The three-day-long martial sports attracted thousands of people on the occasion of Raja festival. Raja festival is also called as monsoon festival as the farmers start cultivation after the festival. Each year monsoon generally reaches Odisha in the first week of June.
Even as the delay of the arrival of monsoon this year dampened the spirit of Raja, but the villagers in Jajpur district celebrated the Raja festival by organising rural sports.
According to Dr Manzoor Ali of Balichandrapur, “We organised competitions for Kabbadi, Bagudi, wrestling, sword-fighting and other traditional martial arts to encourage youths’ participation for the Raja festival.”
Around 70 youths of seven blocks of the district participated in Kabadi, Bagudi, sword-fighting and other rural sports and the events drew thousands of spectators.
The craze of cricket for the youths is the main reason behind the untimely death of many rural sports in the State, said a social worker of Muralipur Sudhanchu Bhanja.
According to renowned historian Dr Nurisiunga Chandra Sahoo, many interesting legends surround the origin of the arts here. To defend Hindu religion during the Moghal rule, many persons learnt martial arts to fight the Muslim invaders, so goes a legend, he said.
These martial art practices have percolated down the generations through family patronage. Their popularity is on a wane, but for the efforts of village committee of Bagada and Itipur who are trying for their revival.
It is high time these unique art forms were patronised by the Government. But the district administration has been paying only lip service towards the age- old art forms, said Prakash Mallick, a sword-fighter of Balichandrapur.