Mudgar
मुद्गर · mudgara
Also known as: mudgara, mugdar, Indian club
Indian club, a type of gada, attested as a weapon in Sanskrit texts and today used mainly for grip and shoulder training by swinging.
Quick Facts
IndiaAbout the weapon
Mudgar (Sanskrit मुद्गर, mudgara) is an Indian club, a type of gada. Sanskrit dictionaries define mudgara as a hammer, mace, or club, and Apte's dictionary also as a type of dumbbell. Treatises on warfare and the puranas list it as a weapon, the Shiva Purana as an iron club. Mudgar is also mentioned in Kautilya's Arthashastra, dated to the 4th century BCE. It is usually wooden, but can also be made of iron. In ancient Indian sculpture it is held by yakshas called mudgarapani, meaning holders of the mudgar; an example is a 1.96-metre-tall yaksha statue from Mathura, dating to around 100 BCE. Today the mudgar mainly serves as a training tool: one or two wooden clubs are swung behind the back in various ways, building grip strength and shoulder endurance. The 12th-century Manasollasa describes club exercise alongside wrestling, and the 13th-century Mallapurana describes wrestlers' training including club swinging. Traditional clubs weighed up to 35 kg, and wooden mudgars are reported at up to 70 kg. In the 19th century, the British adopted Indian clubs and turned them into a light training implement; the British army introduced clubs weighing 2 kg. Club swinging was a gymnastics discipline at the 1904 and 1932 Olympic Games.
Related weapons
- Variant of: Gada