Mass silambam performance in Tiruchy sets records

From five-year-olds to college students, as many as 378 members participated in the event organised by AimTooHigh--a public service organisation based out of the district.

Beginning at 5 in the morning, the event that went on until 5 p.m. the same day had members rotating staff in different styles with parents, friends and well-wishers cheering for the participants. Members from the Wonder Book of Records, Genius Book of Records and Bharath Book of Records adjudged the event and issued certificates to the participants.

Among the records, one was for rotating the staff for 12 hours by the students. The other two were claimed by individual performers: one by ten-year-old Sugitha who rotated the silambam continuously for three hours, and the other by Yogeshwari for performing 1500 piralai-jumping and rotating the staff for 45 minutes.

CPI leader R Nallakannu was invited as the guest to the event. Addressing participants and the audience, he said, “Silambam was falsely claimed to be a dying art form but such a mass performance at the central part of Tamil Nadu in Tiruchy reassures its patrons.” He also expressed pleasure at the observation that young people are taking to the traditional martial art form.