Mardani Khel of Kolhapur
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The mardani martial art
The Times of India, Aug 02 2015
Samrat Phadnis
Featured in British rapper M.I.A.'s recent hit music video, mardani khel is drawing more young women to self-defense classes
Sarla Gaikwad, 21, is a mild mannered college student in Kolhapur. But, when she picks up a sword, she transforms into a power house of speed and agility .The steel blade in her hands becomes a blur as she whirls it swiftly. Gaikwad is an expert in mardani khel, a martial art indigenous to Kolhapur region of Maharashtra.“I can wield swords, dand patta (long swords) and kathi (bamboo stick) with ease. I don't remembe if I was ever scared of venturing out in the dark or walking alone on the streets at night as I have grown up learning mardani khel,“ she says.
Mardani khel (manly sport), which traces its history to Maratha warriors, includes 14 ways to wield a sword, sticks and other weap ons. Like all good martial arts, it also teaches you the weaknesses of the human anatomy in attack mode.
Mardani khel has found itself a global audience after British rapper of MIA, a British rapper of Sri Lankan Tamil origin (her real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam), released her new video `Matadatah Scroll 01 Broader than a Border' on July 13. The video shot, in Maharashtra and Cote d'Ivoire, opens with the clash of swords that blends into a musical arrangement.There are girls in black displaying their skills in mardani khel on the ghats of the Panchganga river in Kolhapur. There's even a shot of the signature move of a master slicing a vegetable placed on a student's neck with a sword.
“Three years ago, I got a call from a person who was familiar with my work. They wanted to shoot a group of us performing at Panchganga. We played for an hour and a half without a break,“ says khel expert Snehal Murkute, 27, who appears in the video. The former Kolhapur resident is now a school teacher in Kopar Khairane in Navi Mumbai and teaches the khel to youngsters.
Senior trainers, known as vastads, in older parts of Kolhapur are equally generous about teaching enthusiastic youngsters. Babasaheb Tibile, Anandrao Thombare and Pandit Powar are all mardani khel masters but do other jobs to earn a livelihood. Kolhapur used to be the centre of the Maratha kingdom which spread over southern and western pockets of Maharashtra. The city and the villages around it had talims (training centres) where skilled elders prepared youngsters for war. After the revolt of 1857, the British banned the use of weapons and the talims were forced to turn mardani khel into a folk game to ensure its survival. The use of weapons such as swords, katyar (dagger), lathi-kathi (bamboo sticks), veeta (darts), bhala (javelin) and dand and patta (long-bladed swords) continued but the moves were made much more stylish and less lethal.
Today, there are more than 12 organizations and talims in Kolhapur where vastads and new-age physical trainers teach mardani khel. At least 1,500 youngsters train at these centres every year.
