Malla-yuddha - History

History

The first attestation of the term mallayuddha is found in the Ramayana epic, in the context of wrestling match between vanara King Vali and Ravana, the king of Lanka, in which Vali defeated Ravana. The Hindu deity Hanuman of Ramayan era is regarded as God of wrestling/mallayuddha and other combat arts.

Another mention of mallayuddha is found in Mahabharata epic, in the context of the wrestling match between Bhima and Jarasandha. Bhima is regarded as best historical mallayuddha expert in India. Other early literary descriptions of wrestling matches include the story of Balarama, and Krishna.

Stories describing Krishna report that he sometimes engaged in wrestling matches where he used knee strikes to the chest, punches to the head, hair pulling, and strangleholds. He defeated Kans, king of Mathura in mallayuddha and became new king in his place. Based on such accounts, Svinth (2002) traces press ups and squats used by Indian wrestlers to the pre-classical era. Siddhartha Gautama himself was said to be an expert wrestler, archer and sword-fighter before becoming the Buddha.

The Manasollasa of the Chalukya king Someswara III (1124–1138) is a royal treatise on fine arts and leisure. The chapter entitled "Malla Vinod" describes the classification of wrestlers into types by age, size and strength. It also outlines how the wrestlers were to exercise and what they were to eat. In particular the king was responsible for providing the wrestlers with pulses, meat, milk, sugar as well as "high-class sweets". The wrestlers were kept isolated from the women of the court and were expected to devote themselves to building their bodies. The Manasollasa gives the names of moves and exercises but does not provide descriptions.

The Malla Purana is a Kula Purana associated with the Jyesthimalla, a Brahmin jati of wrestlers from Gujarat, dating most likely to the 13th century. It categorizes and classifies types of wrestlers, defines necessary physical characteristics, describes types of exercises and techniques of wrestling as well as the preparation of the wrestling pit, and provides a fairly precise account of which foods wrestlers should eat in each season of the year.

Traditional Indian wrestling began to decline from the 16th century under Mughal rule, as courtly fashion favoured the Persianate pehlwani style. Malla-yuddha is exceedingly rare in the northern states, but indigenous wrestling traditions and training methods survived in south India.