Silambam Asia where silambam greatly influenced many fighting systems. The Indian community of the Malay Peninsula is known to have practiced silambam as far back as the period of Melaka's founding in the 15th century, and likely much earlier. The soldiers of Kings Puli Thevar, Dheeran Chinnamalai had Silambam army named "thadii pattalam", Veerapandiya Kattabomman and Maruthu Pandiyar (1760–1799) relied mainly on their Silambam prowess in their warfare against the British Army. Indian martial arts suffered a decline after the British colonists banned Silambam along with various other systems. They also introduced modern western military training which favoured fire-arms over traditional
Gatka as "cheibi gatka", wherein the players spar with a two-foot leather-encased cudgel which may be paired with a leather shield measuring one metre in diameter. In some arts today, the sword-fighting is more akin to a dance than a form of combat. For example, the "daal fari khadga" of Andhra Pradesh is usually choreographed, but is performed with real swords and shields rather than wooden ones. The performance aspect of gatka is known as "rasmi" meaning "ritual" or "official". During weddings and other festivals, the men perform repetitive swinging and twirling movements with one or two swords. The first part