Exemplary Lives

The incorporation of ascetic values into the practice of everyday life entails individual subscription to ethical principles. On account of this, it is not surprising that the wrestler is often recognized as an exemplary person. Unlike the sannyasi who is recognized for the extent and nature of his austerities and for the power of his spirituality, the wrestler is recognized for his work in the world. To be sure, wrestlers are remembered for the bouts they fight and win, but they are also recognized for the kind of men they are. A few examples are illustrative.

The following is the story of Mangala Rai as told by Parmanand Shukla of Ghazipur (n.d.). Although not an exact translation of Shukla’s prose, I have sought to capture the flavor of a rhetorical, literary style that serves to embellish the facts of an exemplary wrestling biography:

As peaceful and sincere as the full moon, deeper than the ocean itself and more brilliant than the sky above, Mangala Rai, the essence of wrestling and well-known pahalwan, established such a high national standard, and gave Ghazipur and Uttar Pradesh such eminence, that he will not soon be forgotten, much less equalled. This wonder of Ghazipur and Uttar Pradesh was born on the pure and eternal soil of the holy Ganga. Champion wrestlers like Kamar, Amir Phutte, Hori Nariyan Singh, Hanuman Pande and Raj Nariyan Rai as well as others, were all born in Ghazipur, have glorified the earth of that district, and have advanced the nation’s pride through their art.

In Ghazipur Vijaya Dashmi is a grand festival which commemorates Ram’s victory over the southern Kingdom of Lanka. On this occasion Ram heroically defeated the forces of Ravana’s demonic culture and established a new standard of respectability and truth throughout the country. People break from their routine and visit one another or else go to fairs on this day.

I was inspired on this occasion to go and have an audience with Mangala Rai, who, with heroism, abnegation and energy had established another standard; a standard of wrestling throughout India.

Along the green banks of the Ganga, where I had to go, the land is fertile and the people are well off. On this festive occasion I arrived in the village of Musahib as dusk was approaching and found Mangala Rai seated on a cot next to the door of his home reading a Dinman magazine. Upon catching sight of me he graciously asked that I be seated and inquired after my health. Then we began to talk.

I was surprised that he was as strong and fit as ever, despite his age. There was no sign of his getting older at all. This narrow-waisted, broad-shouldered, hard body, radiant with the glory of great achievements, seemed to throw out a challenge: Is there a wrestler in this country who is my equal?

Mangala Rai, the wrestler who showed us the gems of this art, was born in the month of Kunwar, 1916, in the village of Musahib. His father was Ramchandar Rai. Ramchandar and his brother, Radha Rai, were both great wrestlers of their time. Kamala Rai, Mangala Rai’s younger brother, was also a great wrestler. Ramchandar and Radha Rai both lived in Rangoon where they practiced and exercised in an akhara. Radha Rai was the more accomplished of the two and he trained his nephews on the finer points of wrestling.

I asked Mangala Rai when he started wrestling in the akhara and when his first competitive bout was. He said that he started wrestling at age sixteen and didn’t compete until a year later. He was good enough so that from the start he was matched up with good, strong wrestlers so that his skill and experience developed accordingly. The great wrestler Shiv Murat Tiwari from Vabhanpura, Jalhupur, Varanasi district was also in Rangoon at this time and Mangala Rai benefited greatly from his instruction. After some time Mangala Rai and his brother returned to their village in Uttar Pradesh.

From the very beginning these two young men led a simple and unpretentious life. They were so neat and tidy that one could not find so much as a stain on their clothes. Another feature of their character was that they always provided food and facilities for any wrestler who stayed with them.

For many years Mangala Rai did not have the opportunity to live in his village. Someone or the other was always making demands on his time. He had become so famous for his numerous victories in Rangoon that daily people would come to see him. Sri Dharam Dev Pande was one such person, a great fan of wrestling from Gorur village. Now, just as Vishwamitra called on Raja Dashrat and asked that Ram and Lakshman be sent to his ashram to pursue their training, so did Dharam Dev Pande call Mangala Rai and Kamala Rai to his own village so that they could improve their skill. There was always a crowed gathered to watch these two wrestlers working out. After gazing on their wrestling prowess, their moves and countermoves, and on their tall, hard physiques, all who came to watch were left dumbfounded.

Living on the banks of the Ganga, bathing in the Ganga and spending some time in secluded self-reflection are some of Mangala Rai’s most cherished pleasures. There is always a book of one kind or another in his hands.

The people of Narayanpur, in Ghazipur district, were very keen that Mangala Rai come and stay among them. Being of a passive disposition Mangala Rai was not able to refuse the people of Narayanpur. Arrangements were made for an akhara to be constructed in a grove near the Ganga, and Mangala Rai’s daily needs were also provided for. Vishwamitra’s airy ashram, Buxar, is just on the other bank of the Ganga from this grove. Mangala Rai further developed his skill while living in this place by wrestling with twenty or twenty-five wrestlers, three times with each. Dukhram of Darbhanga, Sukhdev of Azamgarh, Mathura’s Mohan Chaube, Kamala Rai, Brahmachari Rai, Mathura Rai, and Baleshwar Pahalwan, among many other great wrestlers, all came to stay and practice with Mangala Rai. Mangala provided for their diet and personally looked out for their welfare.

