Ayurvedic Marman
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The Chinese on the other hand, have a long tradition of using therapeutic techniques, including acupuncture on acupoint sites. Evidence of the early development of acupuncture is suggested by the existence of the bian stone needle from the 10th Century BC Shang dynasty (Eckman, 1996) and the 2nd Century BC writings of the Huang Di Nei Jing (trans Veith, 1972). Marxist China in the 1950s produced “a combination of the positive elements of Western and Chinese medicine with the establishment, along Marxist lines, of a new medicine” (Unschuld, 1985, p 252). While the dialectical materialism of Mao Tse-tung contributed to the form of Chinese medicine known as TCM, India had no such creation of a “new medicine”, and the heritage of secret family medical traditions remains. It is possible, therefore, that an arcane knowledge of marman exists in India. This was the view of Ayurvedic practitioners, who believed that ancient varman texts were likely to be in the possession of traditional Dravidian (Siddha) practitioners.


The importance of marman groups and their affects on the human body.

The application of Indian marman appears to fall into two categories. Firstly, marman (lit. secret points) are used therapeutically throughout India in varying forms of massage. Secondly, the ancient systems of warfare (Dhanurveda) and the Dravidian (southern Indian) Varman-adi (lit. the action of varman) are still used in traditional Indian martial arts today. The text Mahabharata records that the warrior caste was well trained in marman-striking with fists and weapons, “for maximum effect with minimum effort” (Date, interview, 26/8/98). These early Vedic records of marman are supported by the medical works of Susruta (500 BC), a surgeon and philosopher who recorded the effects of trauma to marman in the Ayurvedic classic Susruta Samhita (Date, interview, 26/8/98).

Sanskrit texts such as Ashtanga Hridaya (trans Vogel, 1965) and chapters 6 and 7 of Susruta Samhita (trans Thatte, 1994), uphold the vulnerable nature of a marman, listing as a contra-indication any form of surgery across the surface of a marman. Classical Sanskrit texts give a prognosis regarding injury to any marman, classifying them in five groups (See Table 1).