Kushti

History of Kushti

The ancient South Asian form of wrestling is called malla-yuddha.^[2] Practiced at least since the 5th millenniun BC,^[3] predating the Indo-Aryan invasions,^[4] and described in the 13th century treatise Malla Purana, it was the precursor of modern kusti.^[1]
In the 16th century, northern India was conquered by the Central Asian Mughals, who were of Turko-Mongol descent. Through the influence of Iranian and Mongolian wrestling, they incorporated groundwork to the local malla-yuddha, thereby creating modern kusti. Babur, the first Mughal emperor, was a wrestler himself and could reportedly run very fast for a long distance while holding a man under each arm. Mughal-era wrestlers sometimes even wore bagh naka on one hand, in a variation called naki ka kusti or "claw wrestling".

Illustration of two wrestlers (1825)

During the late 17th century, Ramadasa the "father of Indian athletics" travelled the country encouraging Hindus to physical activity in homage to the monkey god Hanuman. Maratha rulers supported kusti by offering large sums of prize money for tournament champions. It was said that every Maratha boy at the time could wrestle and even women took up the sport. During the colonial period, local princes sustained the popularity of kusti by holding matches and competitions. Wrestling was the favourite spectator sport of the Rajputs, and were said to look forward to tournaments "with great anxiety". Every Rajput prince or chief had a number of wrestling champions to compete for his entertainment. The greatest wrestling centres were said to be Uttar Pradesh and the Panjab.
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