At MAP, Indian wrestling is seen beyond the winning bout

An akhara gate marks the entrance to *Grip, Hold, Pin* at Bengaluru’s Museum of Art and Photography, setting up an exhibition that looks past wrestling’s brief, public moments of victory.

Curated by Aayati Sengupta, the show brings together photographs by Indrajit Khambe and Prarthna Singh, alongside paintings, textile labels and traditional training equipment including clubs and weights. It moves across the 19th and 21st centuries, tracing a sport whose equipment and techniques have remained largely unchanged for more than two centuries.

Khambe began photographing wrestlers’ lives in 2012 and returned to akharas in Kolhapur after the pandemic, revisiting the work with a different approach. His images dwell on sweat after practice, defeat, solitude and recovery rather than only competition.

The exhibition also records the structure of akhara life. Wrestlers begin at 4am by preparing the soil pit with water, turmeric and salt; ghee and buttermilk are added weekly to soften it. For many rural wrestlers, mud-wrestling competitions offer prize money that helps sustain their training.