Talk:Kabaddi

Single Breath

"While raiding, the raider must loudly chant kabaddi, confirming to referees that their raid is done on a single breath without inhaling." I've been watching this sport on YouTube, both professional and an amateur college club. I haven't seen any example featuring a raider chanting anything. And really, cheating (breathing) without being caught would be so easy, surely they aren't attempting to enforce that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.47.51.78 (talk) 13:16, 20 April 2024 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hello

Tamil_Selvan34 is spreading wrong messages, which creates the violation to all the pages including Kabaddi page. He is only adding [Ayar caste]] and Yadav caste glories in all history pages without any proper evidence. And the given link also not correct and not valid. So please block him permanently. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.110.207.105 (talk) 05:40, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Governance of global Kabaddi and World Cups

Please read Special:Redirect/page/60987794#Governance of global Kabaddi and World Cups for complete information. —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 16:53, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

I think kabaddi is originated from a malayalam word not Tamil.

the word reformed as kabaddi is from kai and pidi right? If the word is right im sure that is not Tamil. Malayalam is very similar to Kannada words and tamil words. So many words of malayalam get be confused as tamil or kannada or tulu words.

Kai means hand in tamil and malayalam that is right. But pidi is mean catch only in malayalam. Tamil word for catch is not pidi that is called pudi not the pidi.

Eg: he catched that...

In malayalam - avan athu pidichu

In tamil - ava athai pudichirukku not the Tamil people tell like pidichirukku.

And pudichirukku means like it in tamil.

And pidi is malayalam pudi is tamil word for catch pronunciation is difference.

If the word is kabudi kai pudi then it is sure Tamil or kannada കൃഷ്ണൻ കേരളവർമ്മൻ (talk) 05:24, 28 October 2025 (UTC)

Copyedit

@Magentic Manifestations: That is massive revert without good justification. This is a pro sport, there is a tone and layout we follow for them. Including fronting the lead paragraph with the actual rules of the sport. Then the history and then the legacy. Its traditional claimants don't matter much here (India, Bangladesh, Persia, Malaysia snd what have you).

The claim in the edit summary Unexplained removal of sourced content is incorrect as nothing was removed, only lead paras rearranged in light of the above and the body copyedited further. Of course the claim that the sport is 4,000 years old is ahistorical nonsense and mythmaking.

Your edit also undid cat org, Malaysia addition, caption ce and so on and so forth.

If you still have a problem with any particular thing in these edits please highlight them here but be careful of uncareful mass reverts like the above. Gotitbro (talk) 08:03, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

@Gotitbro, You had made several changes in the name of copy editing. Agreed that several of the edits are perfectly fine and valid. However, as you had made several intermediate edits, the correct way to do it is restore the older version and re-introduce the valid edits with which I have no dispute, which is what I have done. However, during the time, you had intervened and restored the entire set of edits. As you were not aware of my intentions to restore them partially, I have no issues with it. I have gone ahead and done those edits.

Coming to the edits, you had removed sourced content from the etymology section without due reason, which is exactly the reason what is mentioned in the edit summary. In the infobox, agreed that the modern form is more relevant and will update it with a tweak. Let me know if you have any other specific concerns. Thanks! Magentic Manifestations (talk) 08:12, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

@Magentic Manifestations: Linguists and linguistic sources are the one's who need to be cited for something as basic a contituent of language as etymology. A medical anthropologist is as away as one can get from the study of language and the origin he's citing is certainly folk etymology aka WP:FRINGE. I'll see if better sources are available for anything to do with this. Gotitbro (talk) 08:22, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

@Gotitbro, Two points. First, the etymology of it having been derived from "kai" and "pidi" in Tamil itself is a theory, with no lingiusitic attestation to the claim. The sport is in fact called "Sadugudu" in Tamil and there is no explanation as to how it came to be known by a completely different name. Going by your own argument here, it is rather a popular narrative, and neither the sources given are credible enough to certify its origin nor backed by linguistic expert/source here.
Second, when an etymology is not established clearly, there can be several theories. A anthropologist who had researched on the cultural aspects of the sport is more than qualified here to give a theory. WP:FRINGE is not relevant here, as it is neither a claim from a random party that is made without a basis claiming to replace a mainstream view nor it has been given undue weight claiming to be the only source here. Antler's views have been attributed to him and similarly echoed in other sources attributed to him. Cheers! Magentic Manifestations (talk) 08:51, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

@Magentic Manifestations: So I had a look at Alter source, these aren't his views and he's citing with scepticism an unknown writer (Laxmikant Pande) for the theory. I've quoted the whole text in full.

I have further expanded the section based on actual linguistic sources and dicts.

PS: The Tamil/Dravidian etymology is a particularly strong one and is the most cited one. Wiktionary lays this in detail wikt:kabaddi.

Cheers Gotitbro (talk) 09:03, 4 October 2026 (UTC)

@Gotitbro Looks good. I agree that the Tamil etymology is quoted widely, though there is not much evidence as to why or how it came. Regarding the other theory, the current version captures it in detail and the premise, though it could have been made more concise. Anyways, thanks for the effort! Magentic Manifestations (talk) 12:53, 4 October 2026 (UTC)