Sikh Battlefield Art of Shastar Vidya.

Shastar vidya, which is also called the science of weapons includes a five-step movement. These are the advance on the opponent, the hit of the opponent's flank, deflecting incoming blows, and the taking a commanding position and strike.

This battle martial arts was developed by Sikhs in the 17th Century. This was because the emerging religion was attacked by hostile Muslim and Hindu neighbors. In the 19th century, the British forced the Sikhs to give up arms. This move caused the decline of the Shastar Vidya.

The only remaining master of this martial arts is Nidar Singh. He is a 44-year-old former food packer who comes from Wolverhampton. He is known to have many students. Training for Shastar Vidya, however, takes many years and it demands your commitment in time and energy. This demands is difficult to meet in today's modern lifestyles. Today, Master Nidar Singh is looking for a successor so that the battle martial art will survive in the next generations to come.

Nadar Singh has spent a lot of time in India and Pakistan in his research about the battle martial art. He also for descendents of the Akali Nihang as well as add to his vast collection of weapons. In his quest, he has only met four people who could claim to be masters. They are already all dead today The last of these masters was Ram Singh, whom Mr Singh met in 1998. Regrettable, he died four years later in 2002.

The last acknowledged master of the battle martial arts Shastar Vidya, Mr. Singh is still hoping to open the way for new practitioners of the art. He has traveled to Pakistan and India in his desire to look for other masters or someone who can be the next Shastar Vidya master.

Nadar Singh did not know so much about his Sikh heritage until he was 17 years old. His family were not particularly religious. The young Nadar had short hair short and looked like any British teenager at that time. Although a keen wrestler was not interested in martial arts. His childhood was spent between Punjab and Wolverhampton. In one of these trips, he met Baba Mohinder Singh. He is the old man who will later become his master.

Baba Mohinder Singh was already 80 years old when they met and he had abandoned life by becoming hermit. This was in an effort to find someone to whom he can pass his knowledge. On their first day of training, the old man gave him a stick. He then instructed Nadar to hit him. When he tried to hit him, the master just threw him around like a rag doll.

Nadar Singh then spent the next 11 years living in his aunt's farm. He milked the buffalos in the morning and spent every day training with Baba Mohinder Singh. Finally, in 1995 he returned to Britain. He got married and worked as a packer in a food factory. He started teaching Shastar Vidya in the UK and continued his research on early Sikh military history. The master soon have students from the UK, Canada and Germany.