Apparently after I “liked” something on facebook, I have been receiving these video clips about this grappling discipline in India. Apparently, no striking is allowed, and the matches seem to be very short, and end when one fighter body-slams or otherwise takes down his opponent.
Most of the bouts come from the Indian state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.
If anyone can provide more information, I would greatly appreciate it.
I’ll fight them. I eat lots of curry and stink.
The fecal matter flooring is guaranteed to reduce concussions by 14 percent!
There’s a show I watched years back that was awesome.
I’ll try to remember the name. Was basically a guy (or two?) that travelled to different countries and would spend maybe a week there learning all about their local martial art and then he would train with them and compete at the end. In a fun way of course, he wasn’t expecting to master shit in a week and beat the locals.
There was definitely an episode on Indian wrestling though.
I think it might have been Fight Quest.
And funny that one of the 2 guys was fucking Jimmy Smith! The show got him into fight commentary apparently. I’d have remembered him but didn’t really know him at the time since it was before his bigger fame.
It was on Discovery Channel in 2007/2008.
Season 2 has the Indian wrestling episode.
In London, Gama issued a challenge that he could throw any three wrestlers of any weight class in thirty minutes. This announcement however was seen as a bluff by the wrestlers and their wrestling promoter R. B. Benjamin.[11] For a long time, no one came forward to accept the challenge. To break the ice, Gama presented another challenge to specific heavy weight wrestlers. He challenged Stanislaus Zbyszko and Frank Gotch, that he would either beat them or pay them the prize money and go home. The first professional wrestler to take his challenge was the American Benjamin Roller. In the bout, Gama pinned Roller in 1 minute 40 seconds the first time, and in 9 minutes 10 seconds the other. On the second day, he defeated 12 wrestlers and thus gained entry to the official tournament.[23]
He was pitted against world champion Stanislaus Zbyszko[23] and the bout was set for 10 September 1910. Zbyszko was then regarded among the premier wrestlers in the world; and he would then take on the mammoth challenge of India’s feared Great Gama, an undefeated champion who had been unsuccessful in his attempts to lure Frank Gotch into a match. And so, on 10 September 1910, Zbyszko faced the Great Gama in the finals of the John Bull World Championships in London.[24] The match was worth £250 in prize money and the John Bull Belt. Within a minute, Zbyszko was taken down and remained in that position for the remaining 2 hours and 35 minutes of the match. There were a few brief moments when Zbyszko would get up, but he just ended back down in his previous position. Through this defensive strategy of hugging the mat in order to nullify Great Gama’s greatest strengths, Zbyszko wrestled the Indian legend to a draw after nearly three hours of grappling, though Zbyszko’s lack of tenacity angered many of the fans in attendance.[25]
Nevertheless, Zbyszko still became one of the few wrestlers to ever meet the Great Gama without going down in defeat; The two men were set to face each other again on 17 September 1910. On that date, Zbyszko failed to show up and Gama was announced the winner by default.[26] He was awarded the prize and the John Bull Belt. Receiving this belt entitled Gama to be called Rustam-e-Zaman or World Champion but not the lineal champion of the world as he hadn’t defeated Zbyszko in the ring.
During this tour, Gama defeated some of the most respected grapplers in the world, “Doc” Benjamin Roller of the United States, Maurice Deriaz of Switzerland, Johann Lemm (the European Champion) of Switzerland, and Jesse Peterson (World Champion) from Sweden. In the match against Roller, Gama threw “Doc” 13 times in the 15-minute match.[citation needed] Gama now issued a challenge to the rest of those who laid claim to the World Champion’s Title, including Japanese Judo champion Taro Miyake, George Hackenschmidt of Russia and Frank Gotch of the United States – each declined his invitation to enter the ring to face him. At one point, to face some type of competition, Gama offered to fight twenty English wrestlers, one after another. He announced that he would defeat all of them or pay out prize money, but still no one would take up his challenge
Indians for some reason have the worst genetics for fighting. Other than Arjan Buhler they all have been slaughtered
There’s a good movie about it. It’s about a guy who wrestles for India but doesn’t get to the Olympics so he hopes his kids can do it. Except he has only girls, so he has his daughters begin wrestling and they eventually became really good. It’s based on these two wrestlers who I think just retired a couple of years ago. The movie is called Dangal.
Fight quest was a great show. My favorite is the one with the kumite.
Appreciate the responses. This thread has turned out to be a lot better than a thread I started on here in 2008! 
Great fucking show! Would love to see someone bring a version of that show back. Jimmy was perfect for it as he really immersed himself in the culture of learning everything they do.
Yeah, I kind of want to rewatch it now that it’s back in the memory banks!
A guy that used to be a member here in the early days Vincent Giordano has an excellent video project out there
The Physical Body: Indian Wrestling and Physical Culture.
He went to India to document the training and culture involved it is worth looking into I love his stuff
More than 20 years ago, I was very interested in shootfighting, most popular in the Nordic countries, but it also had a following in the UK.
They had this one fighter, Michael Johnson (not to be confused with the Michael Johnson who had been fighting for the Lackzilians before they went bankrupt) who was like 6’3" and 170 pounds.
He was awesome!
