Gatka

The tradition & historical record

Gatka (Gurmukhi: ਗੱਤਕਾ. Shahmukhi: گَتّکا; gatkā), also known as Khutka, is a form of martial art associated primarily with the Sikhs of the Punjab. It is a style of stick-fighting, with wooden sticks intended to simulate swords. The Punjabi name, gatka, refers to the wooden stick used and this term might have originated as a diminutive of a Sanskrit word, gada, meaning "mace". It has been revived as a standardised, international sport. There are two forms, traditional and sport. It has also been described as a folk-dance. The stick used in Gatka is made of wood and is usually 91–107 cm (36–42 in) long, with a thickness of around 12.7 mm (0.50 in). It comes with a fitted leather hilt, 15–18 cm (5.9–7.1 in) and is often decorated with Punjabi-style multi-coloured threads. The other weapon used in the sport is a shield, natively known as phari. It is round in shape, measuring 23 by 23 centimetres (9.1 in × 9.1 in), and is made of dry leather. It is filled with either cotton or dry grass to protect the hand of player in case of full contact hit by an opponent. Gatka originated in the Punjab in the 15th century as part of the Shastar Vidya martial art system. There has been a revival during the later 20th century, with an International Gatka Federation was founded in 1982 and formalized in 1987, and gatka is now popular as a sport or sword dance performance art and is often shown during Sikh festivals. ²

There are claims of gatka's antecedents as a stick-fighting art, such as it being a surviving form of an ancient Indian martial-art, as showcased during Dussehra processions in relation to the Ramayana. There are a number of akharas where martial-arts were practiced, with it being claimed that gatka originates from Manu. Gatka has been connected to the Sikh martial-art Shastar Vidya, which is chiefly practicised by the Nihangs and associated historically with Guru Hargobind and Guru Gobind Singh. It developed as a style of fighting when outnumbered. Martial-arts has a long association with Sikhism, with Guru Angad believed to have sponsored wrestling and learnt it from Guru Nanak. Guru Ram Das founded the Mal Akhara in Amritsar and awarded a turban-of-victory to Guru Arjan after he won a wrestling match against the wrestler Maskeen. The next guru Guru Hargobind martialized the Sikhs further, such as the adoption of the principle of miri-piri. Originally, Gatka existed as a style under one branch (known as a aṅg) of the wider Shastar Vidya martial art system. Gatka originated as a stick-fighting style known as Gatkabazi under the Gadā yudh (stick/club fighting) branch of Shastar Vidya. Gatka's theory and techniques were taught by the Sikh gurus. It has been handed down in an unbroken lineage of ustāds (masters), and taught in many akharas (arenas) around the world. Gatka was employed in the Sikh wars and has been thoroughly battle-tested. It originates from the need to defend dharam (righteousness), but is also based on the unification of the spirit and body: miri piri). ²

Khel (meaning "sport" or "game") is the modern competitive aspect of gatka, originally used as a method of sword-training (fari‑gatka) or stick-fighting (lathi khela) in medieval times. While khel gatka is today most commonly associated with Sikhs in Punjab, India, it is also practiced to a smaller extent in Punjab and the Hazara region of Pakistan. ²

A distinction between traditional shastar vidya and gatka is on lethality and exhibitionism, with the former being more lethal while the latter is more performative. There are two forms of gatka, khel (sport) and rasmi (ritualistic). There are at-least three types of gatka described in 1936: ²

Each player having two gatka sticks Each player having one gatka stick and one shield Each player only having one gatka stick (the most popular form) Each fight is around three-minutes long and consists of alternating offence and defence turns. The assailant earn points by striking the opponent. Clear strikes to the body, head, arms, legs, or feet of the opponent are permitted while hits to the face or ears, and those intended to cause injury, are fouls. Points earned vary depending on what part of the body are struck with one point for the lower body, two points for the upper torso, and three points for the back and head. Weapons fall into four categories, blunt, bladed, flexible and projectile. Common equipment includes a stick, staff, sword, or shield. The sticks (called soti) are meant to imitate swords, used now for safety reasons. Sotis are fire hardened bamboo, also known as ratan. Shields are known as farri. Other weapons used include the quarterstaff (lathi), bamboo stick with wooden or cloth balls on its ends (marhati), mace (gurj), push-dagger (katar), straight-blade (khanda), curved-sword (kirpan), curved-dagger (bichua), arrow (teer), spear (barcha), and curved-sword (talwār). As a sport, the overall theme is stop and attack, sparring consists of attacking, blocking, and counter-attacking. As a martial-art, it is used for self-defence and combat. For self-defence, aspects such as evasive footwork and practical hand techniques have utility. ²

The Defendu system devised by Captain William E. Fairbairn and Captain Eric Anthony Sykes borrowed methodologies from Gatka, jujutsu, Chinese martial arts and "gutter fighting". This method was used to train soldiers in close-combat techniques at the Commando Basic Training Centre at Achnacarry in Scotland. ²

Kirpan (knife) Talwar (sabre) Lathi (stick) Chakkar (throwing ring) Khanda Dhaal (shield) Barcha (lance) Teer-kamaan (bow and arrow) Saif (sword) Katar (push dagger) Sirohi (cavalry sword) ²

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Gatka”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ²

Gatka is Art of Traditional Indian Martial Arts, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ¹

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ¹