Long before cricket went on to become nation’s obsession, Bezwada was under the spell of three popular contact sports – kusti (wrestling), chedugudu (kabaddi) and football. The traditional Indian sport – kusti - fought on soil, used to hold importance and rural folk showed unbridled interest in mastering the grappling manoeuvres on a mud pit.
Less-cricket-more-kusti was the order of the day and celebrity wrestlers like Dara Singh and Pakistan’s Gama were the pin-up boys of the teenagers of the bygone era.
The bustling One Town was once the hub of wrestling activities and kusti doddis run by Adapa Ramulu, Nalla Butchaiah, Kandhi Narasimhulu and Pyla Ramulu dotted the landscape. “The site of the present corporation building was once a kusti doddi or an ‘akhada’. Places like Wynchipet, Railway Institute, Nagarala Kalyana Mandapam, Gymkhana Grounds, Tummalapalli Kala Kshetram, Sarabhayya Gudulu and Hindu High School had mud pits and youngsters used to practice hard to grow as pehlwans,” recollects octogenarian and national-level wrestler Kandhi Gangadhara Rao. Youngsters who yearned to emerge strong and fit used to stitch a langota or langoti - a traditional style of Indian loincloth worn as underwear - and head towards a kusti doddi. Sundays witnessed nerve-racking bouts featuring both professional and amateur musclemen and the organisers deployed rickshaws fixed with public address systems to announce the fights. “Hype was created those days to attract the crowd. The city walls were full of posters highlighting the fights. People used to throng the kusti dangis (platforms) in large numbers,” he adds.
Organisers staged celebrity bouts pitching famous wrestlers against each other by offering prize money running into lakhs. Famous freestyle wrestlers like Dara Singh, Gama and King Kong enthralled the sports lovers by showcasing their hand-to-hand combat. “Tickets were sold out in no time and we had chairs, benches and gallery to accommodate spectators,” says Rao.
Says octogenarian Andavalli Satyanarayana, former secretary of Andhra Gymkhana: “The huge physique of Gama is still fresh in my memory. He was of the size of an elephant and people milled around him with curiosity”.
As Bezwada was centrally located, well-known wrestlers from north and west India like Bhim, Chandgi Ram, Halappa, Wadi Ayoub, Malwa, Mehruddin, and Ajit Singh visited the city to take part in prize-money bouts.
Veterans fondly remembered the role of film baddie Nellore Kantha Rao in the promotion of wrestling in and around Bezwada. “His weekly bouts were a huge success as it gave a platform for both professionals and amateurs to showcase their skills. Nellore Kantha Rao used to draw huge crowds and his bout once held at Eluru compelled railway authorities to run a special train owing to the huge turnout of spectators,” says Kandhi Appa Rao, who runs a gymnasium atop Gandhi Hill.
Star value
For wrestlers of the generation winning a silver mace (gadha) was important as it added star value to their personality. “The vanquished used to get a silver bucket”, recollects Appa Rao.
The role of R. Munuswamy, a disciple of Nellore Kantha Rao, is worth mentioning as his arrival from Nellore ignited the wrestling activities in Bezwada. This champion-wrestler inspired many youngsters and he began nurturing precious talent such as Gangadhara Rao, Appa Rao, Purandar and Kanaka Rao and soon wrestling emerged as a buzzword among the city youth. Sri Hanuman Railway Vyayamasala in Poornanandampet, equipped with a mud pit, was (is) the prominent one and it has produced several state and national-level wrestlers. Munuswamy, who retired as office superintendent in South Central Railways, played a crucial role in his sishyas getting railway jobs. The traditional mud sport, which once meant glory, respect and power, is fast dwindling and the introduction of new rules by the International Wresting Federation (IWF) has forced wrestlers to learn the grappling tricks on synthetic mats. “The mud pit is only used for exercises now,” says former wrestler and Chandgi Ram’s son Jagdish Kaliraman.
With the growing number of swanky gymnasiums and aerobic centres, the youngsters are evincing interest in weight-lifting and bodybuilding pushing kusti to the oblivion.
At an age when people prefer to walk cautiously to avoid a fall, the 80-plus Gangadhara Rao spends some time at the wrestling pit with his disciples. “Spend just one hour at a wrestling pit, plough the mud and see the difference it makes in your breathing pattern. You live longer,” says the vivacious Gangadhara Rao.
