Exploring the many splendors of Bundelkhand

Last year I visited some beautiful places in Bundelkhand in central India. However, you won't find "Bundelkhand" on the map of India since it is not a defined geographical area. Instead, it is a socio-cultural region, characterised by its linguistic, social and cultural traditions.

This region has some of the most beautiful forts and temples in India, though many of these are relatively unknown except to the locals. The erotic temples of Khajuraho are a UNESCO World Heritage site. Other important towns known to tourists are Gwalior, Jhansi and Orchha. The image above is from Orchha.

This post is an introduction to the Bundelkhand region. I hope that it will contribute to raising awareness about this region and discover some of its hidden treasures.

Geography of Bundelkhand

The northern part of this region lies in the state of Uttar Pradesh (purple in the map below) while its southern part lies in the state of Madhya Pradesh (green in the map).

Bundelkhand lies between the Gangetic plains and the Vindhyachal mountains. It is marked by a barren hilly terrain. Its highest point has an altitude of 600 meters. Its isolated hills rising abruptly from the ground have been the sites for the forts of the local kings. Its rivers flow in a northeast direction to join the Yamuna River.

It is a Hindi speaking area. The Bundeli language is the most common of the Hindi dialects spoken in the area. It in turn consists of several sub-dialects.

A Brief History of Bundelkhand

Oral histories and legends of the region describe it as the ancient reign of king Luv, the son of Lord Rama. In the Pre-Buddhist period, this area came under the kingdom of Ujjain.

In the Buddhist period (around 500 BCE), this area was known as Chedi Janapada (literally "Ruled by the people") as shown in Thomas Lessman map of 500 BCE.

Some centuries later, this area was also called "Dasarna" (the land of ten rivers) as shown in the Thomas Lessman map of 100 BCE below. Its principal rivers are the Kali Sindh, Betwa, Shahzad, Ken, Bagahin, Tons, Pahuj, Dhasan and Chambal. The Kali Sindh river marks the western boundary of Bundelkhand.

In the 6th century CE during the Gupta empire, Huns from central Asia had come to this region. An inscription in Gwalior describes a sun temple built in the Gwalior fort by the Hun emperor Mihirakula. Till around 9th century, Bundelkhand was part of Pratihara kingdom which ruled from Kannauj.

Chandelas arrived here in the 9th century as the feudal lords of the Pratihara, however soon they became independent. They ruled Bundelkhand for around 300 years. Initially they ruled from Khajuraho and then shifted to Mahoba. They built the famous Khajuraho temples in the 10th century, and the fort and a few artificial lakes in Mahoba in the 11th-12th centuries. In late 12th century, as their power weakened, a part of Bundelkhand came under the Khangar dynasty, who took over the Jingarh fortress of the Chandelas and renamed it Garh Kundhar.

In early 13th century the Chandelas were defeated by the sultan of Delhi, Qutubuddin Aibek, who was of Turkish origins. After almost two centuries, in the 16th century, for a short period the Chandela dynasty rose again, but it could not last and during the reign of Akbar, the region passed under the Mughal empire.

As part of the empire, Bundelkhand was ruled by Rajput kings, who recognized the Mughal sovereignty.  (Below, Thomas Lessman map from 1500 CE showing the Rajput states). These kings are known as Bundela kings and this was the period, when the region got its name Bundelkhand. Bundela kingdoms started in Orchha, moved to Chattarpur and then to Jhansi.

In 18th century, parts of Bundelkhand came under Maratha rule and in early 19th century, it passed under the East India Company till India's independence in 1947. After independence, the northern parts of Bundelkhand were made a part of Uttar Pradesh (UP) while the southern parts joined the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP).

Temples, Shrines and Dargahs of Bundelkhand

The region is predominantly Hindu. Earlier temples attest to the strong presence of Shaivism in the region with a number of Shiva temples. The image below shows an old Shiva temple in the lower parts of the Jhansi fort.

