Narrator: Fighting in mud,
training for hours,
and going years without seeing family.
This is kushti, a traditional form of Indian wrestling.
Mauli: To become a wrestler, you must give up everything else.
Narrator: Mauli Jamdade left his rural hometown when he was 15
to join this academy in Kolhapur.
Today he lives and trains
at the century-old Gangavesh Talim.
This sport is a way out of poverty
for many farming families.
In just over a decade,
Mauli has become one of the top fighters here,
earning up to $4,000 from one competition.
But India has shifted to favor wrestling
on the mat over mud.
And the tradition that goes back 2,500 years is dwindling.
So what does it take to be one of India's mud wrestlers?
And how is this traditional sport still standing?
Becoming a kushti fighter is all about discipline.
Mauli wakes up at 3:55 a.m. every day.
He starts his training sessions at dawn
with some of the other 200 wrestlers who live here.
They use their own and each other's body weight
to build strength.
Mauli: We have to use every part of the body to train and fight.
Narrator: They train six days a week,
often under coach Vishwas Hargule.
Mauli has been working with him since he joined the academy.
Vishwas: Go back to your places.
Mauli: He looked after me and coached me like one does their own child.
Narrator: Vishwas has trained over 1,000 kids,
and he doesn't go easy on them.
Vishwas: Come on! Use your strength.
Once the training is over, pamper them all you want.
But if you pamper them while training, they will get distracted.
Narrator: In the afternoon, they hit the mud pit.
Wrestlers warm up by preparing the dirt floor.
They clear away stones and smooth it out.
The dirt is mixed with turmeric, lemon, and salt
to help wrestlers' injuries heal faster.
It's swapped out every couple of years
and sent to smaller talims.
Many see the red soil as sacred, because without it,
they wouldn't have a career.
Mauli: People say if you get this arena's clay, you're blessed.
Narrator: Before a match, Mauli warms up his joints with oil
and starts planning.
Mauli: I think about my opponent and study what kind of moves he does
and what kind of moves I should do on him.
Narrator: Wrestlers cover themselves in dirt
at the start of each match to create more friction
between their bodies.
This is just practice, so there's no winner or loser.
But Mauli still gives it his all.
Mauli: Wrestlers are never satisfied. They never reach their destination.
Narrator: The goal is to pin the opponent's shoulders to the soil.
They use moves similar to other forms of wrestling,
like locks and throws.
Mauli and his opponent reapply the soil as they sweat
to get a better grip.
With their feet planted in the dirt, wrestlers move slowly.
A real match can last as long as one hour.
By the end, they're soaked in mud.
Mauli: After this many years, we're used to it.
The clay feels good on your body.
Narrator: Mauli isn't done for the day
when the practice match is over.
Mauli: The body is burnt out, but there is still some workout left to do.
Will finish that first.
Narrator: Mud wrestling has roots that date back
to at least the fifth century BC.
It evolved out of an ancient form of Indian wrestling
mixed with Persian martial arts.
The sport thrived in Kolhapur
at the turn of the 20th century.
The district's ruler, Shahu Maharaj, was a fan of the art
and built talims all over the region, including this one.
But mud fighting saw a shift about 15 years ago,
when India started prioritizing mat wrestling.
The government wanted its athletes
to compete internationally, so many talims had to adapt
and started investing in mats, including this one.
Vishwas: Training on the mat is necessary, because it can take you to the Olympics.
Narrator: But here, they still practice in the traditional mud pits,
because they believe it makes them better wrestlers
on the mat, too.
Vishwas: Every sport adapts and changes from time to time.
But we must keep the older ways intact.
Narrator: Mud-wrestling competitions, called dangals,
still draw crowds in Kolhapur.
And they always open with a ceremony,
playing Indian horns and drums.
The cash prizes for this tournament depend on how much money
the dangal organizers were able to raise from local fans.
Young wrestlers take home just a small part of the pool,
sometimes around a dollar per win.
But older, more experienced fighters can walk away
with up to $1,000.
That's why low-income families often send their kids
to live at talims, hoping they'll get good enough
to make a living.
Fighters also live and train for free,
but there's little comfort.
Most of them sleep in shared dorms
that can fit up to 50 people at a time.
And with packed schedules every day,
they rarely get the chance to visit home.
Mauli has gone up to four years without seeing his family.
Mauli: If I go home every time I miss my family, I will not achieve my target.
Narrator: But the wrestlers find family in each other.
Mauli: All wrestlers live here like brothers. They are family.
We are competitors when we are fighting and family when we are not.
Narrator: Mauli's dedication has paid off.
He says he earns up to $55,000 in a four-month season.
It would take a typical farming family over 35 years
to make that much.
Getting to that level takes a lot of time and practice,
which is why kids start young.
Mauli: Wrestling is a sport where you cannot start at an older age.
Narrator: Some of the youngest are here for just the summer,
so the talim is especially crowded this time of year.
But during the height of the pandemic,
it looked completely different.
Wrestlers couldn't make any money for two years
when competition stopped.
Mauli: At that time it felt like wrestling wouldn't survive.
Because the kids who were from poorer homes
had to leave the talim and go home. They didn't have any money.
And at that time, all the talims were shut down.
Narrator: Wrestlers are responsible for their own food and expenses.
And those costs can add up, especially with the diets
they have to maintain.
Mauli: The more protein our bodies get, the better they will support us during training.
Narrator: Most days they eat chicken, lamb, and eggs,
but today is Saturday, so they're making vegetarian dal.
Mauli: In this region we consider Saturdays to be the day of Lord Hanuman.
So we show our respect by eating vegetarian.
Narrator: Mauli is now a veteran at this talim,
mentoring the younger wrestlers.
But he still remembers his first day here.
Mauli: It was a highly competitive space.
There were many more wrestlers better than me.
I used to look up to them and wished to be like them one day.
Narrator: Now he's treated like a celebrity.
Mauli: People here respect and like wrestlers who do mud wrestling.
It feels good.
I feel like all the training and hard work I've done has been fruitful.
Narrator: Mauli hopes to keep wrestling for another decade.
And he believes the ancient tradition of kushti
isn't going anywhere.
Mauli: Mud wrestling has been around since ancient times,
and I feel it will stay for some time to come.