Malla-yuddha
मल्लयुद्धSanskrit name of Indian wrestling that, according to Joseph Alter, most wrestlers today regard as archaic. The medieval Manasollasa and Malla Purana describe its training.
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About Malla-yuddha
Malla-yuddha is the Sanskrit name for Indian wrestling. Joseph Alter writes in The Wrestler's Body from 1992 that in northern India mallayuddha is used as one of the names of Indian wrestling alongside pahalwani and kushti, but it is used very rarely and most wrestlers regard it as an archaic term. According to Alter, then, it is not an extinct separate art but one of the names of present-day Indian wrestling pehlwani. We have not found a founder or a year of origin. The Sanskrit dictionaries of Monier-Williams and the St. Petersburg Dictionary attest the word mallayuddha from the Mahabharata and explain it as wrestling or a fist fight. They do not distinguish the related words mustiyuddha, fist fight, and niyuddha, close combat, as sharply. In Martial Arts of the World, Alter calls references to wrestling in the Vedas and epics cryptic and ambiguous. According to him, wrestling is described in more detail only by two medieval texts, the Manasollasa of King Someshvara from the 12th century and the Malla Purana of the caste of professional wrestlers jyesthimalla. According to Alter, present-day Indian wrestling is a synthesis of the Persian form, brought to South Asia by the Mughals, and a native Hindu form that goes back to at least the 11th century. In his view, the medieval texts do not provide a useful framework for understanding wrestling today.
History
In Martial Arts of the World, Joseph Alter states that references to wrestling in the Vedas, Upanishads and the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana are cryptic and ambiguous. In the same book Zarrilli writes that the chapters of the Dhanurveda in the Agni Purana list wrestling among the five branches of military training, alongside chariots, elephants, horses and infantry, and, as a Mahabharata account, gives the figure of Bhima, who crushes enemies with wrestling techniques or a club. In his 1992 book The Wrestler's Body, Alter cites, after the Harivamsha, the story in which Krishna and Balarama defeat the court wrestlers of King Kansa.
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In more detail, according to Alter, wrestling is described in two medieval texts. The Manasollasa of the Western Chalukya king Someshvara III, which Alter dates to 1124 to 1138 and P. Arundhati to 1126 to 1138, is a treatise on royal arts and pastimes with a chapter called Malla Vinod. According to Alter, Indrasan Rai called it the wrestlers' Gita. The Malla Purana is, according to Alter, a caste purana, probably from the 13th century, about the jyesthimalla, a caste of professional wrestlers in medieval Gujarat, and its oldest surviving copy dates, according to Green, from 1674 to 1675. On the Vijayanagara Empire in the Deccan, Alter states, after Mujumdar, that many of its kings practised wrestling alongside other martial arts. According to Alter, wrestling is rarely mentioned in epic and medieval military history and as less important than swordsmanship, archery or horsemanship, and many epic accounts place it in the arena, not on the battlefield.
How it differs
The Sanskrit dictionaries of Monier-Williams, the St. Petersburg Dictionary and Apte explain mallayuddha as wrestling or a fist fight, mustiyuddha as a fist fight and niyuddha as close combat, especially with fists, and they attest all three words in the Mahabharata, mustiyuddha and niyuddha also in the Harivamsha. Apte also gives wrestling for niyuddha. We have not found a separate art under the name musti-yuddha or niyuddha in reliable sources, only Wikipedia and similar websites describe one. Zarrilli, in Martial Arts of the World, on the contrary lists the North Indian mushti among living traditions and explains it as wrestling. Features regarded as traditional, such as diet, celibacy, the akhara and dangal bouts, are thoroughly modern according to Joseph Alter. According to him, both the Manasollasa and the Malla Purana prescribe a meat diet even for Brahmins, whereas today's Hindu wrestlers stress a vegetarian diet.
Technique
According to Joseph Alter, the Malla Purana classifies wrestler types, specifies required physical qualities and describes exercises, wrestling techniques and preparation of the bout area. The Manasollasa is more detailed than other texts, but according to Alter it only names holds and exercises without describing them. According to Alter, today's Indian wrestling kushti consists of holds, counter-holds and the stances daw, pech and pantra, and its basic rules, holds and techniques are almost identical to freestyle.
Training
According to Joseph Alter, the Malla Vinod chapter of the Manasollasa sorts wrestlers by age, size and strength and prescribes their exercises and diet. The king was to supply them with pulses, meat, milk, sugar and fine sweets, and kept them apart from the women of the court. According to P. Arundhati, the king is also to examine a prince's movement of feet, shoulders and arms and jumps in malla-yuddha, alongside archery and fighting with sword, spear and club. According to Alter, the Malla Purana describes in detail the dimensions of square, rectangular and circular wrestling grounds and the quality of the clay, and catalogues foods for each season. According to Alter, medieval texts catalogue complex training regimens with many kinds of exercises, whereas today's wrestlers mainly do hundreds to thousands of dand and bethak exercises.
Today
In 1992 Joseph Alter stated that in North India the names bharatiya kushti, pahalwani and mallayuddha are used interchangeably for Indian wrestling, with pahalwani the most common. According to him, the terms mallakala, the art of wrestling, and mallavidya, the knowledge of wrestling, are somewhat more common than mallayuddha. According to Alter, today's akhara is at least a clay pit, a training ground, a well and a temple or shrine, maintained from public donations. According to him, the rules of Indian wrestling are very close to Olympic freestyle.
Did you know
The Monier-Williams dictionary explains the word malla as a professional wrestler or boxer, an athlete and a very strong man. According to P. Arundhati, the Manasollasa states that during the royal bath the king was massaged with oil by wrestlers. Of the Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya it is said, according to Alter, that every morning he drank about one and a half pounds of sesame oil. According to Alter, Veena Das studied the Malla Purana asking why Brahmins, who would not normally have taken up a martial art, became professional wrestlers.
Frequently asked questions
Is malla-yuddha the same as kushti?
According to Joseph Alter, in northern India the names mallayuddha, pahalwani and bharatiya kushti are used interchangeably for Indian wrestling. According to him, mallayuddha is used very rarely and most wrestlers regard it as archaic.
Which ancient texts describe Indian wrestling?
According to Alter, mainly the Manasollasa of King Someshvara from the 12th century with the chapter Malla Vinod and the Malla Purana of the jyesthimalla, probably from the 13th century. He calls references in the Vedas and epics cryptic.
What do the words musti-yuddha and niyuddha mean?
The Sanskrit dictionaries explain mustiyuddha as fist fight and niyuddha as close combat, especially with fists. Both words are attested from the Mahabharata, but we have not found an independent art under these names in reliable sources.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.