The rise of Bhakti movement in the medieval period contributed to the spread of Vaishnav stream of Hinduism in Bundelkhand. For example, out of the 20 surviving temples of Khajuraho, 6 are dedicated to Shiva and 8 to Vishnu.

Mahavir, the thirthankar of the Jains, was a contemporary of Buddha. Jainism has been very strong in Bundelkhand since ancient times with a large number of important temples. For example, the breath-taking Jain rock-temples (image below) near the Gwalior fort were sculpted during 5th-15th centuries CE.

Bundelkhand is also important for the Muslim Sufi shrines, such as the dargah of Hazrat Gous-e-Gawliori and Khawaja Khanoon Sahib in Gwalior, dargah of Sadan Shah in Lalitpur and dargah of Sundar Sain in Orchha (image below).

In the Sufi tradition, there have been different Muslim poets in Bundelkhand, who wrote in Hindi and promoted a syncretic Hindu-Muslim culture. These included Miyan Tansen and Kare Beg Fakir in the 16th century, and En Sain and Mehboob in the 18th century. For example, Tansen wrote different poems about Krishna and Ganesh.

Forts of Bundelkhand

Bundelkhand region is full of ruins of magnificent fortresses and temples, many of which are known only to local persons and to academics.

For example, according to Dr Ramsajivan who wrote a PhD thesis on this theme in 2006, there are 41 important fortresses in Bundelkhand - Kalinjar, Ajaygarh, Rasin, Madfa, Sherpur Sevda, Rangarh, Tarhua, Bhuragarh, Mahoba, Sirsagarh, Jaitpur, Mangalgarh, Maniyagarh, Baruasagar, Orchha, Jhansi, Garh Kundhar, Chirgaon, Airch, Urai, Kalpi, Datiya, Badhoni, Gwalior, Chanderi, Chhattarpur, Panna, Singhorgarh, Rajnagar, Batiyagarh, Bajawaor (Jatashanker), Beergarh, Dhamoni, Patharigarh (Patharkachhar), Barigarh, Gaurhar, Kulpahar, Talbehat and Devgarh.

The descriptions of some of these forts, hardly visited by the tourists, are beautiful. For example - the ruins of Ajaygarh fort are located on a verdant hill and are difficult to reach while the Rangarh fort, built on a picturesque hill on an island of Ken river near Pangara, is surrounded by thick forests. Finding information about these places and reaching them is difficult.

Building of the forts followed guidelines given in India's ancient architecture texts of Vaastu Shastra. These forts had thick high walls and were surrounded by moats or natural barriers such as rivers. The image below shows a branch of Betwa river that separates the Orchha fort from the town.

Inside, these forts usually had ponds at different levels, both above and below, for their water supply. The ponds were usually accompanied by a temple. The image below shows a beautiful small pond from the Gwalior fort.

Conclusions

Bundelkhand is not an easy region to visit. Being at the border of two states, many towns of the region are not well connected. It is a drought prone area and one of the poorest parts of India. Except for Gwalior, Jhansi, Orchha and Khajuraho, most of its rich history and monuments are ignored and neglected.

I hope that this post will stimulate some of you to visit and document some of its lesser known places and monuments.

Let me conclude this post with an image (above) of the beautiful Shiv Sagar lake built under the Chandela dynasty in Khajuraho.

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The unfinished temple of King Bhoj

An 1100 years old unfinished Shiva temple is the testimonial to the legendary king Bhoj of Malwa in central India. Last year, on my way to the incredibly beautiful caves of Bhimbetka, I had visited this temple in Bhojpur. Though it was just an unfinished temple, it intrigued me.

The Shiva temple of Bhojpur provides information about the traditional Indian temple architecture techniques. The image above shows the statue of king Bhoj in the Bada Talab lake of Bhopal.

Ancient kingdom of Malwa

Central part of India had different ancient kingdoms, each with their own culture and traditions. In 1947, with India's independence, the ancient kingdoms were merged in different states. The ancient kingdom of Malwa was located in the volcanic uplands in the north of Vindhya mountains. Today, most of Malwa lies in Western Madhya Pradesh while its northern part is in Rajasthan. The most important towns of this region are Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain and Sagar.

