Originals · Guru Hanuman Akhada, Delhi

Delhi Akhada

A documentary by Indian Sports Journal. Sixty seconds inside the North Delhi akhada where Guru Hanuman built a nursery for Indian wrestling, and where Maha Singh Rao still runs the pit.

A documentary by Indian Sports Journal · Trailer, 60 seconds · Shakti Nagar, Delhi

The akhada’s board says 1928. The akhada began as the Birla Mill Vyayamshala, and Vijay Pal Yadav — Guru Hanuman, a Padma Shri — made it the nursery of Indian kushti. Satpal Singh and Kartar Singh, both Asian Games champions, came out of its earth.

Since Guru Hanuman’s death in 1999 it has been run by Maha Singh Rao, a Dronacharya awardee. His own story starts in a village. “In our village, there was a passion for wrestling and kabaddi,” he says in the film.

The camera stays for a day: the pit dug and turned, the rope, the iron, the mat hall, and the wrestlers rolling rotis between sessions.

A spade turns the earth of the akhada pitA wrestler climbs the rope in the courtyardTwo wrestlers grip in the courtyardWrestlers drill in pairs in the mat hall
Wrestlers cook rotis on a gas stove between sessionsWrestlers train on the mats in the indoor hallOld iron plates and dumbbells in the earthA wrestler sits in the pit after training
Sources. The founding date is from the akhada’s own board; other accounts give 1925. Guru Hanuman and Maha Singh Rao: Wikipedia and The Better India. The quotation is from the film’s subtitles.