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Appendix Four: Mallakhamb Images
Here is an assortment of images I’ve collected around acrobats and wrestlers and other peripatetic performers of pole dancing, etc. They are not really catalogued in any efficient way, yet.
Updated: 20 MAY 2021
This is part of my research project about Pole Yoga. Here is a lecture I gave at SOAS, London in November 2019.
This image is of a yupa stambha, which is a vedic pole used to tie sacrifical animals and humans to. It is from Dholavira, Gujarat. It represents the pan-Asian (central) shamanic concept of the axis mundi, the tree that connects the worlds. This yupa stambha later evolved into the shiva linga…
Epigraphic Descriptions of Wrestling
Wrestling is attested in the middle kingdom of Egypt and Sumeria/Akkadia — as well as far back into ancient India’s past. Training equipment like clubs are found early on. What…