King Bhoj

From the 9th to the 13th centuries, Malwa was ruled by the Parmar kings.

Bhoj was the 9th king of the Parmar dynasty and his rule started around 1000 CE. He ruled for about 55 years. His capital was in Dhar in western parts of Malwa. He is credited with the construction of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. 

The town of Bhojpur, 28 km to the south and east of Bhopal was another area where king Bhoj carried out significant constructions including the building of dams which resulted in the creation of a big lake.

Bhoj is famous both as a warrior and as a lover of art, culture and books. He is credited with a large number of books on a wide range of subjects, including medicine, astronomy, poetry and grammar. His popularity and prestige is still remembered by the people through the proverb "Kahan raja Bhoj aur kahan Gangu teli" (literally it means "where is king Bhoj and where is oil-merchant Gangu" and is used to underline the huge difference between two persons).

The Unfinished Shiva temple of Bhojpur

The temple has massive outer walls and is built on a raised platform.

An entrance gate and stairs take you to the temple platform 4 meters above. The walls have decorative balconies carved from sand-rock stone.

The old part of the temple has the inner cell at a lower level (garbhagṛha) that holds a massive Shivalinga, 5.5 meters tall, and carved out of a single rock. The structure is supported by massive pillars, along with an elegant dome. In the image below, the comparison of the person seen at the bottom on the right side with the Shivalinga can give an idea of the huge structure.

The outer walls and superstructure of the temple were never built. However, outside the Garbhgriha, on the platform, simple Shiva shrines have been built.

The temple seems to be remarkably well-preserved. This is because of a massive repair and reconstruction carried out in 2006-07 when a fibreglass roof  was built and one of the missing monolithic pillars was added.

Temple building techniques in India in 1000 CE

The Bhojeshwar Shiva temple was never completed. It appears that the construction work was stopped suddenly. It could have been because of a natural disaster or war. Since its roof was missing, some people feel that the planning was not proper and the roof was too heavy, so it caved in and the temple construction was stopped.

The area around the temple has sandstone quarries where line designs engraved on the stones show the architectural plans for the temple construction.

According to these designs, a huge temple complex was going to be built here. Stone marks show that 1300 masons were working for the temple construction. The names of some of them are engraved on the stones.

There are finished and unfinished statues scattered around, to be used for the temple. These were left in the quarries where the sculptors were working, when the construction was stopped.

Behind the temple, there is a large earthen ramp which was used to carry the large stones to the higher parts of the temple. The ramp, built of sandstone slabs, is covered with soil and sand. It is almost 100 meters long, and slopes upwards to a height of 12 meters.

The dams on river Betwa

The Shiva temple is located close to the river Betwa. Ruins of some old dams have been discovered in this area. The dams were built in the eleventh century, when the Shiva temple was being constructed. Due to those dams an enormous lake had formed in this area. It seems that the dams were destroyed a few centuries later, when the area came under the Tughlaq dynasty.

I was wondering why did king Bhoj decide to build this new city, the huge temple and the dams in a place so far away from his capital in Dhar? The legends say that King Bhoj had sworn to block nine rivers to create a lake and this was the reason why he had come to the eastern part of Malwa region since here the curves of river Betwa were ideal for building the dams and creating the lake.

Jain temples of Bhojpur

Not very far from Shiva temple is an unfinished Jain temple with a 6 meter tall statue of Shantinath and two smaller statues. An inscription near the statues specifies their construction in 1157 Vikram Samvat (1100 CE).

Legends also say that in the last years of his life, King Bhoj had become Jain, while others say that even though he was a devotee of Shiva, he also respected Jains and Buddhists. I did not visit this temple.

