I took a couple of college PE courses in Silambam back around 1976. The instructor was a Tamil from Sri Lanka. It was a lot of fun, especially when the students would put on masks and pads and go at it. Still have my old stick out in the garage somewhere.
I have to agree with myerson, though. Basically no real information in this piece.
As for me, I liked reading about an ancient Indian martial arts form I never heard about before, learned that it's still being practiced and got a glimpse of what it's training is like. Cool.