Kushti is a generic term for Indian traditional wrestling. It takes place in a dug-out pit filled with river sand.
It's a hybrid martial art created by fusing Malla Yuddha, which has been handed down since ancient times in the Indian subcontinent and wrestling brought by the Muslim aggression dynasty since Middle Ages.
Every akhara(Kushti school) set up the temple of Hanuman-Ji inside the arena as a guardian, which is the monkey God in the tale of Hindu religion like Ramayana.
A wrestler called Pehlwan to wear traditional loincloth called Langot like Japanese Sumo wrestlers. But young generations tend to hesitate it because of its appearance and prefer western-style trunks. It is lamented by many veteran elders.
Ordinarily, disciple student enters in the akhara under Guru(master) from around 7 years old.
Many disciples live in the dormitory of the akhara and spend a life steeped in Kushti.
Youth disciples are also subjected to keep severe sexual abstinence (brahmacharya) and a strict vegetarian diet. Badam milk is preferred as a supplement.
As they spend their days of discipline and hard training as priests of Shaolin Temple, The frail boys will eventually grow into a muscular Men.
Buttermilk, oil and red ocher containing iron oxide are mixed into the sand of the arena. Therefore, the soil in the pit is often reddish as seen in the above picture.
Before the practice, the soil of the arena is plowed with heavy bales to be soft and leveled, as it's a kind of training.
It's fighting styles are basically very similar to western wrestling. If you put your opponent's shoulders and buttocks on the ground at the same time, you win.
It has a variety of foot hooked throwing techniques and joint locking technique too.
The competition is called Dangal. There are no rounds for each match, and the match will last for about 25-30 minutes.
Before the game, they will face each other, grasp the sand of the arena, put it on the opponent body each other as a ritual pray for God's blessing
The heavyweight match is a little boring
As with many other fight matches, the heavyweight class is powerful but often has poor movement in their game.
But the light to medium weight class have very quick movement of tactics, and it doesn't get tired of looking at the game.
Busy movements are never boring
The training system of Kushti is also very unique. Swinging heavy wooden clubs called Mukdal(jolly), climbing a long rope suspended from a tree only by hands, turning a big stone around the neck, and so on.
Gadha and Dand-Baithak
Variation of unique exercises
Of cause, Mallakhamb is utilized as a basic menu, but just for exercise rather than sports art.
The picture below is a fresco painting of the Bundi Palace in Rajasthan, which was built in the 17th century.
We can see donut shaped stone ring called Nal in the right, Mukdal (Jolly or Mudgal) on the left, and Mallakhamb on the center in the picture.
It is clear that these Indian-style training items, which is still typically seen in the traditional Kushti akhara, were widespread by this time.
In addition, squats, which are the basic training in various fields from sports to martial arts nowadays, were originally adopted from Kushti's training method "Danda Baitak". The word "Hindu Squat" has its remnants.
A typical Kushti Arena
Every akhara(Kushti school) set up the temple of Hanuman-Ji inside the arena as a guardian, which is the monkey God in the tale of Hindu religion like Ramayana.
A wrestler called Pehlwan to wear traditional loincloth called Langot like Japanese Sumo wrestlers. But young generations tend to hesitate it because of its appearance and prefer western-style trunks. It is lamented by many veteran elders.
Ordinarily, disciple student enters in the akhara under Guru(master) from around 7 years old.
Many disciples live in the dormitory of the akhara and spend a life steeped in Kushti.
Youth disciples are also subjected to keep severe sexual abstinence (brahmacharya) and a strict vegetarian diet. Badam milk is preferred as a supplement.
As they spend their days of discipline and hard training as priests of Shaolin Temple, The frail boys will eventually grow into a muscular Men.
Buttermilk, oil and red ocher containing iron oxide are mixed into the sand of the arena. Therefore, the soil in the pit is often reddish as seen in the above picture.
Before the practice, the soil of the arena is plowed with heavy bales to be soft and leveled, as it's a kind of training.
It's fighting styles are basically very similar to western wrestling. If you put your opponent's shoulders and buttocks on the ground at the same time, you win.
It has a variety of foot hooked throwing techniques and joint locking technique too.
The competition is called Dangal. There are no rounds for each match, and the match will last for about 25-30 minutes.
Before the game, they will face each other, grasp the sand of the arena, put it on the opponent body each other as a ritual pray for God's blessing
The heavyweight match is a little boring
But the light to medium weight class have very quick movement of tactics, and it doesn't get tired of looking at the game.
Busy movements are never boring
The training system of Kushti is also very unique. Swinging heavy wooden clubs called Mukdal(jolly), climbing a long rope suspended from a tree only by hands, turning a big stone around the neck, and so on.
Gadha and Dand-Baithak
Variation of unique exercises
The picture below is a fresco painting of the Bundi Palace in Rajasthan, which was built in the 17th century.
traditional Kushti exercises
It is clear that these Indian-style training items, which is still typically seen in the traditional Kushti akhara, were widespread by this time.
Famous professional wrestler Tiger Jett Sigh is also born of Kushti.
The video below is the early scene of the New Japan Pro Wrestling, where you can see the young days of Inoki and Fujinami practicing Indian Club with the name of Koshti.
Japanese Pro Wrestler practicing Indian club
The word "Koshti" means wrestling in Iran, and it seems that confusion has arisen because wrestlers in Iran were using Meel in training.
Iranian Meel training
India and Iran have a common cultural origin of the Aryans and later took the influences of Islamicization in parallel.
The countries in the West-East belt from Persia to Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh share the common cultures. Kushti would be a typical example.
Very similar wrestling has spread to the South Asian region such as Kushti in the whole of India and Pakistan, Boli Khela in Bangladesh and Koshti in Iran on the west end.
In Tamil Nadu too, wrestling was practiced under the name of Kusti, but in recent years the practice in akhara on daily basis are disappearing rapidly.
At the end of the video above, wrestlers are practicing with a strange device of metal chains and castanets attached to an iron bar which was also introduced from Iran.
I witnessed exactly the same item in Paika martial arts at Orissa in India.
Unique training gear in Paika, Orissa
Orissa in the east, Maharashtra in the south, and Iran in the far west, are separated in long distance. But the similarity of these items tell us the deep relation between them all.
I think that traditional Indian or South Asian training system, which Karl Gotchi have acknowledged, must have more popular value even in nowadays.
Karl Gotch swings Gadha mace exercise
Lethwei boxer swinging mukudal. From DVD: The physical body
But the same action is shared in the ring entrance ceremony of Lethwei in Myanmar.
It is clear that the relationship between Indian martial arts and Lethwei is really deep and strong.
This is probably due to the fact that the Indian martial arts Malla Yuddha, which is one of the roots of Kushti and dating back to at least the 5th century BC, had striking techniques too.
Then before Islamic influence has transformed Malla Yuddha to Kushti, the transmission impact on Lethwei by Malla Yuddha has happened, I guess.
Recently our research related Kushti has covered on Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Puri in Orissa and Gaya in Bihar already.
Interestingly those towns are both Hindu pilgrim center, and it suggests that the development history of Kushti had strong relations with religious faith.
However, the true home of Kushti is the area from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and even Pakistan, so I hope for future research coverage.
I put some Kushti videos on this page, but recently a lot of very good quality Kushti videos have been posted on Youtube.
If you search on "Kushti Wrestling" on google or youtube, will see many recent videos, so please check if you are interested.
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