Temple Ruins in Ashapuri

6 km away from Bhojpur, in an area called Bilota in the Ashapuri village, ruins of more than 20 temples have been found. Due to lack of time I did not visit this area. However, the descriptions of the ruins show that this must have an important sacred area for the people. These temples are also from the same time period of the reign of Parmar dynasty. I am not sure if these ruins were linked with the Shiva temple of Bhojpur.

Legend of Raja Bhoj and Gangu Teli

Though I was familiar with the name of king Bhoj from my childhood, I was not aware of the legend that had led to the proverb comparing him with the oil merchant Gangu. The legend says that king Bhoj had sacrificed the wife and child of Gangu for the construction of a fort.

Thus the fame of king Bhoj has been challenged by Dalit activists who see him as an oppressor king, who sacrificed the lives of poor commoners for his glory.

I was horrified when I had heard this story. I wonder how did he become so popular among the people if he was someone who sacrificed women and children.

Conclusions

The Bhojeshwar Shiva temple, though more than a thousand years old, is part of the living religious traditions of Malwa. People from far away places gather here for the Mahashivaratri festival. At the time of festival, the state government organises an annual cultural festival called the Bhojpur Festival.

It is a nice temple. However its special importance comes from being one of the remaining testimonials of a famous king and from the line engravings in the quarries explaining the architectural plans of the temple construction.

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Rock Art of Bhimbethka

Bhimbethka is a place of great natural beauty. It has giant sandstone rocks, sculpted into hollows, crests, platforms and curls by the wind, rain and water. These are story-telling rocks, whispering their tales through the art of early humans. It is one of the most fascinating places that I have visited.

I had read about the rock-art of Bhimbethka about fifteen years ago and had immediately decided that one day I was going to visit this place. However, as often happens, life has its own compulsions and thus, I had almost forgotten about it.

A visit to the rock-art site in south-west Mozambique at Chinhampere a few years ago, had touched me deeply and had reminded me about my desire to visit Bhimbethka. Finally, a few months ago I visited it. If you are interested in human evolution and rock art of ancient humans, you will love Bhimbethka. It is located in Madhya Pradesh in the central part of India.

Rock-shelters of Bhimbetka are a World Heritage Monument of UNESCO.

DISCOVERY OF BHIMBETHKA

The rock shelters of Bhimbethka were discovered by V. S. Wakankar in 1957. Wakankar, while passing near Bhimbethka in train was struck by the curiously shaped rocks at the top of the hill and decided to stop and visit them.

This area is 600 metres above sea level and about 100 metres above the surrounding plains of Betwa river. Here the rock shelters used by prehistoric humans are scattered over a large area spread over five different hills – Bhineka, Bhonravli, Lakhajwar est, Lakhajwar west and Bhimbethka. All together there are 243 rock shelters, out of which 133 rock-shelters have rock-art. The whole area is part of Ratapani wildlife protected area.

Only 15 rock-shelters of Bhimbethka hill are open to public.

Bhimbethka is at one hour drive from Bhopal. You can hire a taxi to visit it. If you prefer public transport, state buses can drop you at about two and half kilometres from the caves.

EARLY HUMANS IN INDIA

In his wonderful book “Indica: A Deep Natural History of The Indian Subcontinent”, Pranay Lal writes that the progenitor of Anthropoids (monkeys, apes and hominins) developed in Asia and from there spread to Africa and other parts of the world. The first human progenitor Homo habilis evolved in Africa. The standing hominid, Homo erectus arrived about 2 million years ago and then over a short period of time spread into different parts of the world including India, China and Indonesia.

Standing posture of Homo erectus resulted in anatomical changes in pelvis which affected child-birth and children being born without fully developed brains, which created social needs for ancient humans to help each other and to live in communities. They learned to use fire, could make sounds for communication and made stone tools (Acheulean stone tools). Erectus arrived in India around 1.5 million years ago. Some of big sites of Acheulean tools of Erectus in India have been found around Siwalik hills.

The first modern man, Homo sapiens evolved in East Africa around 190,000 years ago. They left Africa around 75,000 years ago and spread in different directions including some who arrived in India. For some time, Erectus and Sapiens cohabited, then Erectus gradually faded away and only Sapiens remained. There were different sub-species of Sapiens including Neanderthals. The present day humans are Homo sapiens sapiens.

