Indian Martial Arts

[Hauma Hamiddha]

That same section of the mahAbhArata that you paste -- the jarAsandha-bhIMa saMgrAma has an insertion in some Mbh manuscripts from different parts of India which Ganguli did not translate. This insert is also left out by the critical edition. But it is a compact malla shAstra and is in my opinion the oldest surviving technical account of malla yuddha. From what we can gather from that, other such contests described in mahAbhArata and harivaMsha and medieval records is that malla had a "soft" and "hard" aspect. The soft part is gymnastics and showing of strength like bending iron bars, weight-lifting and contortions. The hard part was clearly a "blood sport". In the bhArata/HV it appears that these were fights unto death - kR^iShNa and balarAma killing rival wrestlers, bhIma and jarAsandha and also bhIma killing wrestlers and wild animals in virATa. The mAnasollAsa's mallavinoda I recall states that the rAjan might stop a potentially fatal bout or let it go to death.

I think the hindus distinguished boxing as a separate sport: jhalla-yuddha but it might have been allowed in the fights to death.

There are carvings in some temples in south India showing female wrestling too but I have not read a textual description of this.