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The traditional sport known as mallakhamb, which dates back to ancient India, is vying for recognition in the modern sports world. The name "Mallakhamb" is a combination of the words "malla," which means wrestler, and "khamb," which means pole. The gymnast does aerial yoga poses using a rope, a cane, or a wooden mallakhamb pole. Yoga poses are traditionally performed using a wooden stick made of Sheesham or Indian Rosewood and smoothed with castor oil. In this article, we will take you through the various details of a mallakhamb game, including types of mallakhamb and mallakhamb exercises. So, keep reading!!
A style of Indian gymnastics performed on a vertical mallakhamb pole, mallakhamb or mallakhamba is an ancient Indian sport that first attracted the attention of the world at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Several indigenous Indian sports, including kabaddi, were displayed in Berlin before the start of the Olympics and received cheers from both the local population and visitors from across the world. Mallakhamb was one of these games.
Since then, the sport has gained popularity throughout the world, and the first-ever global championships in mallakhamb were conducted in 2019, with more than 150 participants travelling to Mumbai to compete.
However, the newfound fame doesn't properly capture mallakhamb's lengthy history.
Mallakhamb may initially appear to be an aerial yoga or gymnastics exercise done on a vertical pillar (traditionally a Sheesham or Indian rosewood pole polished with castor oil).
But at its foundation, mallakhamb is a type of old martial arts used to teach ancient warriors and wrestlers.
Literally, "khamb" means pole, and "malla" implies wrestling. Mallakhamb refers to pole-based wrestling collectively. The pole was formerly a training tool used by wrestlers and soldiers to hone martial arts techniques they would later employ against rivals in the arena or on the battlefield.
This ancient Indian sport dates back to the first half of the 12th century. The Manasholas, a text by Chalukya written in 1153 A.D., makes mention of wrestlers practising on wooden mallakhamb poles. Balambhatta Dada Deodhar, the physical trainer for Bajirao Peshwa II, brought it back in the latter part of the 19th century. He made enormous attempts to spread the word about this activity. The form of the Ancient and Modern Mallakhamb has striking similarities to the human skeleton. At initially, Mallakhamb was always focused on learning new Kusti techniques. Gymnastics are now included in the game. It is releasing long-gone holds. The current game requires a flexible body, attentive muscles and mind, focus and muscle expansion, rhythmic breathing, wide-open eyes, etc. At the elite level now, the degree of difficulty is getting harder and harder. The requirement for safety equipment is apparent.
In general, there are three types of mallakhamb as mentioned below:-
The audience is mesmerised by the way the body is rotated, stretched, and balanced on the Mallakhamb. Playing on the Mallakhamb improves one's coordination, reflexes, quickness, and focus. The practice of many other sports, including wrestling, judo, gymnastics, athletics, horseback riding, tennis, etc., is aided by the training of mallakhamb.
Mallakhamb has straightforward principles that are reminiscent of gymnastics.
Participants must perform acrobatic tricks using a vertical pole or rope as a prop, and judges award points based on how well they executed the moves.
Five different categories are used to judge competitors: mounting (where athletes jump on and run on the pole), acrobatics (where athletes perform flips, turns, and twists on the pole), catches (where athletes catch the pole after flying through the air), balances (where athletes demonstrate their balance on the pole), and dismounts (where performers jump off gracefully from the top of the pole).
Each participant is given a score by the judges during a performance, and the one with the highest score has crowned the champion.
Exercises like the mallakhamb make the body lean and powerful. These exercises have been discovered to be helpful to attain efficiency in several different activities and sports including gymnastics and wrestling. They are especially effective for the stomach, back, arms, and thighs. The spinal cord is most significantly impacted by the Mallakhamb sport, which also promotes lifespan and activation of all the body's large and minor organs.
Ancient Indian epics, including the Ramayana, Chandraketugarh pottery from the second to first century BCE, and records of Buddhist Chinese pilgrims to India all make mention of mallakhamb in some form.
The first direct reference to mallakhamb in literature is found in the early 12th-century work Manasollasa, which was written by the Chalukya ruler Someshvara III, who reigned in what is now South India at the time.
Mr Ulagadurai, a PT instructor in the Villupuram area, first brought Mallakhamb to Tamil Nadu in 1961. As a result, he is referred to throughout Tamil Nadu as the "Father of Mallakhamb". He worked with children from the ages of 6 to 18 while providing free instruction for 40 years in various government schools.
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