ANCIENT HUMANS IN BHIMBETHKA

The rocks of Bhimbethka are formed of sand-stone (orthoquartzite), which have been modelled by the natural forces into different shapes, which provided shelters to early humans. They are not caves and therefore called rock-shelters. Some of them are very big, more than 20 metres high.

Not very far from Bhimbethka is a tribal village, which shows the continuity of human traditions in this area.

The rock-shelters open to the tourists are located on a hill and are numbered from 1 to 15. The path between the different shelters has been paved and covers around one and half kilometres. The oldest signs of humans in these rock-shelters go back to around 100,000 years while the most recent signs belong to medieval period.

Archaeological excavations have been carried out in some areas of Bhimbetka that have shown tools, burials and other objects from lower Paleolithic, middle Paleolithic, upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. The lower Paleolithic tools include Acheulean stone implements.

However, for the visitors to Bhimbethka, the most important signs of prehistorical humans are their paintings on the rocks made with natural elements like lime and ochre. Over the centuries, ancient humans have painted repeatedly at the same surfaces, thus more recent rock paintings overlie older paintings. In some places fifteen layers of paintings have been identified in Bhimbethka.

The paintings show mainly human and animal figures and depict scenes from hunting, wars, social and spiritual lives of persons. Trees, plants and flowers are rare in these paintings. Persons riding horses and elephants as well as battle scenes are part of more recent paintings from historical period.

THINGS TO LOOK FOR AT BHIMBETHKA

Personally, I found all the rock-shelters of Bhimbethka fascinating. There were some places where I could have spent hours looking carefully at individual paintings. However, there are some aspects that you can look for specifically during your visit:

Rock-shelter 2: It is an imposing structure shaped like an enormous cave open at the two ends and is known as the auditorium. It is 39 metres long and around 17 metres high.

On the left at lower level it has some more recent animal and human figures. To the right and on a higher level it has different animals and birds including a peacock and the hand impression of a child. It also has some cupules from early paleolithic period.

Rock-shelter 3: It has some curious round-shaped holes called Cupules cut into the rock. These are the oldest signs of human occupation in Bhimbethka and go back to 100,000 years. I think that these could have been used as storage spaces.

Rock-shelter 4: This shelter is called “the zoo” because its big wall is completely covered with different layers of animals painted during different epochs. There are 252 figures of animals showing 16 species of animals. In addition there are 90 human figures, 1 bird and 6 decorative designs.

Rock-shelter 5: More recent paintings in this shelter depict battles and a royal procession. These are located on the right side of the wall. The procession includes people carrying swords, riding horses and wearing a head-dress. The figures include two drummers.

Why did the ancient humans paint animal figures? One of the reasons proposed for these images found in different parts of the world, is related to hunting. Painting the animals (and conducting ceremonies in front of these figures) was a way to capture the spirits of the animals so that the hunters had success in hunting them.

Rock-shelter 15: This is a very big rock and on one side near the top, it presents a fascinating fantasy scene – a giant boar like animal is chasing a small human figure and a crab. It seems to be the depiction of a mythological story. Because of this painting, it is known as Boar rock.

Apart from the Boar scene, there are other human and animal paintings in this rock shelter.

View Point: Around half-way into the shelters, there is a raised area with a tortoise shaped rock. From here it is possible to see the alluvial plains around Betwa river going towards Narmada river.

In addition, there are three springs in this area known as Ban Ganga, Gupt Ganga and Pandapur. Water from these springs is used by the adivasi (tribal) groups living in this area. Finally at the top of Bhimbethka hill is an old Shiva temple nestled in the rocks.

CONCLUSIONS

Bhimbethka is an incredible place. Its natural beauty is coupled with a rich cultural, historical and archaeological testimony of the human evolution in central India.

