At 4:30 pm, the Guru Hanuman Akhara, Model Town, stirs. The akhara becomes a hive of activity as wrestlers do push-ups, lift weights, climb ropes and rehearse stance drills as they prepare for the evening. Wrestlers aged 10 to 25 take out shovels to scrape the soil. The traditional mud pit, where the fight takes place, is dug and levelled.
Veteran guru Charan Das, the main trainer, takes position as referee. Two wrestlers step into the pit, circling each other, then lunge forward, as they try to force each other into the mud.It is just not another match for 22-year-old Raj Guru Singh who’s trained here for three years.” Its everything you have learned through months of training practice and discipline tested in real time.” Singh is currently training at the akhara and is preparing for state and national-level selection tournaments.
However traditional mud-pit dangals are increasingly being replaced by Olympic freestyle wrestling.These contests held on mats give access to government jobs, state fundings and other perks. While dangals pay prize money - ranging from a few thousands in junior bouts to over ₹1 lakh in senior dangals - the shift underscores a move toward formalised sport systems.
Amidst these changes, the Guru Hanuman Akharas established in 1925 stands as a living testament of a culture in the midst of a transition.Many akharas supplement mat training along with mud practice, train wrestlers for tournaments and national selection trials, thereby providing a pathway for government jobs and institutional support.
Routine and formats
For senior trainer Guru Charan Das, associated with the akhara since 1968, wrestling is “knowledge shaped through years of practice”. A veteran wrestler who represented India at the 1974 Asian Games, he has been training wrestlers at the akhara since the 1990s. Over 100 trainees from Haryana, UP, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh, gather daily, many residing on-site. “We wake at 4 am, practice four to five hours in the morning, and again in the evening,” Das notes. “The soil comes from farms, prepared by hand.” He recalls winning at the School National Games in Cuttack and the National Games in Bombay in the early 1970s, when the akhara produced most national medallists.
Veteran wrestlers like Das play a vital role in keeping the akhara heritage and tradition alive by mentoring young wrestlers.
The sport has two formats. Dangals – traditional kushtis fought on mud – are hosted by local committees with no age or weight limits; a game usually lasts between 15 and 30 minutes. Pinning the opponents to the mud results in a victory. Junior bouts offer prize money ranging from ₹500 and ₹1,100 to ₹5,100–₹11,000, while senior matches can fetch up to ₹1- 1.5 lakh.
Mat wrestling uses a point- based system. Two points are given for back exposure, four for lift-based exposure, and one for pushing the opponent from the circle. A bout lasts 7 minutes with a 30-second break. Yet concerns remain. “Steroids are common, especially in dangals,” Singh says. “There are no stringent measures to curb usage.”
The mat advantage
“The mat has become commonplace and is the future," says Singh. Success on the mat can help secure government jobs.“My father was a wrestler and is now a police officer in Jharkhand. If you adapt to mat wrestling, you can compete in both formats. If you only train in Dangal it is difficult to adapt to mat wrestling,” Singh says. But trained mat wrestlers can compete in both formats. The traditional format is increasingly being confined to older generations.
Similar sentiments are echoed by 2021 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya, now an assistant director with the Delhi government posted at Chhatrasal Stadium. He pushes for modernisation.
“While mud wrestling is our tradition, the Olympic mat has become important, " he says. State and National games take place in mat and that is where government money and sponsorships come in. So beyond tradition there is not much incentive in training in mud. “ We must keep pace with changing times”. Dahiya emphasis on the importance of discipline and mental rigour. “Avoid distractions. I stayed off phones for a year and a half during training. Visualise your bouts.”
Dahiya says he is optimistic about women’s progress in wrestling. “These days girls in Haryana show tremendous grit and passion for wrestling.With better opportunities and increasing family support, they can go a long way."
Singh and his fellow players have kept their sights fixed on the U-20 and U-23 state and national level championship scheduled later this year, where success can open doors to government jobs, state funding and sponsorships.
As dusk settles at Guru Hanuman, the soil is packed, the milk is poured and the circle slowly thins. Indian wrestling may be caught in the crossroads of heritage and progressions, but the mitti (mud) of the Delhi akhara always teaches its old adage: how to fall, how to fight and how to rise.
