In India, there are a lot of sports that have been considered as the mainstream or most popular sports. Amongst these sports there are the names of the games of Athletics, Hockey, Cricket, Football, Boxing, Chess, Basketball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton, Swimming, Volleyball, Shooting etc. are the foremost. However, there are some other sports as well that might not be that much popular but that have been played in India for quite a very long period of time. Amongst these games, there are the names of the games like Equestrian, Rowing, Cycling, Rowing, Gymnastics, Archery, Judo, Golf, Kabaddi, Carom, Billiards and Snooker etc. Here, the performances of these sports will be discussed in a brief manner:

Arjuna Awardees in Swimming
Like most of the other sportspersons in India, the swimmers also started to enter their names in the winners` list of the prestigious "Arjuna Award" from the year of 1961 when the award was incepted for the first time. In 1961, the first winner of the award on behalf of the swimmers was Jam. Bajarangi Prasad.

Arjuna Awardees in Volleyball
A. Palaniswamy became the first volleyball player of India to be the winner of the Arjuna Award.

Arjuna Awardees in Boxing
The winners` list of the honourable "Arjuna Award" contains the names of a good number of boxers.

Arjuna Awardees in Wrestling
The wrestlers made their debut in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" in the very first year of the award`s journey.

Arjuna Awardees in Weightlifting
From 1961 that is the very first year of the institution of the "Arjuna Award", the weightlifters seems to have very much successful in winning the award on quite a regular basis. The first weightlifter to win the award in the history was A.N. Ghosh who won it in 1961. He was followed by two of his friends from the field of weightlifting, L.K. Dass and K.E. Rao who won the award in the years of 1962 and 1963 respectively. After them, B.S. Bhatia became successful to win the award in 1965 and Mohan Lal Ghosh won it in 1966.

Arjuna Awardees in Shooting
Like the other two very famous sports of Athletics and Hockey in India, Shooting too did start its journey in the winners` list of the award from the very first year of the award`s inception. In the year of 1961, Karni Singh became the first shooter of the country to win the "Arjuna Award". However, there was a huge gap of 7 years after his winning the award and in the year of 1968, Rajyashree Kumari broke the dead lock for the shooters by winning it.

Arjuna Awardees in Hockey
The game of Hockey has been amongst the greatest sports of India & the number of awardees is quite evident of this fact.In 1961, N. Lumsden and P. Singh became the winners of the award. However, there was a gap in the very next year of 1962 and in 1963, Charanjit Singh won the award and started the run again. After S. Laxman received the award in the year of 1964, E. Britto and Udham Singh jointly won the award in 1965 and the list is going on till days.

Arjuna Awardees in Athletics
The field of Athletics has almost dominated the winners` list of the very much prestigious and honourable "Arjuna Award"

Arjuna Awardees in Table Tennis
The game of Table Tennis is amongst these games that is played all over India in the State and National level and very largely in the school and colleges. This is probably the main reason why Indian TT players got success in various competitions in the national and international level and they also became able to enter their names in the winners` list of the prestigious and honourable sports award named as the "Arjuna Award".

Arjuna Awardees in Badminton
The first successful Badminton players to win the award was N.M. Natekar who won it in 1961 and Ms. Meena Shah followed him to win it in the very next year in 1962.

Arjuna Awardees in Basketball
In spite of having a weak position in India, Basketball produced a good number of "Arjuna Award" winners.The journey of the game in the winners` list of the prestigious "Arjuna Award" started in 1961 when Sarbjit Singh won it. After him, Khushi Ram won the award in 1967 and Naib Sub. Gurdial Singh, Hav. Hari Dutt, Gulam Abbas Moontasir and Pilot Officer Man Mohan Singh followed him very successfully to win the award in the years of 1968 to 1971 respectively.

Arjuna Awardees in Tennis
Hence, it has also produced a good number of "Arjuna Award" winners throughout its journey in India. Those winners were really the all time great Tennis players of India. Ramanathan Krishnan was the first Tennis player in India who won the "Arjuna Award" in the year of 1961.

Arjuna Awardees in Yachting
The game of Yachting started its journey in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" from the year of 1970, a little late in comparison to most of the other games. Lt. Cdr. S.J. Contractor was the very first winner of the award on behalf of all the Yachting players to win it in 1970.

