateral throat target — anatomical left
- Right clavicle notch — Supraclavicular notch target — anatomical right
- Left clavicle notch — Supraclavicular notch target — anatomical left
- Right axilla — Underarm target — anatomical right
- Left axilla — Underarm target — anatomical left
- Sternum tip — Xiphoid / lower sternum target
- Right floating-rib zone — Lower costal target — anatomical right
- Left floating-rib zone — Lower costal target — anatomical left
- Liver strike zone — Right upper-abdominal target
- Spleen strike zone — Left upper-abdominal target
- Groin — Inguinal / generative target
- Right inner knee — Medial knee target — anatomical right
- Left inner knee — Medial knee target — anatomical left
- Instep — Dorsal foot target — paired locus collapsed to one anchor
Frequently asked
What is Right temple?
The right temple is one half of the bilateral temple target in the compact meithari kalarimarmam map. It is rendered as an external attention locus over the temporal region; the coordinate is a practice-map projection rather than a claim about a single tissue layer.
What is Left temple?
The left temple completes the bilateral temple target used in the compact meithari set. Its x-coordinate follows the corpus front-view convention, in which anatomical left appears to the viewer's right; the map does not imply a different function from its counterpart.
What is Jaw hinge?
Jaw hinge denotes the mandibular joint region included as a close-range meithari target. The requested compact count treats the bilateral locus as one named entry and places a single midline attention anchor; this is an editorial collapse, not an anatomical assertion that the joint is midline.
What is Right carotid region?
The right carotid region marks one side of the bilateral lateral-throat target in the meithari set. The point is deliberately broad because the teaching target is a body region and not a claim that a rendered dot resolves the underlying vessels or nerves.
What is Left carotid region?
The left carotid region completes the bilateral lateral-throat target used by this compact kalarimarmam map. It mirrors the right entry across the midline under the corpus convention and remains a broad editorial region rather than a vessel-level anatomical claim.
What is Right clavicle notch?
The right clavicle notch is the anatomical-right half of the paired supraclavicular target. This front-view dot is a coarse surface projection of the notch region and should not be read as a precise boundary for bone, vessels, or nerves.
What is Left clavicle notch?
The left clavicle notch mirrors the right supraclavicular target in this bilateral rendering. Its uncertainty radius records the variation between lineage terminology for the notch and the adjacent upper-chest area.
What is Right axilla?
The right axilla marks the underarm target on the anatomical-right side of the body. It is mapped as a broad deep soft-tissue region because the teaching locus spans the axillary fold and adjacent lateral chest rather than a single visible surface point.
What is Left axilla?
The left axilla is the bilateral counterpart of the right underarm target. The front-view location is intentionally approximate and denotes the axillary region as taught in a compact striking map, not an invitation to infer an exact internal structure.
What is Sternum tip?
Sternum tip denotes the lower end of the breastbone at the chest-to-upper-abdomen transition. It is a midline target in the compact set, with a widened radius because the teaching name covers the xiphoid and immediately adjacent epigastric area.
What is Right floating-rib zone?
The right floating-rib zone is one side of the bilateral lower-costal target. The point represents the rib margin and adjacent flank as a region; it does not claim that a single coordinate identifies a particular rib or internal organ.
What is Left floating-rib zone?
The left floating-rib zone completes the bilateral lower-costal target. As with its counterpart, the point is a front-view editorial region with uncertainty for variation in how teachers delimit the floating-rib and flank area.
What is Liver strike zone?
The liver strike zone is placed in the anatomical-right upper abdomen beneath the lower ribs. The label identifies a broad combat-training target region associated with the liver area, not a claim that the organ's complete contour or depth is represented by the dot.
What is Spleen strike zone?
The spleen strike zone is placed in the anatomical-left upper abdomen beneath the lower ribs. It is a broad region-level rendering of the named target in the compact set, with uncertainty rather than false precision about the underlying organ boundary.
What is Groin?
Groin denotes the lower pelvic and inguinal target included in the meithari set. The midline anchor is an editorial simplification of a region that includes bilateral and generative anatomy, so its uncertainty radius is intentionally broad.
What is Right inner knee?
The right inner knee is the anatomical-right half of the bilateral medial-knee target. The front view places it over the joint line as a coarse training-map region, not as a claim about a specific ligament, nerve, or vessel.
What is Left inner knee?
The left inner knee completes the bilateral medial-knee target in this practice map. Its mirrored coordinate follows the corpus convention, while the uncertainty radius acknowledges that lineages may mark the medial joint and adjacent inner-thigh area differently.
What is Instep?
Instep denotes the dorsal-foot target at the lower end of the meithari map. The requested compact count treats the bilateral insteps as one named entry and uses a centered attention anchor; this editorial projection does not claim that the two feet share one anatomical point.