01-25-2009, 05:57 PM
HH thanks for the info, i knew boxing was separate, and i think was called mushti yuddha (mushti = fist, yuddha = fight). Interesting point about female wrestling, didn't know that.
Also I think when people use "wrestling" to translate mallayuddha, its a bit of a mistake because it clearly seems that mallayuddha was a broad spectrum which included wrestling like kushti today to real fighting in which all tactics from knees, soccer kicks, stomps, biting, eye gouging, punches, choking etc were allowed with no rules similar to the spartan pankration. I presume it must have ended with death, submission, or the king stopping it, and seems to have gone out of vogue slowly over time like pankration, and we are just left with wrestling except in isolated pockets like those Jyeshtamallas who practiced vajramushti until recently.
Also I think when people use "wrestling" to translate mallayuddha, its a bit of a mistake because it clearly seems that mallayuddha was a broad spectrum which included wrestling like kushti today to real fighting in which all tactics from knees, soccer kicks, stomps, biting, eye gouging, punches, choking etc were allowed with no rules similar to the spartan pankration. I presume it must have ended with death, submission, or the king stopping it, and seems to have gone out of vogue slowly over time like pankration, and we are just left with wrestling except in isolated pockets like those Jyeshtamallas who practiced vajramushti until recently.