An ancient sport born on

the Indian subcontinent, kabaddi is having its modern moment. From a game played mainly by schoolchildren on patchy fields, kabaddi has graduated to a staple of prime-time television in India, with a glitzy professional league drawing homegrown and international stars, glamorous owners and hundreds of millions of viewers.

To a novice, kabaddi looks like a faster, more bruising version of tag or Capture the Flag, familiar to generations of Boy Scouts, where one side tries to steal the opposing team’s flag (or other object) without being touched.

But in some ways it’s even simpler: kabaddi has no flag, protective gear or equipment of any kind — just two halves of a playing surface, with seven players on each side.

The teams take turns sending across one player, known as a raider, to tag as many opponents as he can. Defenders must tackle him before he can return to his half.

Each tag earns a point, as do tackles that stop the raider from getting back to his side.

India’s 12-team Pro Kabaddi League, launched in 2014, adapted the game for TV by limiting raids to 30 seconds and introducing instant replay.

The game feels intimate, squeezed onto a rubberized mat slightly smaller than a volleyball court, in arenas with no more than a few thousand seats. The action is by turns balletic — as raiders shuffle and hop to throw their opponents off balance — and ferocious, with lithe defenders launching full-contact, rugby-style tackles.