Baranta

[bgaesop]

Baranta is the traditional Hungarian martial art. It's so obscure there isn't even a Wikipedia page for it. I know nothing about it.

Youtube has plenty of videos of people doing Baranta.

I have very little experience with martial arts. In the fall I will be in Penn State where I plan on attending this place where I will take their reality based mma class, which people on here have already said is a good idea, so I'm feeling good about that. I'll only be in Pennsylvania for the one semester, though, and if all goes according to plan I will be in Budapest, Hungary for the spring, so I thought, why not learn a Hungarian martial art?

Of course, I don't want to do that if it's a load of nonsense. So, does anyone here know if it's a load of nonsense? Any Hungarians here who can recommend me a school in Budapest?

And finally, completely unrelated to baranta but just me asking for advice, my plan was to diversify my training by taking a bunch of different martial arts, since I don't have any plans to be a professional fighter or the like-hence my taking the mma class, baranta, I started capoeira this summer but quit it because it was too silly even for me, and later I'll probably take Muay Thai and BJJ. Is that a good idea or really dumb?

[A.M.]

It seems interesting. Its suppose to be a DUMagyar created martial art right?

Here are some of those vids you were talking about

YouTube - Baranta-Hungarian Traditional Martial Art

YouTube - Baranta - Pucskó Zsolt - Kurultaj 2008 - 2.

[bgaesop]

I have no idea what DUMagyar means.

[kwan_dao]

I have no idea what DUMagyar means.

Me too. And I practically live in Hungary (well almost). Maybe an abbreviation for some Hungarian historical reconstruction group?

Never heard of Baranta before BTW. Now that does not have to mean a lot, as I do not speak Hungarian (extremely hard language to learn!). If it did exist, it almost certainly died out for several hundred years and was reconstructed I think.

Hungary was part of the Austrian monarchy for a long time. Austria had its own systems of military training and put huge effort into the assimilation of the "Kronländer". I think the K&K bureucrats (and the Hungarian aristocrats who ruled the country under their guidance) would never have tolerated "wild" practicing of a full fledged martial art.

There are a huge lot of traditional horse-back games which survived in Hungaria to the present day. Some of them even make use of wooden lances. But they are training for cowmen (cowherds?). Not martial training.

Having watched some of those Baranta videos, it has to be said those guys do quite some tremendous stuff from horseback though.

[A.M.]

Sorry. It's a type-o (for some reason I can't find the edit button) I meant to write magyars.

[DdlR]

I wonder how much of this is documentably historical, as distinct from being a (relatively) modern reconstruction.

Over the past couple of decades we've seen the emergence a number of purportedly ancient, hitherto little-known martial arts from countries including Korea, Peru, Egypt and several eastern European nations. Some of them are clearly recreations of ancestral fighting styles, perhaps inspired by surviving folk-level traditions but including modern elements; others seem to be more purely living-lineage styles, finally coming to light as communication technology filters in to remote regions.

Similar examples from other Eastern European countries include Georgian Khridoli and Ukranian Boyovyi Hopak - many clips on YouTube if people are interested.

My guess is that Baranta represents a form of re-constructionist Hungarian martial art, which may draw from some genuine and still-surviving traditions (folk sports, etc.) along with more-or-less romantic inventions (including a sort of neo-Pagan spiritual component, training drills that amount to theatrical fight choreography, etc.) as well as influences from historically unrelated MAs.

A number of modern Eastern European re-constructionist martial arts feature a nationalist flavour and a radical right-wing political agenda. IMO they are basically cultural reactions against generations of Soviet repression; the same thing is happening in religion, art, theatre and numerous other social arenas throughout the former USSR.

All of which is fine and dandy, except that the official histories/promotional material of these styles can sometimes gloss over their modern re-construction and/or outright invention, referring instead to "ancient martial arts dating back to the (insert name of widely admired historical warriors/national folk heroes here)". Insofar as these styles include genuine folk combat sports, etc., those elements may well date back a long way - it's probably unprovable, but not unlikely. However, when they start fudging the details of their actual modern histories, it's time to call BS.

[A.M.]

Here is a link to brief history of Baranta.

http://www.usadojo.com/styles/about-baranta.htm

[DdlR]

IMO the most likely scenario is that during the 20th century, physical education instructors/units in various Eastern European military academies developed training programs drawing from the remnants of genuine (historical) folk-level combat sports, their own experiments with various traditional weapons, re-interpretations of "martial" folk-dances and other sources. What we're seeing now in Baranta, Boyovyi Hopak, Khridoli and similar styles is a civilian/commercial evolution of those programs, with an overlay of various cultural and political agendas.

[kwan_dao]

Well put DdlR.

Did you notice the big similarity between Hopak hand-to-hand fighting and the Hungarian version? I think it would only be natural that the eastern Europe recreationist movements would have influenced each other and exchanged techniques.

About the neo-pagan aspect:

Hungaria has a living tradition of shamanism, which dates back to god knows when. Hungaria is a modern European society, but still, tribal traditions and shamans are fully accepted and deeply integrated (I personally know a declared Hungarian shaman through my NGO work). Its very much centered around horses and allways reminds me a lot of American first-nation traditions.