Kushti: wrestling in the akhara
The mud-pit wrestling of the akharas, which produced the Great Gama and Dara Singh.
Pehlwani or kushti is wrestled in an earthen pit, the akhara, after a regime of exercise, milk and almonds. Every town of the old Punjab had its akharas, and wrestlers were the champions of their villages and patrons.
The Great Gama of Amritsar and Lahore was undefeated for fifty years; Dara Singh, born near Amritsar in 1928, became a world champion and then a film star.
More sport and games
The circle kabaddi of the Punjab's villages, now played in leagues from Jalandhar to Lahore, Toronto and Birmingham.
The game in which Punjabis from both sides of the border won Olympic gold for India and for Pakistan.
The 'rural Olympics' near Ludhiana: bullock-cart races, tractor stunts, horse dancing and tests of strength.
Riders at full gallop spear a small wooden peg out of the ground, to the dhol: the great horseback sport of Pakistani Punjab.
From Lahore's first Test players to Imran Khan's World Cup of 1992 and India against Pakistan at Mohali in 2011.