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Each shift lever has 3 positions. The front lever would have 2nd-Neutral-3rd. The lever towards the rear is 1st-Neutral-Reverse. Either lever must be in its respective Neutral position in order for the other lever to move to a gear position.
The positions can be felt by your hand. A detent ball and spring fits into a notch for one of the three positions on both levers.
Removing the side cover generally shows what is happening with the gears when you move them by hand. However, you need to understand what moves where and how to reposition the shift forks when doing this. It’s quite easy to get this wrong if you’re not experienced with the job.
Based on what you have described of the incident, I would suspect that at the least you have managed to force it into two gear positions at once…. This will lock up the transmission. Or possibly one or more gear teeth will have broken off, and the pieces are locking up the unit.
A competent transmission shop (who is comfortable with older manual transmissions) can help get it back in working order. We can help with the repairs or supply the parts if you need a source.