THE ANCESTOR OF ALL FIGHTS

INDIAN KUSHTI IS CONSIDERED THE PREDECESSOR OF ALL WRESTLING. IT IS UNDERGOING A REVIVAL DESPITE THE TUG-OF-WAR BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY

4:30 in the afternoon. The merciless sun above Haryana starts to sink towards the mirage-like blur of the horizon. The unbearable heat begins to give in, and life slowly crawls back out of its lethargy into the chaotic streets of this state in northwest India.

This is the time that a group of local wrestlers have been eagerly waiting for. They travel by motorcycle or auto rickshaw – the three-wheeler used as a taxi – to an isolated building in the middle of a road about 70 kilometres from the national capital, Delhi.

They enter the simple akhara – the fighting arena where they will wrestle one another in the same way that their ancestors had done before them.

“Nobody can precisely trace the origins of kushti”, Mohit Saroha, lawyer for the Kushti Association of India, claims. “Some say it dates back three thousand years, while most will settle the origins at around the 5th century BC. It was called malla-yuddha before, and it spread rapidly across South Asia after the establishment of the Mughal

Some wrestlers reportedly do around 3,000 push-ups everyday to build muscle

village, that I decided to start training in kushti”, a young kid called Kumar explains after planking for a couple of minutes. Because he is among the youngest of the group, Kumar is in charge of setting up the arena for the fight. Using a hoe, he stirs the surface. Then, he uses a long piece of wood to flatten it. Finally, a splash of water gives the ground the desired consistency – not hard enough to hurt, and not too soft to walk on.

“The core of kushti training has not changed over the course of history. Unlike in other sports, technology is never used to improve performance. It’s as primitive as it gets”, Prasad laughs.

At 5:30pm, when the temperature drops to around 30 degrees, the fight begins. The youngsters enter the arena first. As tradition dictates, they bless themselves, rubbing a handful of mud onto their chests, and then shake hands. The first one to pin his rival’s shoulders and hips to the ground at the same time wins the round. “It’s more about skills than strength”, the ustad Rajan explains. Rivals look at each other in the eye, try to reach for the legs, and then the struggle

“Unlike in other sports, technology is never used to improve performance. It’s as primitive as it gets”

makes its way to the ground. Matches can last more than half an hour, and can become very physically demanding. Although kicks and punches are not allowed, it doesn’t take long for blood to spill to the ground, often intermingled with sweat and tears.

This is a particularly tough session given that the start of the tournament season is just around the corner. Most competitions – called dangals – are held in rusty building structures on the outskirts of small and medium-sized towns. During matches, it gets so crowded inside that it becomes difficult to move, and so bets – the core business of many a sport – are shouted out loudly by members of the audience. In most places, there are no women, since they have traditionally been banned from attending and taking part in such games given the masculine tradition.

The makings of an icon But things are changing fast. A few female teenagers have decided to challenge the status quo of the sport and, in turn, Indian society, by starting to train and compete in kushti. Female wrestler Divya Kakran even fights with men – and she seldom loses.

“I was six when I wrestled for the first time”, the 18-year-old recalls at her home in a suburb in Delhi. Her father, an ex-wrestler who never won anything, sits besides her, listening carefully. They are flanked by a wall hanging Kakran’s 43 medals. “My family needed the money, and it all started out as a joke. I was strong, so the audience at a dangal bet I wouldn’t be able to defeat a boy.

“But I did. I had been secretly training with a guru who didn’t mind teaching girls, and after that, I started to compete more often”.

She is not the first to break kushti’s unwritten laws banning women from the sport, but she is certainly the most successful. And now, after winning gold at the Asian Games in Greco-roman wrestling – in the cadet category – she eyes a medal in the forthcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. “I train in traditional kushti, which is more demanding, and then learn the specific