Mangala Rai’s fabulous success and great national fame may be attributed to the fact that upon returning from Rangoon he fought with the great Mustafa Pahalwan of Allahabad and Varanasi. He applied his favorite moves, tang and baharali, with such perfection and power that those who were watching were awestruck. His fame spread like wildfire and in his thirty-second year he had to fight some one hundred bouts.

Mangala Rai himself explained to me his regimen: four thousand bethaks, two thousand five hundred dandas and three sessions each with twenty or twenty-five wrestlers. Sometimes he would undertake other kinds of exercise as well. Mangala Rai weighs three and a half maunds [288 pounds] and is six feet tall. In addition to bread, dal, and vegetables, he used to eat half a liter of ghi, two liters of milk, a kilogram of almonds and occasionally some fruit and juice.

Mangala Rai is fond of saying that anyone can be a guru, but the true guru is one who trains and cares for his disciples as he would his own sons. He must teach them complex and great ideas. Mangala Rai’s original trainer and guru was his uncle. His true guru is the late Sri Mahadev Pande (Pandeji) of Varanasi who was like a father to him. Remembering Pandeji, Mangala Rai becomes grave and contemplative.

Mangala Rai is of the opinion that at the present time wrestlers are becoming enamored with fashion and frivolity and have lost sight of the essential principles of the art. They are caught up in a materialist, consumer culture and are dragging the art of wrestling down with them. He is an advocate of unlocking each wrestler’s individual potential. He has kept clear of rural politics, and has instead worked tirelessly at developing character. Mangala Rai says that the life of a wrestler is no less than the life of a yogi. Only by engaging in this magnificent regimen can wrestling continue to develop.

Now that Mangala Rai no longer wrestles he has become a hard-working and successful farmer who owns a tractor. His discipline and industriousness can be seen in this area as well. Now Mangala Rai’s good character and sage counsel is taken advantage of by those who need advice and those who need a dispute resolved.

Another exemplary life history is that of Brahmdev Pahalwan as recounted by Govardan Das Malhotra (1981: 68–70). The literary style of presentation again serves to evoke an image of greatness:

Accomplished wrestlers are regarded as saints. Just as saints and great sages renounce the world of illusion and deceit and become absorbed in god, so do wrestlers have to focus themselves and lose themselves in their art. If his concentration should even slightly waver and his pace falter then it is certain that he will end up as the lowest of low and no better than a person who grovels in the dirt.

Wrestling is unique among India’s ancient arts. From the beginning wrestling practice has been done on the ground, in the soil. Among those who have practiced wrestling there are many who have made a name for themselves and have built up the nation’s standard. Among these, Brahmdev Pahalwan—the Lion of Uttar Pradesh—earned a reputation for his guru, the nationally known Chandan Pahalwan. Such skill as he demonstrated is rarely seen in your average wrestler.

A devotee of Baba Gorkhanath; a nobleman of Gorakhpur; a patron of wrestling, the late Babu Purushotam Das provided Brahmdev with the venue—Pakki Bagh Akhara—in which he performed, exercised and thereby gave his admirers such satisfaction. What fame he achieved may be attributed to his true commitment, deep concentration and self-consciousness. Today this straightforward man, advocate for the poor and under-privileged, and tireless political worker is no longer with us, but those in Gorakhpur—nay, the entire state—cannot live without recalling Brahmdev’s great skill.

Brahmdev was born the youngest son of Mahadev Mishra in Rudrapur, Khajni Gram, near the Bansgaon thesil of Gorakhpur district in 1917. Khajni is a veritable pilgrimage point for wrestlers. Brahmdev’s grandfather, father and brothers were all wrestlers, so how could he have been anything else! He regularly went to the village akhara with his father where he rolled around and covered himself with earth. The aura of so many great wrestlers must have rubbed off on Brahmdev and served to focus his attention on wrestling.

On account of his devotion to the akhara, Brahmdev’s formal education ended in middle school. However, being from a Brahman family and living in an intellectual community he learned the Ramayan very well and was able to quote Sanskrit verses with great proficiency. In addition to being a wrestler, Brahmdev took an interest in politics and was an accomplished public speaker. As a village pradhan [head man] and Block Officer he served the public well.

Brahmdev enjoyed his life in the peaceful environment of the village akhara. He exercised and ate to his heart’s content. In the city akhara of Pakki Bagh he became a disciple of Chandan Singh and thereby followed a more rigorous regimen and improved his skill. In local tournaments he sought out wrestlers bigger and stronger than himself and regularly defeated them. When he defeated the great Surti Pahalwan in a Gorakhpur tournament the fans’ excitement was unbounded. He also defeated a European wrestler in Gorakhpur.

Brahmdev’s daily work-out consisted of two thousand five hundred bethaks and one thousand six hundred dands. After running he would wrestle with twenty-five good wrestlers. He was most accomplished in the nikal, tang, and multani moves. Any opponent who was subjected to these moves would most certainly “see the sky.”

