Martial Arts and Traditional Sports of India: Notes

The correct answer is B, Kerala. Kalaripayattu belongs to Kerala, takes its name from the kalari, the arena in which it is taught, and is usually described as among the oldest surviving martial arts in the world. Its signature weapon is the urumi, a long flexible sword, and its training runs from body conditioning through wooden weapons and metal weapons to bare hands. Option A is wrong because Tamil Nadu gives Silambam, fought with a bamboo staff, and Kuttu Varisai, the unarmed art. Option C is wrong; Karnataka is associated with Vajra Mushti, wrestling with a knuckleduster shown at Mysore Dasara. Option D is wrong because Manipur gives Thang-Ta, Sarit Sarak and Cheibi Gad-ga. Candidates sometimes pick Tamil Nadu because the art is southern, so fix Kalaripayattu to Kerala and to the word kalari.

The correct answer is B, a long bamboo staff. Silambam is the staff art of Tamil Nadu, and the length of bamboo, usually about the height of the practitioner, is what identifies it in any list of weapons. Option A is wrong because the flexible sword is the urumi and it belongs to Kalaripayattu of Kerala, the art most often set against Silambam in the same question. Option C is wrong; the spear is the ta of Thang-Ta in Manipur and the shield appears in Gatka of Punjab as the farri and in Pari-Khanda of Bihar as the pari. Option D is wrong because the knuckleduster belongs to Vajra Mushti of Karnataka, wrestling shown during the Mysore Dasara. Since papers often ask only for the weapon, memorise the pairs of art and weapon rather than descriptions of technique.

The correct answer is C, Manipur. Thang-Ta is the armed component of the Manipuri martial system called Huyen Langlon, where thang means sword and ta means spear, while the unarmed component is called Sarit Sarak. Option A is wrong because Mizoram is associated with Inbuan wrestling, a belt wrestling contest in which kicking is barred and the knee may not be bent, and with Insuknawr or rod push. Option B is wrong; no classical martial art in the standard examination list is fixed to Nagaland. Option D is wrong because Assam gives the traditional ball game Dhopkhel, played in the spring season, not Thang-Ta. Manipur is the densest state in this chapter, since Cheibi Gad-ga, Sagol Kangjei, Yubi Lakpi and Hiyang Tannaba all belong to it as well, so learn them as one group.

The correct answer is B, Punjab. Gatka is the Punjabi martial art fought with the soti, a wooden stick, and the farri, a shield, and it is displayed at Sikh festivals such as Hola Mohalla. It was one of the indigenous disciplines brought into the Khelo India Youth Games from the 2021 edition. Option A is wrong; Haryana is known in sport for wrestling and boxing academies but not for a distinct traditional martial art in this list. Option C is wrong because Rajasthan is associated with Rajput sword traditions and the khanda as a weapon, yet Gatka is not a Rajasthani art. Option D is wrong; no standard martial art of the examination list is assigned to Jammu and Kashmir. Do not confuse the stick of Gatka with the stick used in Mardani Khel practice in Maharashtra, whose identifying weapon is the patta.

The correct answer is C, Himachal Pradesh. Thoda is the archery based contest of Himachal Pradesh, played around the Baisakhi season, in which two groups called the Pashi and the Saathi shoot blunt wooden arrows aimed below the knee of the opposing players, and dance and drumming accompany the contest. Option A is wrong; Uttarakhand shares the western Himalayan culture but Thoda is fixed to Himachal Pradesh in every standard list. Option B is wrong because Sikkim is associated with archery as a popular sport of Buddhist communities, yet Thoda as a named tradition is not Sikkimese. Option D is wrong because archery in Arunachal Pradesh and the north east generally is not organised as Thoda. The team names Pashi and Saathi are the surest way to identify this question, so learn them along with the state.

The correct answer is A, Maharashtra. Mardani Khel is the Maratha art of armed combat from Maharashtra, and it is identified by the patta, a straight sword fixed to a gauntlet that covers the forearm, and by the vita, a corded javelin. It grew out of the fighting methods of the hill forts of the Deccan. Option B is wrong; Gujarat has stick dances and folk contests but Mardani Khel is not placed there. Option C is wrong, and it is the useful distractor, because Madhya Pradesh appears in this chapter only as the state that declared Mallakhamb its state game in 2013. Option D is wrong because Goa has no distinct art of this name in the examination list. Fix the pair of patta and Maharashtra, since the weapon alone is often enough to answer.

The correct answer is B, Mizoram. Inbuan is the belt wrestling of Mizoram, in which a wrestler grips a belt worn round the waist of the opponent and must lift him off the ground; kicking is not allowed and the knee may not be bent, and stepping outside the circle loses the bout. Option A is wrong because Meghalaya is known for archery contests but not for Inbuan. Option C is wrong; Tripura has its own folk games yet Inbuan is not among them. Option D is wrong, and it is the sharpest distractor, because Manipur has a long wrestling tradition of its own called Mukna, and candidates who remember only that the north east is involved often choose Manipur. Mizoram also gives Insuknawr, the rod push contest, so keep the two Mizo entries together.

The correct answer is C, Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh declared Mallakhamb its state game in 2013, and the question survives in paper after paper because the art itself is associated with Maharashtra, where it was revived in the nineteenth century as training for wrestlers. Option A is therefore the trap: Maharashtra is the home of the art but it is not the state that adopted it as its state game. Option B is wrong; Chhattisgarh has no such declaration on record in the standard lists. Option D is wrong because Rajasthan is not linked to Mallakhamb at all. Read the stem carefully in such questions, since a paper setter can ask either where the art comes from or which state adopted it, and the two answers are different. Mallakhamb was also among the indigenous games added to the Khelo India Youth Games from 2021.

The correct answer is B, polo. Sagol Kangjei is the Manipuri game played on ponies with a stick and a ball and is widely held to be the forerunner of modern polo, which British officers took up in Manipur and Cachar in the nineteenth century before it spread across the world; the Mapal Kangjeibung ground at Imphal is among the oldest polo grounds anywhere. Option A is wrong because field hockey developed separately and has no such Manipuri ancestry. Option C is wrong, though it is a reasonable guess, because the Manipuri game that resembles rugby is Yubi Lakpi, in which players carry a greased coconut to the goal. Option D is wrong; the archery tradition of the hills is Thoda in Himachal Pradesh. The word sagol means pony in Manipuri, which is a useful hook for remembering the answer.

The correct answer is C, Punnamada Lake at Alappuzha. The Nehru Trophy Boat Race has been rowed on Punnamada Lake at Alappuzha since 1952, when it was instituted after Jawaharlal Nehru watched a race there, and the boats used are the long snake boats called chundan vallam. Option A is wrong in the form given, because although Punnamada is part of the wider Vembanad backwater system, the race is not held at Kumarakom and the paper expects the name Punnamada. Option B is wrong; Ashtamudi Lake at Kollam hosts its own boat races but not the Nehru Trophy. Option D is wrong because Sasthamkotta is a freshwater lake and a Ramsar site, not a venue for this race. The general name for the Kerala boat race is Vallam Kali, and the Nehru Trophy is one event within that tradition.