Almonds

Along with buckets of milk and large volumes of ghi, wrestlers eat enormous quantities of almonds. Almonds are clearly masculine, for they are to the male seed as milk is to female creativity.

Almonds are used in making pharmaceutical cures for the “night emission” of semen (Ramsanehi Dixit n.d.: 13). However, most references to the almond’s curing agency focus on mental disorders rather than on illnesses with an overtly somatic sexual manifestation: impotency, premature ejaculation, and the like (ibid: 11–20). In this regard there is an interesting parallel suggested between almonds and semen. Semen is said to be located in a reservoir in the head (Carstairs 1958: 86; O’Flaherty 1980: 46; Spratt 1966: 91, 95–96). I am not qualified to speak on the medical dimension of this correlation, but the symbolism is suggestive on an overt level. In many instances a person who engages in too much illicit sex is regarded as mentally unstable, and the telltale symptoms are, among other things, sunken eyes and a pallid complexion. I think it is clear that the eyes are sunken and the complexion pallid because the head has been drained of semen. The almonds play some role in restoring mental stability by revitalizing the reservoir.

Wrestlers prepare almonds in a way which is also suggestive of this symbolic equation between semen and almonds. Along with the stereotype of the milk-drinking wrestler is the almond-grinding wrestler, who spends hours with mortar and pestle (a strong sexual symbol in its own right) mashing his almonds into a thick, rich, golden paste. He mixes this paste with honey and milk and drinks it as a postpractice tonic.

At some akharas mashing almonds is done in tandem with the preparation of bhang (hashish). Almonds and bhang are often prepared in the same way insofar as bhang has to be smashed and ground into a paste. Many non-wrestlers associate bhang and the preparation of bhang paste with akharas. In this context, bhang and almonds are often associated with one another. The two pastes are occasionally drunk together when diluted and mixed into a potion called thandai. (Thandai can also refer to any cool drink made of mixed substances, usually milk, nuts, and fruits.)

Popular stereotypes aside, wrestlers have a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards bhang (Negi 1987). A number of them said that bhang is used by wrestlers for the same reason that it is used by ascetics: to control desire. While it may be true that many ascetics use bhang in order to enhance their divine passion, rather than inhibit sexuality, wrestlers do not put much credence in this interpretation. One wrestler said that bhang calms and focuses a person’s mind. The problem with bhang, however, is that it has recreational uses which can undermine self-control. As many wrestlers pointed out, bhang can be dangerous because it makes one lazy, idle, and self-absorbed. One becomes listless rather than strong. If used properly, however, bhang is a substance that subverts passion, and in this capacity it is associated with akharas. It is quite possible, as both Lynch (1990: 103, 104) and Kumar (1988: 112, 113) have pointed out, that the consumption of bhang in akharas is also an aspect of other ideals, namely the shauk (hobby or passion) of affected leisure which is part of Banarsi culture, or the passionate mastram identity of Mathura Chaubes. However, most serious wrestlers look on this as a recreational and therefore dubious use of bhang.

In any case, where almonds are associated with bhang, one has, once again, an instance of sexual power generated on the one hand while held in check on the other. A bhang and almond thandai is essentially the same thing as ghi: extremely potent but very resilient and stable. Drinking the thandai potion, a wrestler affects the same motif of the milk-drinking snake.

I have never heard a wrestler draw a parallel between almond paste and semen, but given the overarching concern wrestlers have with sexuality—the congruent symbolism of milk and ghi, the clear imagery of mortar and pestle, the implicit correlation between an almond seed/nut and the procreative male seed, and finally, the juxtaposition of bhang and almonds—it is possible to say that almond symbolism contributes to the more explicit themes of contained sexuality which structure the conceptual framework of the akhara.