His diet included one seer (a quarter measure) of ghi, six seers of milk, and thandai made from half a seer of almonds. He also enjoyed fruit and was a vegetarian. In Calcutta he exercised in the akhara at Mochi Pari Thana in Bara Bazaar where he instructed many great Bengali wrestlers.

According to Indian tradition he wore a dhoti and kurta with a dopatta around his neck and shoulders. With huge mustachios Brahmdev cut a very impressive figure. When he walked through the bazaar thousands of people would stand and watch while his many disciples would compete for the honor of touching his feet.

Brahmdev was married very young but had no children. However, he regarded his nephews as his own sons and personally looked out for them. He admonished the children of his family to pay particular attention to their studies. As someone who advocated education he was a model citizen until his death in 1975.

As indicated in chapter 3, Guru Fakir Chand Shukla is characterized by Ramkumar Shukla as “the embodiment of renunciation” (1973: 43). In fact, the ideal persona of a guru is perfectly congruent with the wrestler’s vision of worldly asceticism. Many of the founders of well-known akharas are remembered for their exemplary lifestyle of total devotion to hard work and rigorous self-discipline. In addition to establishing a well-known wrestling akhara, Fakir Chand Shukla gave away medicine to the poor and also built numerous temples. In and of itself this makes his life noteworthy. What is most exemplary about his life is that he worked for development by disregarding the formal manifestations of life and turned instead to a reform of the “inner man” (ibid: 47). Heroism and courage of this sort is achieved not through grand aspirations but rather through personal application on the level of everyday, mundane situations. As Ramkumar Shukla points out, Fakir Chand Shukla’s greatness was a manifestation of his small achievements (ibid). Although not at all diminutive, he was a quotidian hero.

Mahadev Pahalwan is also known for his worldly asceticism. Govardan Das Malhotra writes: “Mahadev Pahalwan was born to a gwal [dairy farming] family but he was born for wrestling and wrestling alone, and he died doing the work of a wrestler. This exemplary wrestler who embodied self-respect was regarded as a saint by the people of Kanpur” (1981: 30). There are numerous other wrestlers who are referred to as saints or sadhus; for instance, Bhagwan Singh Narayan Wale, a follower of Swami Dayananda who lived in a community of wrestlers in the forest outside of his village (Atreya 1979; Sinha 1978: 12), and Mangaldas, who renounced the world at age eleven and later became the “spiritual teacher” of other wrestlers (Malhotra 1981: 19). Atreya tells the story of Ramsanehi Pahalwan of Kakare, a village near Moradabad. At the age of thirty-two Ramsanehi left his family and spent eight years practicing the “extreme austerities” of wrestling. No one in his village saw him until he emerged from seclusion to defend his father, who was embroiled in a village dispute. For all his austerities, however, Ramsanehi was a Jat farmer whose life revolved around the mundane tasks of irrigation, plowing, and planting.

One of the many stories told about Gama, the world-champion wrestler, reaffirms the value placed on austerity and simplicity as an exemplary virtue. Gama was asked by a young man what he should do to achieve great strength and skill. Reflecting on the question and considering the great discipline required of a wrestler Gama said, simply, “do eleven dands and bethaks a day, eat a handful of chana, and think on god.” Exemplary wrestlers, whether they be well-known gurus or local champions, have succeeded in fully integrating devotional spirituality with disciplined exercise.

All exemplary wrestlers are remembered for the extent of their self-discipline. However, it is their life in the world that is regarded as noteworthy and meritorious. Like Ramsanehi, many wrestlers are simple farmers who turned their labor into a form of spiritual exercise. They draw strength from plowing fields, pulling water from wells, and turning grindstones and oil presses (Atreya 1979: 41). Mangaldas sang hymns and read the scriptures while tending his feed store in Kanpur. Fakir Chand Shukla was, among other things, a pharmacist whose healing practice was informed by his spiritual temperament. Without wishing to romanticize, it may be noted that many of the most highly regarded senior wrestlers in Banaras—Lallu Pahalwan, Nathu Lal Yadav, Lakshmi Kant Pande, and many others—fall into this category, not because they are saints, by any means, but because they have a vision of the future, to the attainment of which they have dedicated a good part of their lives.

Trying to characterize the wrestler’s personality, Atreya cites a passage from the Bhagavad Gita (7.11) where Krishna says, “In the strong I am strength unhindered by lust” (1971: 27, translation from Prabhavananda and Isherwood 1975: 90). In quoting this passage Atreya’s point is that even when wrestlers seem to have renounced the world, the nature of their austerities are still active rather than passive. The wrestler’s strength is readily translated into commonsense, everyday terms; the sannyasi’s austerities are not.

From his perspective—somewhat outside and yet implicated in social life—a wrestler’s vision of the world is quite different from either that of the worldly householder or the asocial ascetic. By virtue of his somewhat liminal condition as a moral individual in the world, the wrestler is able to look beyond the horizon of the taken-for-granted social order and see, or more properly imagine, a different paradigm for sociosomatic action.