Talk:Outdoor Sports:Wrestling
By Vishal Agarwal and The Hindu Society of Minnesota
Mallayuddha (called ‘mallayuddha’) is a universal sport also practiced by the peoples for several thousand years. A scholar wrote a
reasons, Indian wrestlers were highly esteemed in the world till the late 19th century CE. In the epics, Kṛṣṇa, His brother Balarāma and the Pāṇḍava Prince Bhīma are celebrated as great wrestlers who used their skills to even defeat and kill evil-doers. Many later saints are also celebrated for their physical fitness and skill at wrestling, like Śrī Madhvācārya (12th–13th century CE). The following story from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa illustrates Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma defeating and killing the evil king Kaṃsa and his minions to punish them for killing Kṛṣṇa’s siblings in their infancy and for suppressing the common people in their kingdom.
'Kṛṣṇa kills Kaṃsa in Wrestling':
One day, Ṛṣi Nārada reached Mathurā and revealed to Kaṃsa that the eighth child of Devakī was none other than Kṛṣṇa. Kaṃsa thought that this is the right time to kill Kṛṣṇa. He arranged a wrestling match and invited Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma – who were little boys, to the tournament. In the wrestling gym, Kaṃsa asked two hugewrestlers Cānūra and Muṣṭika to kill the two boys. But instead, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma killed them. Then, Kaṃsa insulted Kṛṣṇa, who then charged towards the throne of Kaṃsa and killed him. Everyone was overjoyed to see the evil king finally killed. Kṛṣṇa then went to the jail and freed his parents Vasudeva and Devakī, as well as Ugrasena, the father of Kaṃsa.