At the rock-paintings of Chinhampere in Mozambique, I had met a woman guardian of the ancient site who lived in the village below. It was not possible to visit those rock-paintings without her permission. She had also explained to me about how the village community continued to venerate those rock paintings during their annual festivals.

This continuity of the sacred relationship between the ancient rock art and traditions of local tribal people seems to missing from the areas open for visits in Bhimbethka. Nor does the site provide any information about the religious/spiritual significance of these rock-shelters to the tribal communities today.

Still it is impossible not to be moved by the art of ancient humans at Bhimbethka. The name of Bhimbethka remembers the muscular Pandav brother Bhim from Mahabharat. Local legends say that Pandavas had lived here during the 12 years of exile.

Diane Ecke in her book “India – A sacred geography” has shown how different parts of India take the sacred stories of Hinduism, add to them their local heroes, gods and legends, and make them their own. The legends of Bhima and the names of the three springs, Ban Ganga, Gupt Ganga and Pandapur, seem to follow this norm.

My interest in ancient humans and their lives was stimulated by the series of books called Earth’s Children by Jean M. Auel in the 1980s and 1990s. If you have not read them, do read them. They will give you a glimpse of the lives of early humans.

I also recommend Pranay Lal’s new book – “Indica: A Deep Natural History of The Indian Subcontinent”. It is an enjoyable read, full of information about geological, archaeological and biological finds in India.

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Games We Used To Play

A visit to the Jan Jaati Sanghralaya (Tribal Museum) of Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh, India) brought back the memories of my childhood. If anyone had asked me what kind of games do the tribal children in India play, I wouldn’t have known what to answer. I was surprised that most of the tribal games shown in this museum are the same games that I had played while growing up in the Delhi of 1950s and 1960s.

This post presents images of the traditional games played by children in India before the TV and video-games culture took over our lives. The images of this post come from the Tribal Museum of Bhopal as well as from other parts of India. Let me start this post with an image that I love. It is of a simple innocent game - a girl playing with a balloon. I love it because, in it the girl has been dressed in a sari like an adult, but she is still a child and she expresses the innocent joy of her childhood in her play. 

Games played in ancient India

References to games where players use a dice are found in the ancient Hindu texts of Rigveda and Mahabharat. The war of Kurukshetra, the central event of Mahabharat, starts from a game of Chausar, a dice-based board game, in which the elder Pandav brothers, Yudhisthir, bets on his wife Draupadi.

17th precept of Buddha in Brahmajala Sutta written in ancient Pali language advices the followers to avoid playing games and thus provides a list of common games played in India the BCE era. The image below shows the English translation of this text along with the descriptions of different games.

A bass relief sculpture from the Buddhist stupa ruins from 2nd century BCE in Bhahut village of Satna district in Madhya Pradesh shows persons playing a chausar or chaupad like game with the dice.

Both the above pictures are from Bharata - @Dauhshanti

Thus, ancient Indians had different kinds of popular games. You will find echoes of many of those games in those described below, with which I had grown up.

Traditional Indian Games

Most of these games do not require any special equipment. Sometimes they include a ball made from scraps of old clothes. Some games require stones of different shapes. Often the game-boards are designed on the ground with chalk or a brick.

In my childhood, we used dark coloured smooth tamarind seeds as the dice, by cleaving the seeds into two, so that one side is white and the other is dark. Thus, if you throw six pieces of tamarind half-seeds, you can count the seeds which land on their backs with the white part up.

So come with me on this journey of discovering the traditional Indian games. If you have an opportunity to visit Bhopal, do not forget to visit the amazing Jan Jaati museum with its rich exposition of colours and arts of tribal India. If you can't visit it, you can get a glimpse of its wonders at the museum website.

