Malla-yuddha such a wrestling match against a visiting champion in Singapore. Traditional Indian wrestling first began to decline in the north after the medieval Muslim invasions when influences from Persian wrestling were incorporated into native malla-yuddha. Under Mughal rule, courtly fashion favoured the Persianate pehlwani style. Traditional malla-yuddha remained popular in the south, however, and was particularly common in the Vijayanagara Empire. The 16th-century Jaina classic "Bharatesa Vaibhava" describes wrestlers challenging their opponents with grunts and traditional signs of patting the shoulders. Sculptures at Bhatkal depict wrestling matches, including female wrestlers. As part of his daily routine, the king Krishna Deva
Indian martial arts in Karnataka. Traditional malla-yuddha is virtually extinct in the north where it has been supplanted by kusti, but another form called malakhra still exists in parts of India and Sindh, Pakistan. Vajra-musti was another old grappling art in which the competitors wrestled while wearing a horned knuckleduster. In a later style called "naki ka kusti" (claw wrestling), the duellists fought with bagh nakha. Numerous styles of folk wrestling are also found in India's countryside, such as mukna from [[Manipur],[[Inbuan wrestling]] from [[Mizoram]] and Khomlainai among the Bodos. Boxing ([[musti-yuddha]]) is traditionally considered the roughest form of Indian unarmed combat. In