Khusti is a traditional form of Indian wrestling, which has ancient roots, the origins of this sport are dates back at thousand years before Christ.
Today Indians men practice it in many states of the country including the city of Varanasi. In the recent past India had great wrestlers and reached its peak of glory in the IV Asian Games (later on called Jakarta Games) in 1962 when all the seven wrestlers were placed on the medal list and in between them won 12 medals in freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling.
The fighting take place in a “milked sand wrestling pit” (20×20 deep stone courtyards, filled with clay and water or milk.) During the training the wrestlers practice yoga and to develop the muscles they use archaic tools dating to the early history of the Indian bodybuilders who practiced the Vyayam (physical training). Not everyone knows in-fact that the «body building» has its roots in India.
Already in the eleventh century the athletes who practiced physical exercises used to lift large circular stones with and handle. In the sixteenth century body building was widely practiced . The techniques of Indian weightlifting are exported to Europe, In the mid of the19th century in America appears the first «men of steel», forced phenomena which lift the weights in the circus and festivals.
The man credited to inventing many of the modern techniques of the contemporary bodybuilding, was a German named Eugene Sandow.
In 1899 he went to England to open its first «Physical Culture Studio» in London which was followed by many others. In India, the opening of the first modern body building was in Bangalore in 1930 by Prof. VK Iyer. Today India has a national association of building and organise international championships such as the recently concluded Asian Games to Aurangabad.
The two specialties linked historically, are competing and the tradition is slowly losing road towards modernity.
The schools Khusti in Varanasi are more popular of modern gyms but instructors complain that the interest face more to the development of the muscles rather than preserve the tradition of this ancient sport.
