KADAPA: This 26-year-old youth’s dream to teach ancient and traditional martial art forms like stick and sword fighting to contemporary and future generations has helped around 500 students learn this self-defence martial art form in Kadapa district.
Dasari Jayachandra, son of Dasari Subbarayudu and Mutyalamma from Kadapa town grew up watching his father perform sword and stick fights at village festivals during his formative years. Inspired by his father, he pledged to master in the art and take it to every corner of the country.
Speaking to TNIE, Jayachandra said, “There are two forms of sword and stick fights—Vanipenta and Udayagiri. Among these two, the Udayagiri form holds major significance as it was used by the Udayagiri Gajapati Rajas to protect the people from thieves in the kingdom. In this era, these two ancient martial art forms will help as a self-defence tool for women.”
While Jayachandra’s father Subbaryudu was his first inspiration, Sunil Kumar who worked as Kadapa DSP, became his driving force. Sunil Kumar’s journey from a construction mason to a police officer has had a huge impact on Jayachandra’s life.
He acquired all the basic knacks of sword and stick fighting from his father Subbarayudu. In 2015, he further pioneered in the art under the training of coaches Adinarayana and Subbarao in Ongole, and at the same time effectively used YouTube to upgrade his skills.
Even before Jayachandra mastered the two martial art forms, he started to train students from 2014 and in a span of seven years, he trained nearly 500 students from various educational institutions in the Kadapa district. His students won accolades at the district, state and national level events. Jayachandra also won the appreciation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was impressed with the sword and stick fight march-past conducted by the students of Nagarjuna Women’s Degree College.
Recently, Jayachandra and his team received recognition for their performance in the audio function of Veerasimhareddy held in Ongole. Currently, Jayachandra imparts training to the students from Nagarjuna, Kotireddy, Government Intermediate and Kamalapuram Women’s College students besides training Disha Mahila police in fighting techniques. He also provides training to kids as young as seven years to individuals aged up to 50 years, daily at the CSI High School and Arts College ground premises.