An indigenous sport, mallakhamb also known as 'pole gymnastics' was prevalent
during the Chalukyan era in the 12th Century. Mention of this sport is made in Manas-01
has, a classic by Chalukya in 1135 A.D. The game subsequently remained dormant, before it
was revived in the 19th Century by Balambhatta Dada Deodhar. While Indian mythology
abounds in ancedotes of sheer heroic feats by people like Hanuman and Bheerna, mallakhamb
is a sport which requires a performer to be highly physically skilled to perform the
exercises of turn, twist, stretch and balance on the pole. The sport can also be
demonstrated with a hanging rope, instead of a pole. Considered as a part of the training
regimen of wrestlers, mallakhamb has become a sport unto itself with competitions being
organised at the national level. Though an individual event, mass, pyramid-like, exercises
are also performed on the pole. The 'bottle mallakhamb' in which the mallakhamb revolves
on its axis was devised by Sita Ram Gupta, a guru (coach) in the Shri Laxmi Vijayam
Mandir, Jhansi in 1960. |