Martial arts manual

The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to the 20th century BCE.

The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques.

[2][3] It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot.

[4] The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, chakram and trident.

"Illustrations only" manuals do not become extinct with the appearance of prose instructions, but rather exist alongside these, e.g. in the form of the Late Medieval German illuminated manuscripts.

Fechtbuch (plural Fechtbücher) is Early New High German for 'combat manual',[Note 1] one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art.

Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century,[11] the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1599).