Pallanguzhi Vs Bantumi
Today I was going through the Hindu Magazine section and read the article on Games of Yore about the games created by Krishna Rajendra Wodeyar III of Mysore. Which set me on a series of nostalgic thoughts about the games I used to play as a kid, which my nephews have not even heard of these days.
One such game is PALLANGUZHI, which my brother and me used to play with my grandma. It is a game where there is a wooden board seven cups on each side and filled with usually tamarind seeds or seashells. We had a board specially made for us in wood shaped as a fish and got seashells brought from Kanyakumari for us to play with. The best was to play with my father who was adept in cheating in the game and missing the count for his benefit. (This required skill in number counting and foreseeing where your turn will end and the subsequent effect of it). A search in the net for the rules of the game was without success except I fond a company in India Kreeda is trying to revive these traditional games.
Some time back one of my Nokia cell phones had a game called Bantumi which was similar to Pallanguzhi and which set me wondering how this traditional game of India found its way into the Swedish Cell phone makers instrument. They mention the game has an African origin. A British friend of mine when he was in India found this game available in DakshinaChitra
It is even more interesting that two different part of the world had a similar game hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Unfortunately they some of these are disappearing slowly these days and we have to praise the effort of the Game makers be it for the computer/cell phones or as board games for reviving the interest in these games of the past.
Happy Gaming
One such game is PALLANGUZHI, which my brother and me used to play with my grandma. It is a game where there is a wooden board seven cups on each side and filled with usually tamarind seeds or seashells. We had a board specially made for us in wood shaped as a fish and got seashells brought from Kanyakumari for us to play with. The best was to play with my father who was adept in cheating in the game and missing the count for his benefit. (This required skill in number counting and foreseeing where your turn will end and the subsequent effect of it). A search in the net for the rules of the game was without success except I fond a company in India Kreeda is trying to revive these traditional games.
Some time back one of my Nokia cell phones had a game called Bantumi which was similar to Pallanguzhi and which set me wondering how this traditional game of India found its way into the Swedish Cell phone makers instrument. They mention the game has an African origin. A British friend of mine when he was in India found this game available in DakshinaChitra
It is even more interesting that two different part of the world had a similar game hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Unfortunately they some of these are disappearing slowly these days and we have to praise the effort of the Game makers be it for the computer/cell phones or as board games for reviving the interest in these games of the past.
Happy Gaming
posted by TIA at 10:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home