Aggad (Battle Arena)

Sport, Weapons By 1 Comment
Agad (Arena)

Aggad, with the Bhadra in background.

What is today the Gaurav housing society behind the Bhaddar/Bhadra Kacheri, in earlier times would have been”Aggad” or the wrestling/battle arena. Historians say that the Bhadra locality has been home to this battle arena for almost 700 years.

This battle arena is dated back to the 15th century to Sultan Muhammad Begada ruled the Baroda region and was patron of blood sports. Some believe that it was established by the Mughals, where they had animal fights which included wild elephants and rhinos.When the Marathas took over the state in the late 17th century they continued with the tradition.

The Aggad :

It was a huge open rectangular space, with 3 meter wide walls surrounding it. This space would have have been parallel to, and abutting to the back portion of the Bhadra. The Royals would watch the sports from the wooden verandas of the  Bhadra, while the common folk would enjoy it from the 3 meter wide walls that encircled the arena.

The arena hosted blood sports between humans, bulls, rhinos, elephants as well as birds like bulbul and roosters. The most dangerous of these, was perhaps the “Nukki Kushti” where the human opponents would fight wearing metal claws.

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Unfortunately nothing of this 700 years old piece of heritage remains today, to remind one, of atmosphere buzzing with energy and tension surrounding the glorious fights.

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1 Comment

  1. Rajendra Motiwala says:

    G R E A T, We have played in this ground,getting goose bumps to read this.Yes, I came to know that a housing society (most probably between 1956-1960) came up, destroying the AGGAD .
    Thank…

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