Cheibi Gad-Ga
Manipuri sport with a leather-wrapped stick and round shield, descended from sword-and-shield combat. The winner scores the most hits.
Quick Facts
IndiaCharacter & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Cheibi Gad-Ga
Cheibi Gad-Ga is one of the oldest Manipuri martial arts, which in modern times has turned into a competitive sport. Its name is made up of the two objects used in it: the cheibi is a stick about two and a half feet long, wrapped in leather, and the gadga is a leather shield roughly three feet in diameter. A pair of competitors enters a flat circular ground about twenty-one feet across; marked on it are two lines, each about three feet long, spaced six feet apart. The winner is whoever scores more points through skillful strikes on the opponent. Today's form is a tamed version of something considerably harsher. In ancient times, the same contest was fought with real swords and spears, and the stick and shield replaced this pair of weapons only later, so that the duel could be conducted without risk of death. The stick-and-shield pair thus preserves the layout of the original weapons, though in a form that does not kill. In surveys of Indian martial arts, cheibi gad-ga is therefore listed among the weapon disciplines, even though today only the stick is actually fought with. Today it is no longer a combat system but a competitive art — and it is precisely competition that keeps the Manipuri tradition alive. Cheibi belongs among the classical Meitei martial arts of ancient Kangleipak, today's Manipur, ranking alongside mukna, huyen lallong, sarit sarak, and thang-ta. The competitive form is overseen by the All Manipur Cheibi Association, which holds state championships and age categories up to twelve and up to fourteen years in Imphal, as well as the Kangleipak Cheibi Yendamnaba festival; in Tripura a separate association was formed to preserve and spread this art.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.