Gada (mace)

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Gada

Sculpture of Hanuman carrying the Dronagiri (Sanjeevi)

mountain, with a gada in his left hand
Type Mace / Club
Place of origin India

The gada (Sanskrit: gad, Malay: gedak) is a blunt mace or club from India. Made either
of wood or metal, it consists essentially of a spherical head mounted on a shaft, with a spike on
the top. Outside India, the gada was also adopted in Southeast Asia, where it is still used in silat.

The gada is the main weapon of the Hindu god Hanuman, an avatara of Shiva. As the god of
strength, Hanuman is traditionally worshipped by wrestlers in South and Southeast Asia. Vishnu,
one of the deities making up the Hindu trimurti, also carries a gada in one of his four hands. In
the Mahabharata epic, the fighters Bhima, Duryodhana, Jarasandha, Balarama and others were
said to be masters of the gada.

Gada-yuddha
Arjuna attacks Chitrasena with a gada.

The martial art of wielding the gada is known as gada-yuddha. It can either be wielded singly or
in pairs, and can be handled in twenty different ways. Various gada-yuddha techniques are
mentioned in the Agni Purana and Mahabharata such as aahat (), gomutra (),
prabrita (), kamalasan (), udarvagatra (), namita
(), vamadakshina (), aavrita (), paraavrita
(), padodrita (), avaplata (), hansmarga
() and vibhag ().

By means of gunpowder it could also be used as a projectile weapon of war. Its principal use was
to strike the enemy either from a raised place or from both sides and strike terror into the enemy,
especially of the gomutra array.[1]

Exercise equipment
The gada is one of the traditional pieces of training equipment in Hindu physical culture, and is
common in the akhara of north India. Maces of various weights and heights are used depending
on the strength and skill level of the practitioner. For training purposes, one or two wooden gada
(mudgar) are swung behind the back in several different ways and is particularly useful for
building grip strength and shoulder endurance. The Great Gama was known for excessive use of
gada. Winners in a kushti contest are often awarded with a gada.

Chi'ishi, a karate conditioning equipment and its exercise pattern was inspired by the gada and
mugdar. The war clubs were also inspired by gada.[2]

See also
Mace (club)
 Weapons of silat

References
1. Weapons of War in Hindu Literature
2. Club History

Kurukshetra War