By C.K. Muralidharan
Mysuru overshadowed by the grandeur of its Palaces and the magnificent world famous ‘Dasara Festival’, has seen the age old tradition sport wrestling slowly going into oblivion and dying a slow death. Wrestling, which was patronised by the erstwhile rulers of Mysore, has slowly been dwindling and is been less practiced in the Garadis (wrestling houses) in and around Mysuru. Having over 250 Garadis in the olden days and well known wrestlers like ‘Rudra Mooga’, Tiger Balaji and later on wrestlers like Shankar Chakravarthy, Lokesh, Girish, making name in the national level, the sport has seen less interest amongst the wrestlers due to lack of financial support. Less attention from the civic bodies to maintain and run the Garadis in Mysuru and government not interested to provide funds for the maintenance of the garadis has forced many to shut down.
