Traditional games played in India

New Delhi, Sep 30: Sports and games have been an integral part of people's life in India since time immemorial. History is full of incidents where we have witnessed people indulging into sports for recreation and keeping themselves physically and mentally fit.

Several traditional sports are still popular amongst kids in the urban and rural areas but they are restricted mainly to the households or neighbourhoods.

With the introduction and advent of video games and smartphones, kids have forgotten those traditional sports which were popular in India, say a couple of decades back.

While some traditional sports are still being played mostly in rural areas. There are a few which have been long forgotten in this rapidly changing and evolving world.

Here are a few traditional sports that Indians still play:

Gilli Danda:

Much before cricket was introduced in the sub-continent, Indians used to play this traditional sport. It is thought to be being played in the sub-continent for the 2500 years. 'Gilli Danda' as the name suggests requires a long wooden stick called 'Danda' and a smaller oval-shaped wooden piece called 'Gilli'.

The player needs to hit the Gilli at the raised end, which flips in the air and tries to hit the 'Gilli' as far as possible to get maximum runs. The players of the defending team try to catch the Gilli to dismiss the hitter - just like in the game of cricket. The player or team with maximum distance covered by the Gilli - which is being scaled by the 'Danda', is finally declared the winner. There is no limit of a number of players in this game.

Kabaddi:

Kabaddi is another age-old Indian sport which is being played in the sub-continent for thousands of years. The sport even finds a mention in the Hindu Epic 'The Mahabharata'. This contact team sport used earlier played on the soil but nowadays it's being played on the mat for it has evolved into a popular sport in the country.

The game of Kabaddi is played between two teams, comprising seven players each. Every team has a set of players called raiders and defenders. The raider runs into the opposition's half of a court and tries to tag out as many players as possible in one breath or a fixed period of time, say 30 seconds (which is being fixed for the modern-day kabaddi). The opposing team tries to stop the raider from successfully returning into his half within that period.

The game of Kabaddi is gaining huge popularity in the country after the introduction of Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) which is being televised on the national television.

Every person would have played this sport during childhood but as the game was played on the ground in the loose mud, people started treating it as a rustic sport and was limited to the rural areas. However, with the introduction of mats, Kabaddi has started gaining popularity in urban areas.

Kho-Kho:

This is another tag sport which was invented and developed in India. Kho-Kho is second-most popular tag game after Kabaddi in the country. Like Kabaddi, every kid would have played this ancient Indian game at school and must have some childhood memories associated with it.

Kho-Kho is played by teams of 12 nominated players out of 15. Nine players enter the field and sit on their knees (chasing team) alternately facing in opposite directions, and 3 extra (defending team) who try to avoid being touched by members of the opposing team. The side that takes the shortest time to tap all the opponents in the field, is declared the winner.

Kancha/Marbles:

It is another popular game traditional sport in the Indian subcontinent. The game of Kancha or Marbles could be played both indoors and outdoors but it is commonly played outdoors. This game is also popular among kids in the rural areas and semi-urban cities.

Some kids also play it for winning the colourful marbles or kancha and collect it in big numbers.

Pitthu/Lagori:

This is a very popular game amongst kids in the country and called with a different name in various parts. The game of Pitthu is played with a ball, preferably a rubber or tennis ball, and six to seven flat pieces of stones piled up vertically. In this game, one team tries to hit the stack of stones with the ball from a distance and attempts to arrange them back before the opposition players collect the ball and hit one of the members of the attacking side.

Each team gets nine chances, 3 players getting 3 chances each, to knock down the stones. If one team is unable to knock down the stones the next team gets the chance to throw. There are no fixed rules for the number of players in a team or match duration.

Chess:

The game of chess is widely popular across the globe but this game played on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8x8 grid, originated in India. This strategy game is believed to be derived from the ancient Indian game Chaturanga before the 7th century. Chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of the Eastern strategy games xiangqi (Chinese chess), janggi (Korean chess), and shogi (Japanese chess).

Pachisi

Pachisi is a cross and circle board game that originated in medieval India which is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross. It is a board game. In this game, a player's pieces move around the board based upon a throw of six or seven cowrie shells, with the number of shells resting with aperture upwards indicating the number of spaces to move.

The name of the game is derived from the Hindi word 'pachis' which means "twenty-five", the largest score that can be thrown with the cowrie shells. It is also called chaupar - the game which found it's mention in Hindu epic 'The Mahabharata'.

Ludo and other dice games are the westernised versions of the game.