A brief history of Shirayan Vajramutthí in Hungary
The martial art of Shirayan Vajramutthí was brought to Hungary by Endre Gyomray. He was Hungarian by descent but living abroad at that time. He got acquainted with the style somewhere in the region of Maysur in South India, in the late 1950s. Those times, the style was being passed on as a family tradition and Gyomray – in the beginning, as a family friend, later, as a family member – had an opportunity to study and practice it. In the meantime, the old head of the family, Master Anjaví, in default of a male heir, adopted Gyomray as his son (giving him the name Vayasya), bequeathed to him the teachings and entrusted him to seek disciples and, should the style find a new home in a foreign land, to see to it that it is brought back to India and that a school is opened there.
What happened was due to the following events: the elder son of Master Anjaví died practicing and the younger one in a tiger accident; then, Anjaví started teaching his grandson, Kavragandjíva, but at the same time, he took a foreign disciple into his confidence; Kavragandjíva was suffering from an incurable disease, a kind of muscular atrophy, became paralyzed, and died soon afterwards at an early age.
Master Anjaví – also out of respect for his grandson’s old request – adopted the assiduous and talented disciple, who, later, as the thirty-second Surjasampha Surjashardula, inherited the teachings and brought them to Hungary.
In Hungary, in 1977, Endre Gyomray (already as Master Vayasya) established the first and only group with 23 members. One of them, Attila Leányfalvi, stayed loyal to his Master all the way and, in the end, remained his only follower. Bestowing upon him the name Ajanayana, in 1982, Master Vayasya authorized Leányfalvi to teach practitioners on his own, among them yellow- and green-belt taekwondo trainees and youth from the streets of the Havana Housing Estate in Pestlőrinc. Practices were held five times a week on the church hill and in the woods below.
After a couple of months, the Physical Education Supervision Committee in Pestlőrinc gave Leányfalvi an opportunity to officially organize a practice group under their strict control. Some sports leaders considered the name Shirayan Vajramutthí far too alien and unutterable and stipulated that a different sort of name should be used. Simultaneously, they “highly recommended” that practitioners should not be taught “wild” things so as to avoid “unpleasant consequences”. In the end, martial arts practice – confined to the small gym of the local auxiliary school –was authorized under the name of ‘Special Training’ on condition that deviant pupils of the school must be allowed in too. After about 9 months of continuous training, the number of practitioners started to grow and the sports leaders and PE teachers also found work there satisfactory, so the Zrínyi Ilona Sports Club affiliated the group as its official combat sport branch providing a larger gym and granting the use of the original name. ‘Training proper’ started off with 123 participants in the culture hall of the Kistext Community Center in May 1983; later, the average number settled at around 50-60 persons.
In 1984, the Shirayan Vajramutthí School joined the Tong Long Martial Arts Association founded by si kung dr. László Bánhegyi, grand master of the Southern Style Tong Long Mantis School. This association was the antecedent of the Hungarian Kung Fu Federation, wherein the Shirayan Vajramutthí School was registered as a member organization from the very beginning. In the course of time, the Shirayan Vajramutthí School created its background organizations such as the Shirayan Vajramutthí Association for Oriental Studies, Martial Arts and Recreational Sports and above all, the Golden Lotus Pagoda Foundation for Oriental Studies and Traditional Martial Arts.
With reference to the history of the style in India, it is important to note that the ancient, 3000-year-old form of the martial art of Vajramushtí (or Varjamutthí) served as the basis for the teachings of Shirayan Vajramutthí, but it evolved as a side-branch of the former and differs from it in many respects. This is due to the fact that it has been supplemented with techniques from martial arts of South-East Asia and, in this way, some of the ancient techniques and methods have been replaced, transformed and passed on in the already modified form, this is why only the earlier forms of Shirayan Vajramutthí can be compared to ancient Vajramushtí.
The background for Shirayan Vajramutthí was the Hinduism-dominated Indian spirit, but, apart from that, it also had a Muslim line. All this was expressed mainly in the formalities, greetings, the hierarchical form of internal organization and the transmission of teachings and forms of homage. In Hungary, practitioners are not expected to follow the religious part of the teachings, however, the hierarchical structure, proper execution of the formal and technical part of the practices and the traditional forms of homage live on in the above mentioned Indian spirit as an integral part of the trainings.
Essentially, Shirayan Vajramutthí is taught as a traditional martial art, not as a combat sport; at the same time, every practitioner has an opportunity to participate in the official championships of the Hungarian Kung Fu Federation in categories of unarmed and various armed forms and in full contact matches in various weight classes. Our athletes regularly participate in international and national kung fu tournaments and perform fairly well.
In 1999, at the Hungarian Kung Fu World Championship and World Cup, Zsolt Asperján took first place, Tamás Fuchs second place and István “Öcsi” Tomán third place in their weight category in the full contact division.
In 2001, at the World Championship in Japan, Vajrasampha István “Kavics” Márványkövi took first place in the full contact division.
At the World Kung Fu Championship in Perugia, Italy, Vajrasampha Ferenc Kaszás and Chandrasampha Tünde Egyed took the first place in the full contact division, the latter also taking second place in the individual weapons division with a spear form.
In 2004, at the Hungarian Kung Fu World Cup organized by one of the Northern Mantis Kung-Fu Schools (led by sifu László Kovács), Vajrasampha Ferenc Kaszás took first place in the full contact division.
Additionally, athletes of the Shirayan Vajramutthí School have won numerous first, second and third places at national kung fu championships. In spite of these achievements, Shirayan Vajramutthí remains a traditional martial arts school and participation in such tournaments is optional.
The Shirayan Vajramutthí School holds courses in Budapest, Kál, Dunakeszi, Eger, Gyöngyös, Szeged, Gárdony, Baracska, Letkés and Bernecebaráti. The Practice Center and Camp located in Ipolytölgyes has been built with continued help from the Master of the School and his disciples.
The leading master of the Shirayan Vajramutthí School is Surjasampha Ajanayana Attila Leányfalvi.
Gábor Fejér, active instructor of Shirayan Vajramutthí , is the current President of the Hungarian Kung Fu Federation, the Hungarian Shirayan Vajramutthí Martial Art School being an official member (and one of the founding schools) thereof.
Teachers in Hungary are: Balázs Ákos, Büki Péter, Berényi István, Fejér Gábor, Fejér Tünde, Kaszás Ferenc, Kis Tamás, Márványkövi István, Sós Gyula, Vámos Zsolt, Várkonyi Tamás.
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(Phillipgam, 2022.07.03 03:38)