India's traditional mud wrestling thrives

Crowds cheered as muscular men in tight loincloths slap sacred scented soil on their bulging thighs and arms for a mud wrestling bout in India. Unlike conventional wrestling matches played on mats with regulated draws, India's mud wrestling is more raw -- but has been the training ground for Olympic success.  Both men and women Indian wrestlers have won medals at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games in the more regulated form of the sport.

Wrestler KD Jadhav, who took bronze at the 1952 Olympics -- the first Indian to win an individual Olympic medal -- began sporting career as a mud wrestler in Kolhapur, a city in Maharashtra. This style of wrestling, known as "kushti" or "dangal", has millennia-old roots but emerged during the period of India's Mughal rulers in the 16th century, blending traditional hand-to-hand combat with Persian martial arts.