Arjuna Awardees in Equestrian
In the game of Equestrian, the players have been quite successful in winning the "Arjuna Award" in comparison to the other off bit sports. This very game has produced 9 "Arjuna Award" winners so far that started from the year of 1973 when Dafadar Khan M. Khan won the award. After him Lt. Col. H.S. Sodhi won the award in 1976. Then in 1982, two Equestrian players named as Maj. R. Singh Brar and Raghubir Singh jointly won the award. Capt. G. Mohd. Khan became the winner in the year of 1984 and in 1987, the award went to the name of Maj. J.S. Ahluwalia. Then Capt. Adhiraj Singh won the award in 1991 and there was a gap of 12 years after this win. In 2003, Capt. Rajesh Pattu became the winner and Maj. Deep Kumar Ahlawat followed him to become the winner of the award in the very next year and he also became the last winner so far on behalf of the Equestrian players.

Arjuna Awardees in Rowing
The game of Rowing is another off bit sport of India. This very game also has quite a few representatives in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" that counts to 8. The Rowing players started their campaign to the winners` list of the award in the year of 1981 when Maj. Parveen Oberoy won it first. Then in 1984, Capt. M.A. Naik claimed the award and Naib Subedar Dalvir Singh won it in 1991. There were three "Arjuna Award" winners for the Rowing players in the rest of the decade of 1990`s that include the names of Major R.S. Bhanwala in 1994; Surender Singh Waldia in 1996 and Jagjit Singh in the year of 1999. From the very first year of the new millennium that is in 2000, Surender Singh Kanwasi won the award and in 2004, the Rowing players got their last winner in the name of Jenil Krishnan.

Arjuna Awardees in Kabaddi
This is a very old traditional sport in India. This sport also has a few representatives in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award". The numbers started to count from the year of 1998 only when Ashan Kumar became the first winner on behalf of the Kabaddi players. Biswajit Palit also won the award in that same year. In the following year in 1999 also, there were two winners for the Kabaddi players. The winners were named as Balwinder Singh and Tirath Raj. C. Homonappa became the winner in 2000 and in 2002, Ram Mehar Singh won the award. Sanjeev Kumar and Sunder Singh were the winners in the years of 2003 and 2004 respectively.

Arjuna Awardees in Judo
This is another very good physical sport that is being played in India for a long period of time and this sport also have some "Arjuna Award" winners. From the year of 1992 when Sandeep Byala won the award, it has another five winners of the award so far. Amongst them, Cawas Billimoria won it in 1993; Ms. Poonam Chopra in 1996; Narender Singh won it in 1998; Akram Shah became the winner in 2003 and in 2004, Angom Anita Chanu was successful to become the last winner of the award so far on behalf of the Judo players of India.

Arjuna Awardees in Gymnastics
Though the game of Gymnastics is not that off bit in India, it is described so in this article depending upon the number of gymnasts who won the "Arjuna Award". In fact this old game has only five award winners so far and the gymnasts started winning the award from the year of 1961 when Shyam Lal won it. In 1975, Montu Debnath won the award and it was won by Ms. S. Sharma in the year of 1985. After she won the award, there was a gap of 4 years and in 1989, Ms. Krupali Patel became the winner of the award. Dr. (Ms.) Kalpna Debnath was the last gymnast so far to win the award. She won it in 2000.

Arjuna Awardees in Archery
This very sport is quite popular at present in India and has only four representatives in the winners` list of the prestigious "Arjuna Award". The winners are named as Krishna Das who won it in 1981; Shyam Lal, the winner of the award in 1989; Limba Ram in 1991 and Sanjeev Kumar Singh who won it in the year of 1992.

Arjuna Awardees in Cycling
This is such a sport that is very much popular in other parts of the world but not that much in India and hence this sport also has only three players who won the "Arjuna Award". In 1975, Amar Singh was the first Cycling player to win the award. After him, the award won by Ms. M. Mahapatra in 1978-79 and A.R. Arthna completed the list so far by winning the award in 1983.

Arjuna Awardees in Golf
This is another sport that has the same condition like the Gymnastics. It is quite popular in India at present and has produced some world-class golfers in recent times. Amongst them, three golfers became successful to win the "Arjuna Award". They are Chiranjeev Milkha Singh in 1999; Shiv Kapur in 2002 and Jyotinder Singh Randhawa in 20004.

Arjuna Awardees in Billiards & Snooker
Though the game of Billiards & Snooker has a proud history and has produced some internationally successful players, it has only two representatives in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award". They are named as Alok Kumar who won it in 2002 and Pankaj Advani, the winner in the year of 2003.

Arjuna Awardees in Carrom
If anybody asks about the worst performance so far in the winners` table of "Arjuna Award", then the name of the game of Carrom will definitely come at first. In fact, the Carrom players` performances are so poor that they could have only one representative in the winners` list of the award so far. The sole Carrom player who won the award is A. Maria Irudayam, the winner in the year of 1996.

From the discussion above, one thing is very clear that apart from the main stream or most popular sports in India, the performances of the other off bit sports in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" is not that much satisfactory however, there is always a chance for improvement.