Mallakhamb

Mallakamba (Kannada: ಮಲ್ಲ ಕಂಬ malla-kamba,Marathi: मल्लखांब malla-khamba, Tamil: மல்லர் கம்பம் mallar-kambam) 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/mallar which denotes a wrestler and khamba/kambam which means a pole. Literally meaning "wrestling pole", the term originally referred to a traditional training implement used by wrestlers. On April 9, 2013, the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh declared mallakhamba as the state sport.

The earliest recorded reference to mallakhamba is found in Someshvara Chalukya's classic [[Manasollasa (Kannada: ಮನಸೋಲ್ಲಾಸ)]] (1135 AD). Originally mallakamba was used as a supporting exercise for wrestlers. Although known to have been practiced in medieval Maharashtra and Hyderabad, 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. 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.

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.

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.

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. Competitively there are three main variations of mallakhamba.

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Wikipedia