VELLORE: The gym is named after Atlas, a Greek Titan God, whose portrait of holding up the heavens on his shoulder adorns the flex board outside. The board also has its name in bold Tamil font, followed by a mark of caste identity that has nothing to do with Greek God or weightlifting. Here only those from Mutharayar, an intermediary caste, train.
A few hundred metres away from Atlas is Gandhiji Gym. ‘This property belongs to the Sengundha Mudaliyars’ – another intermediate caste – announces the writing on the compound wall. On the other side of the wall is a portrait of Gandhi.
The gyms of Sathuvachari, which have produced over a hundred weightlifters till date, should not be mistaken as state-of-the-art. They are hardly that. A layman can mistake them for store rooms, where iron rods and weights are kept, until a resident duly sheds light on what they are for real: cradle of champions.
The cradle is rather rudimentary, with some basic common factors – compact space, equipment of passable quality, no designated coach, pictures of Lord Hanuman, and a handful of disciplined men honing their lifting skills. Over the years, other gyms mushroomed, like Champion, New Champion and Blue Star to name a few. These are open to all without any restrictions. However, the competition could scarcely rob Atlas and Gandhiji, where admission is restricted to only those from the caste to which it is linked, of their sheen.
It is easy to miss Sathuvachari, especially the area where the gyms are. The place has produced world renowned lifters, but one still needs the State-run dairy, Aavin, to pinpoint the exact location along the Chennai-Bengaluru highway. In the early years, lifters used to seek permission from Aavin officials to get them weighed there, as the gym did not have a weighing machine.
When Atlas Gym was founded in the 70s, it was the first in the area to cater to the lesser tapped sports of body building and weightlifting. Atlas also promoted indigenous martial arts like Silambattam. Weightlifting gained prominence after it became a means to availing of government jobs. It is still seen as a sureshot way to land a job. The medals and accolades are just a bonus.
Master Shiva and Panchatcharan are credited with founding the gym in 1971. They started the facility from a small motor room in a coconut grove, before it moved to its present location near a small temple three years later. Panchatcharan died a few years ago, while Shiva is bed-ridden now. “They were studying at the Voorhees College in Vellore when their classmate, one Balan, won the Mr Vellore title. They were smitten by bodybuilding,” M Velu, Panchatcharan’s younger brother, says about the formative years of Atlas Gym.
Velu also happens to be one of the senior-most lifters to have benefited from the gym, landing a job in the Southern Railway. The facilities, Velu remembers, were primitive. “Grinding stones attached to crowbars used to be the training equipment.” It has not changed much. The training still is non-systematic, while the diet remains non-scientific. But Sathuvachari keeps on churning out lifters.
The first lifter to avail of a government job (1975), to participate in the Commonwealth Games (1978 and later in 1982, both silver) and to represent the country in the Olympics (1980) from Atlas gym was M Tamil Selvan. Now a retired Integral Coach Factory (ICF) employee, Selvan serves as the president of the Tamil Nadu Weightlifting Association.
Legend has it that the gyms started running on caste lines after a misunderstanding between two intermediate castes – Mutharayars and Sengundha Mudhaliyars – during a temple festival, which led to the latter forming their own gym. The honour board at Atlas makes it clearer. ‘Mutharaiyar Atlas Udarpayirchi Mandram –Velaiku sendra Nanbaralin Vivaram’ (Mutharayar Atlas Gym – Details of those who landed government jobs from this gym), it reads. Rio Olympian Satish Kumar’s is the 52nd name on the honour board. His father, N Sivalingam, also a lifter, features as the seventh.
Tamil Selvan says that though the gym was founded on caste lines, during his days, people from other castes were allowed to practice here. He was referring to G Devan, an Arjuna awardee, who participated in the 1984 Olympics.
A more concrete reason for the gyms being run on caste lines was given by K Mahendran, who accompanied Devan to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. “We had certain rules laid down by Master Shiva. However, people from the other castes did not adhere to it (the practice timings, for instance) and thus it was decided that only people from the Mutharayar community would train at Atlas Gym,” he says. Both Tamil Selvan and Devan have since parted ways with the gym.