Kushti

This ancient discipline has a history of at least 5000 years, competitions organised for entertainment were popular among all social classes, with the participation of kings and other nobles. The wrestlers represented their kings in the challenges between rival kingdoms; the deadly challenges before the royal court served as a way to resolve disputes and avoid large-scale wars. Therefore, professional wrestlers have always been held in high esteem. Even today this fight is practised in the gyms-monastry called Akhara, devoted to the monkey god Hanuman, the protector of the wrestlers.Now most of the wrestlers come from the less wealthy social classes but many of them are also members of the army. The photos were taken in 2017 in the Kholapur and Mumbai district where this discipline is particularly engrained.