Jiu-Jitsu is considered to be one of the oldest forms of martial art known to man. It was first developed in India more than 2000 years before Christ by Buddhist Monks. Because their religious and moral values did not allow the use of weapons, these monks were forced to develop an empty hand system of self-defense to protect themselves against barbarian attacks, which were common at the time.

Since these monks possessed great scientific knowledge, they created a system of self-defense based on the laws of physics such as center of gravity, balance, weight shifting, momentum and friction as well as on the human body vital and weakest points. Their system spread through China and eventually settled in Japan where it was elaborated on, becoming the first martial art style known as Jujitsu.

The Samurai clans in Japan adopted Jujitsu as their own traditional style to defeat an opponent regardless if the situation was throwing, striking, or grappling. In the mid-1800's in Japan, there were a large number of styles of jiu-jitsu. Techniques varied between styles, but generally included all manner of unarmed combat (strikes, throws, locks, chokes, wrestling, etc.) and occasionally some weapons training. Along the years the Japanese split the techniques and developed other martial arts styles which used limited techniques, such as Karate, Kumdo, Aikido and others.

One young but skilled master of a number of jiu-jitsu styles, Jigoro Kano, founded his own ryu and created the martial art Judo in the late 1880's. One of Kano's primary insights was to include full-power practice against resisting, competent opponents, rather than solely rely on the partner practice that was much more common at the time.

One of Kano's students was Mitsuo Maeda, who was also known as Count Koma ("Count of Combat"). Maeda emigrated to Brazil in 1914. He was helped a great deal by the Brazilian politician Gastão Gracie, whose father George Gracie had emigrated to Brazil himself from Scotland. In gratitude for the assistance, Maeda taught jiu-jitsu to Gastao's son Carlos Gracie. Carlos in turn taught his brothers Osvaldo, Gastão Jr., Jorge, and Helio. In 1925, Carlos and his brothers opened their first jiu-jitsu academy, and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was born in Brazil.

At this point, the base of techniques in BJJ was similar to those in Kano's Judo academy in Japan. As the years progressed, however, the brothers (notably Carlos and Helio) and their students refined their art via brutal no-rules fights, both in public challenges and on the street. Particularly notable was their willingness to fight outside of weight categories, permitting a skilled small fighter to attempt to defeat a much larger opponent. Carlos and his brothers changed the original art by adapting the techniques so that they depended mostly upon leverage, rather than strength and explosiveness by concentrating more and more on ground fighting, especially utilizing the guard position. This allowed a weaker man to defend against a stronger one, bide his time, and eventually emerge victorious.

Carlson Gracie, Sr. was the eldest son of Carlos Gracie and he learned Jiu-Jitsu from his father. Carlson fought a total of eighteen vale tudo fights himself and proved to be the pioneer of the MMA sport. While other Gracie's avoided punches and kicks he was the first to combine these techniques with his excellent Jiu-Jitsu skills. Most notable are his four matches with Valdemar Santana, who had defeated his uncle Helio Gracie. In October 1955 Carlson fought Santana to a draw in a Jiu-Jitsu match. In 1956 and 1957 Carlson won two fights and in 1959 they again fought to a draw.

In the 1970's, the undisputed jiu-jitsu champion in Brazil was Rolls Gracie. He had taken the techniques of jiu-jitsu to a new level. Although he was not a large man, his ability to apply leverage using all of his limbs was unprecedented. At this time the techniques of the open guard and its variants (spider guard, butterfly guard) became a part of BJJ. Rolls also developed the first point system for jiu-jitsu only competition. The competitions required wearing a gi, awarded points (but not total victories) for throws and takedowns, and awarded other points for achieving different ground positions (such as passing an opponent's guard).

After Rolls' death in a hang-gliding accident, Rickson Gracie emerged as an undisputed champion, a legend throughout Brazil and much of the world. He was aguably the last Gracie Jiu-Jitsu champion dominating for two decades since the early 1980's, in both jiu-jitsu competition and no-rules MMA competition held first in Japan by the Shooto organization in 1989.

In the early 1990's, Rorion Gracie moved from Brazil to Los Angeles. He wished to show the world how well the Gracie art of jiu-jitsu worked. In Brazil, no-rules Mixed Martial Art (MMA) contests (known as "vale tudo") had been popular since Carlos Gracie first opened his academy in 1925, but in the world at large most martial arts competition was internal to a single style, using the specialized rules of that style's practice.

Rorion and Art Davie conceived of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. This was a series of pay-per-view television events in the United States that began in 1993. They pitted experts of different martial arts styles against each other in an environment with very few rules, in an attempt to see what techniques "really worked" when put under pressure. Rorion also entered his brother Royce Gracie, an expert in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as one of the contestants.

Royce dominated the first years of the UFC against all comers, amassing eleven victories with no fighting losses. At one event he defeated four different fighters in one night. This, from a fighter that was smaller than most of the others (at 170 lbs, in an event with no weight classes), looked thin and scrawny, and used techniques that most observers, even experienced martial artists, didn't understand, since the ground fighting strategy and techniques of BJJ are among the most sophisticated in the world. Besides the immediate impact of an explosion of interest in BJJ across the world (particularly across North America), the lasting impact of Royce's early UFC dominance is that almost every successful MMA fighter now includes BJJ as a significant portion of their training.

Jiu-jitsu techniques have continued to evolve as the art is constantly tested in both arenas. For example, in the 1990's Roberto "Gordo" Correa, a BJJ black belt, injured one of his knees, and to protect his leg he spent a lot of practice time in the half-guard position. When he returned to high-level jiu-jitsu competition, he had the best half-guard technique in the world. A position that had been thought of as a temporary stopping point, or perhaps a defensive-only position, suddenly acquired a new complexity that rapidly spread throughout the art.

Today, the Gracie tradition continues through Professor Ricardo de la Rivas Jiu-Jitsu taught at West Coast BJJ. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is widely practiced throughout many parts of the world and is continuously evolving as a result. It is the greatest strength of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu that it is not based on rigid tradition, but on the principle of continuous improvement tested in live sparring in every class.

Based on multiple sources