Mallakhamba

A mallakhamba team performs on the pole.

Mallakhamba (Marathi: मल्लखांब) is a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope. The word also refers to the pole used in the sport.

Mallakhamba derives from the terms malla which denotes a wrestler and khamba which means a pole. Mallakhamba can therefore be translated to English as "pole gymnastics".[1] On April 9, 2013, the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh declared mallakhamba as the state sport.

History

The earliest recorded reference to mallakhamba is found in Someshvara Chalukya's classic Manasollasa (1135 AD). Originally mallakhamba was used as a supporting exercise for wrestlers. Although known to have been practiced in medieval Maharasthra and Hyderabad,[2] the sport didn't become visible in practice and well recorded until the 18th century when it was revived by Balambhatdada Deodhar, the fitness instructor of Peshwa Baji Rao II during the reign of the Peshwas.[3] His student Balambhattdada Deodhar realized that only major grips can be developed with a pole and thus used cane instead. Subsequently, the unavailability of cane resulted in rope mallakhamba. Today it is used more often as a performance art rather than a method of training.

As a competitive sport

The Mallakhamb Federation of India is the official Indian National Federation. 29 states of India has participate in mallakhamba competitions at the national level. National level mallakhamba tournaments were first organized more than 25 years ago. The national level tournament is organized in four separate groups according to age.

Official Organizations

1.Mallakhamb Confederation of World, MCW
2.Asian Mallakhamb Federation, AMF
3.South Asian Mallakhamb Federation, SAMF

All the above organizations were founded by Dr. Jaydeepsinh Jadhav as president, Uday Deshpande as secretary general, Vinayak Rajmachikar as technical committee chairman, Dr. Ashish Mehta as treasurer and Geetanjali Shitole as member.

Types

Almost 25 to 30 types of mallakhamba apparatus were tried and tested over the years. 16 various types are recognized presently, but for sport, only six types are used. Mallakhamba is present in the Hind Kesari, Indian Wrestling championship.[3] Competitively there are three main variations of mallakhamba.

Pole or fixed

In this variation, a vertical wooden pole is fixed in the ground and the participant performs various acrobatic feats and poses while hanging on the pole. Wrestlers mount, dismount and utilize this pole for various complex callisthenics designed to develop their grip, stamina, and strength in the arms, legs and upper-body.

There are a number of pillars, although the most common is a free-standing upright pole, some eight to ten inches in diameter, planted into the ground. The pole used in competitions is a straight pole made of teak or sheesham wood, standing 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) in height with a circumference of 55 centimetres (22 in) at the base. It gradually tapers to a circumference of 35 centimetres (14 in) at the top.

Hanging

The hanging mallakhamba is a wooden pole that is shorter in length than the standard pole and is hung from chain and hooks, leaving a gap between the ground and the bottom of the mallakhamba.

Rope

In this variation, the participant performs exercises while hanging from a rope suspended from a support.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Indian roots to gymnastics". NDTV - Sports (Mumbai, India). 6 December 2007.
  2. ↑ "Dying 12th century sport gets a lifeline". The Telegraph (Berhampur, India). 3 November 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Mallakhamb vies for pole position... bottoms up". The Sunday Indian (India). 15 July 2007.
  4. ↑ "Mallakhamb: Ancient Indian sport". MSN News (India). 5 December 2012.

External links

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