Paika akhada

Paika akhada or paika akhara is an Odia term which roughly translates as "warrior gymnasium" or "warrior school". In former times they served as the training schools of the peasant militia in Odisha, eastern India. Today's paika akhada are used for practicing the traditional physical exercises in addition to the paika dance, a performance art with rhythmic movements and weapons being hit in time to the drum. It incorporates acrobatic maneuvres and use of the khanda (straight sword), patta (guantlet-sword), sticks, and other weapons.

The word paika comes from the Sanskrit padatika meaning infantry. "Akhada" or akhara refers to a training hall, or in this case referring to a particular string of such schools. The former spelling is an alternate transcription of the proper Sanskrit akhara in which the Oriya letter ଡ଼ ṛ, a flapped [ɽ] sound, is rendered as d.

Paika akhada were originally the training schools of the paika class of warriors. The paika were a landed militia who were exempted from taxes in lieu of their services. They were not in the regular pay-roll of the army, but still received large land grants from the king. A peasant militia, the paika's main source of income was agriculture. They were organised into three ranks distinguished by their occupation and the weapons they wielded. These were the Pahari, bearers of shields and the khanda (sword), the Banua who led distant expeditions and the Dhenkiya - archers who also performed different duties in armies. The paika were led by a particular caste of kshatriya called the Khandayat. The word itself means "sword controller", from khanda (sword) and ayata (control). Commanders called Dala Beheri were each in charge of several villages of paika.

In times of peace the paika served as law enforcement, and the paika akhada were used to keep the warrior class physically and mentally fit.Kharavela of ancient Kalinga relied on the military might of the paika in his campaigns. The paika and khandayat reached their zenith of power during the Gajapati Dynasty, and were known as far as Indonesia. During the Muslim period, the kingdom was powerful enough to threaten the Islamic rule of Bengal, but the invaders did not dare attack Odisha due to the paika's reputation.

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