HISTORY OF KABADDI

The Kabaddi game is the oldest game as sour Indian culture. The origin of team pursuit game is lost in gauzy mists of time, but there is evidence the Kabaddi is about 4,000 years old and some claim that lord Krishna enjoyed playing Kabaddi. Kabaddi is one of the ancient forms of outdoor sports, and its origin can be traced to prehistoric times when man pitched himself against predatory beasts in a fight for food, before the advent of weapons. It was primarily invented for developing self defence, responses to attack and reflexes of counter attack by individuals and by group or teams. The Indian epic, Mahabharat describes a battle between the warrior Abhimanayu of the Pandavas, with the seven Kauravas, inside the enemy camp. He managed to penetrate their seven tiered defence, but died because he did not know the way out. Kabaddi aims to develop the skills of self defence, attack as well as survival.

The game was played all over the country in various forms. It was known as HU-TU-TU in Western India, HA-DO-DO in Eastern Indian and Bangladesh, CHEDUGUDU in Southern Indian, KAUNBADA and various other names in Northern India. Kabaddi may have been derived from the term of 'KAUNBADA' which means a challenge to the opponent some of the major forms of the game are Amar, Gemini, Sanjeevini and the game was played as per situation with flexible rules. All these forms were synthesised to the present form of Kabaddi, but the federation has adopted the Sanjeevini system with several changes in the rules and regulations.

Sanjeevini is the present form of Kabaddi is which players ware put out and received in this form. The consisted of 9 players and the match was played for 40 minutes with a 5 minutes rest in between. The team which scored more points was declared the winner at the end of the 40 minutes. "Lona" system was adopted in this form. The team which put out all the opponents scored lona will get 4 extra points. The rules and regulations were brought out in print for the first time in 1923 by Hind Vijay Zymkhana Club Baroda and an All India Competition was conducted the same year at Baroda on the basis of these rules. The game received International exposure during the 1936 Olympic Games at Berlin when it was demonstrated by the Hanuman Vyayam Prasarak Mandal, Amaravati and it received good appreciation.

Kabaddi was introduced in the India Olympic games at Calcutta in 1952. An All India Kabaddi Federation came into existence during 1952 and the first president was Shri L.K. Godbole. New rules were framed in 1953 by Shri Thube, general secretary of Kabaddi Federation of India, National Kabaddi Championship for men section was held at Nagpur in 1953 and in the championship first time a women section demonstration match was played and since 1955 national Kabaddi championship of women section was also organised alongwith the men section. Efforts were made to demonstrate the game in the world youth festival held at Moscow in 1957 by unfortunate due to various reasons this could not be accomplished.