WarYoga

Ancient Metaphysical Culture

grappling

The Lost Art of Vajramuśti

Vajramuśti

In 2021, I went to the town of Vadodara in the Gujarat searching for an ancient from of Indian wrestling called Vajramuśti (pronounced Vajramushti).

Vajramuśti is a style of wrestling that was laid out in the medieval Mallapurana wrestling treatise. Performed by a high caste Brahmin clan known as the Jyesthimallas, the art utilises a vajra: a buffalo horn spiked knuckleduster that is strapped to one hand of each wrestler. The tool is used for striking as well as joint manipulation.

It is the most brutal grappling style in Indian history.

Vadodara is a major town in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat. I planned a trip there based around visiting three living akharas as well as trying to pick up a trail that went cold back in the 1980s.

Back in the mid-1980s, an Australian martial artist named John Will went to the city armed with a few photos and a copy of the Mallapurana in Sanskrit. Through some great logical detective work he found himself on the doorstep of the last living true Jyesthimalla Vajramuśti practitioners in the world. He then spent a few weeks learning from Śri Sitaram and his brother. His experience can be found here.

Before visiting Vadodara, I contacted John to see if I could glean any further information from him. He gave me a few memories that helped me try to pick up the trail. I found the old temple he described in the ancient narrow streets of Vadodara. Opposite, the buildings that once stood there had been torn down in the 1990s.

After wandering the neighbourhood for a few hours, I asked a local man who was sitting on his doorstep if he knew the Jyethimalla family. He remembered them. The younger generation had moved away from the town. I stayed a little longer, hoping to find an abandoned akhara, but alas, “progress” had done what it always seems to do for the traditions it deems valueless.

I told John who, while not surprised, was saddened to know his predictions were true. We talked a little of the annual Vajramuśti matches in Mysore Palace in Karnataka. John told me how the performance was a shadow of the brutal art he gained an insight into in the 1980s. From what I have seen, I would have to agree with him.

The ancient sport of Vajramuśti seems to have been reduced to a performance spectacle played out annually during the Mysore Dasara Festival. The combatants work a choreographed version of the sport and the referees ensure that nobody is seriously attacked.

I have been informed by a contact in India that there is still a garadi in Mysore that teaches the style to a limited number of students, but whether they are taught the full Jyesthimalla version of Vajramuśti remains to be discovered. My travels will one day lead me to Mysore where I will once again pick up the trail for Vajramuśti.

Thanks to Harjit Singh for the image used in this article. It depicts two Vajramuśti wrestlers in 1792.

Grappling and WarYoga

WarYoga-Grappling

Grappling has always been an intrinsic part of WarYoga. The vyayam exercises come from Indian wrestling culture and the the name WarYoga has its origins in Jiu Jitsu.

While the WarYogin need not be a grappler, he must understand the roots of the physical practice which lie in Indian kushti wrestling. While the rhythmic exercises of grappling were once a pan-Indo-European phenomenon, Indian vyayam is one of the last living vestiges.

The exercises are designed to make a grappler stronger, more powerful, faster, more explosive and have greater endurance. They simulate movements used by grapplers, allowing muscle memory to do the work when the time to fight arrives.

The WarYogin performs the exercises with a single-mindedness. The highly regimented and structured vyayam element of his practice has a foil in the free-form grappling practice: “jor” in kushti, “rolling” in Jiu Jitsu parlance. This is where the flow state enacts the movements that have been implanted into the body through the systematic work.

It is during competition that grappling and WarYoga align the most. The spiritual practices of WarYoga, along with the exercises prepare the WarYogin for the physical and psychological rigours of facing one or more opponents who are seeking to defeat him. In practice, his teammates prepare the him with some give and take, allowing the WarYogin to work his game and perfect his craft. In competition, the WarYogin meets is given no quarter from those he squares off against. He gives none too. He stands alone. He represents his tradition and lineage, as well as his own unique story up to this point.

The name WarYoga also has its origins in grappling. To learn more, read the roots of WarYoga.

To get more from your WarYoga practice, get your copy of WarYoga by Tom Billinge and dive deep into this ancient Indo-European meta-physical tradition.