Poshamba or Poshampa

In the tribal museum they call it Poshamba, we used to call it Poshampa. In this game two kids form a

gate with their hands and sing a small ditty while the other children pass underneath. The ditty is: “Poshampa bhai poshampa, dakuon ne kya kiya, sau rupaye ki ghadi churayi, ab to jail mein jana padega” (Poshampa brother poshampa, what did the bandits do, robbed a 100 Rs watch, now they must go to jail). As the ditty finishes, the kid under the arms-gate is caught and has to choose between two words like allu-baigan (potato-egg plant) or sona-chandi (gold-silver) and depending upon the choice, s/he has to go behind one of the gate-kids and make a queue. Like this, all the kids are divided into 2 teams who will have a final round of pulling each other till one side falls. The image above from the tribal museum shows the final moment of the tug of war.

Chaktak Gondra or Ghoda Badam Shahi or Kokla-Chhipaki

The tribal museum calls it "Chaktak Gondra" and informs that the cities children call it "Ghoda

Badam Shahi". However, we used to call it "Kokla-chhipaki". In this game a child playing Ghoda (horse) holds a cloth and sings a ditty while s/he goes around other children sitting in a ring. The ditty says, “Kokla chhipaki jumme raat aayi re, jeda aage pichhe dekhe uski shamat aayi re” (Friday night of the hidden Kokla has come, whosoever will look behind, will be punished).

If any child tries to look back, Ghoda can hit that child with the cloth. While walking around, Ghoda quietly puts the cloth behind one of the sitting children. If Ghoda can complete one round without the sitting child being aware of the cloth at his back, Ghoda can beat that child with the cloth. Next, the child who was beaten becomes the Ghoda and the whole thing is repeated.

Thus the child playing Ghoda has to be vigilant and cunning, keeping a poker-face so that the sitting children do not realise that the cloth has been left behind one of them.

Pitthu

Kids are divided into 2 teams. Five or seven flat stones are placed one above the other in the centre of the space.

A kid from team one has to throw the ball so as to break the stone-tower. While kids of the second team need to collect the ball and throw it so that it hits one of the kids of first team, the other team needs to rebuild the broken tower without being hit. If the first team manages to complete the tower without getting hit by the ball then they have 1 pitthu in their account. If they are unable to complete the tower and get hit, then it is second team’s turn to throw the ball. The team with larger number of completed towers (pitthu) wins the game.

This was one of my favourite games in the school. I remember playing it with my classmates of primary school, early in the morning before the classes started.

Budawa or Lansangada or Dag-Dabeli

This is one game that I found in the tribal museum with which I was not familiar, because it requires

tree-climbing. One kid plays the stick-guard. Other children throw the stick as far as possible and while the guard goes to pick the stick, they all must climb on the tree. The guard brings back the stick, draws a circle around the tree and puts the stick in the circle. The children from the tree have to get down, pick up the stick and climb back without getting caught by the guard.

The tribal museum of Bhopal has two beautiful installations on this game, shown in the images on the right and below.

Gondiva or the stilts game

As the name suggests, it requires racing or dancing on the stilts. It is popular among Balga, Saharia and some other tribal groups. I was also unfamiliar with this game.

Gilli-Danda or Gulli-danda

This game requires a short piece of spindle shaped wood called Gilli or Gulli and a wooden stick called Danda. One kid hits the corner of Gilli with the stick and as it jumps up, hits it as far as possible. The other children have to catch the Gilli before it touches the ground. If they manage to catch it, it is their turn to play the game. If they can't catch it, the first player continues to hit the Gilli and go around.

This was also very popular when I was a child. However, I was not very good at it so I did not play it often.

Machhali Pakadia or Kekada Pakadia

This game is played by the tribal children in the coastal areas where they have to catch (Pakadia) a Machhali (fish) or a Kekada (crab) in the bamboo basket. I remember seeing children playing it in a river in West Bengal during my childhood, and I remember having tried in vain to catch a small fish with the basket. Thus this game is also unknown to the city kids.

Chaupad or Chausar

This is the ancient Indian game described in Mahabharat. It is played with 12 or 16 pawns and seems to be similar to a checker game popular in Europe (for example, in Italy they call it Dama). It is a strategy game like chess. However I had never played it as a child.

We did play a simpler version of a game with such a board and dice that is similar to Ludo. It is said that the British took Ludo to Europe from India in the 17th or 18th century.

Jhula or the swing

This simple game needs at least three children. One child sits cross-legged and holds his/her feet, while the other two hold the sitting child by his/her elbows and then swing him/her till s/he looses the grip on his/her feet and or opens her legs and touches the ground.

Ghite

This game is played with 5-7 small round stones called ghite (singular Ghita). The player keeps one stone in his/her hand, throws it up in the air and in the mean time, picks up the stones in the centre, catching back the stone-in-the-air. If the stone-in-the-air falls down, the player loses the game. It becomes slowly complex – you start by picking one ghita at a time and then increase the number of stones to be picked or you need to do some specific movements while picking the stones. This game is played mainly by girls.

An easier version of this game uses a ball, which is thrown up in air, while the player collects the stones.

Gadi

Village children often play with small wooden or bamboo carts (Gadi), pulling them around the village roads. Sometimes, the moving wheels action a stick which drums on the wood and makes a sound.

Usually these require larger spaces that are harder to find in the cities. In addition, in cities we do not use carts. Thus, while I had seen these in the villages, I had never played with them.

Carrom board

This game requires a special wooden board and special wooden round pieces called Goti. The Gotis are of two colours, white and black. In addition, there is a red Goti called the queen. The game is played by two or four players, divided into two teams, one black team and one white team. You need to hit the Gotis of your colour on the board till they fall in the holes on the corner of the board. The team that manages to get the red Goti wins the game.

I loved this game and remember playing it even while I grew up and was studying medicine. Many years later, I had bought a carrom board and taken it to Italy to play it with my son.

Ghar-Ghar or House-house

This game is usually played by young girls, where they play act to be ladies of the house, who cook and do household chores and make tea for the guests. They usually create a small separate space for playing it. In the image below, the two children sitting on the roadside, were playing it wrapped under a sari.

I remember playing it with my sister when I was around 5 years old and she was 3. We used to create our space between the charpaies, the light beds with wooden legs and woven with cord. These beds are laid out at night for sleeping and put up against the walls during the day to save space. I think that this game is a way for children to understand family relationships and gender roles, as during the play we used to mimic the exchanges between the adults of our families.

Kabbaddi

This game is also played by two teams. A person, the attacker, from one team has to go to the other side while repeating kabbaddi, kabbaddi, to touch a player of opposition and then run back to his own side while continuing to repeat kabbaddi-kabbaddi without a break. The other team has to avoid getting touched and if someone gets touched then they try to catch the attacker and not let him go back to his side. Every touch accompanied by safe return to your side earns your team one point.

In the image below, the guy in green dress is the attacker who has entered the space of the yellow side and is trying to touch someone of their team.

This game is played by older kids, both girls and boys, though more popular among boys. India has different state level and national level championships of this game. It is very popular in rural areas.

Conclusions

The Jan Jaati tribal museum of Bhopal is a beautiful place and merits a visit. I was really impressed by their beautiful art installations and the quality of tribal handicrafts. Their section on the tribal games is small but is very interesting, as you can guess from the images above.

Visiting the games room of the Tribal Museum brought back so many memories of childhood games and I was surprised that after more than fifty years I still remembered the words of some of the ditties used with those games.

Are you aware of games played by tribal groups in other parts of the world? Are there any games that are similar to the one described above? I feel that the origins of some of these games probably go back to our prehistoric ancestors and thus it is possible that ancient humans, as they spread out from their homelands, they took some of these games with them to different corners of the world.

Let me conclude this photo-essay with two pictures - first image is of a kite carrying the colours of the Indian flag. During the month of August, in the midst of the monsoon winds and especially around 15 August, the independence day of India, a lot of children and adults like to fly kites.

The second image is that of Biscopewalla (Biscope man), which can't be called a real game but was a way of entertainment during my childhood to watch some moving images and imagine ourselves in a cinema hall before there was any TV or video-games.

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