In the Tiger's Lair

Nanjangud, about 28 kilometres from Mysuru is known for its Nanjundeshwara temple. The gigantic mahadwara (gopuram) of this temple is a handsome structure with beautiful stucco work. Its annual pancha rathotsava - drawing of five chariots (the highest among the five stands 5-storeys tall) is an important event on the almanac of devout shaivites of this region.

Further south from Nanjangud towards Chamarajanagar is a small village of Hemmaragala. Its sole claim to fame is the ancient Sri Santana Venugopala Swamy temple.The place is referred to as Kaundinya Govardhana Kshetra as it is believed that sage Kaundinya Maharshi performed penance here in dwapara yuga (about 5000 years ago).

The beautiful chlorite schist image of Venugopala in the sanctum sanctorum is a work of art. Innumerable miniature cradles are festooned to strings strung across pillars in the navaranga of the temple by faithful devotees as a thanksgiving for the fulfillment of their prayers for the birth of a progeny.

As we step out of the temple’s main entrance, we enter a big hall with tiled roof supported by wooden beams and rafters. The cement flooring here is marked with half a dozen game boards. The well used glistening floor and shallow pits of game boards give away the fact that the place is a haunt of gamers.

Soon enough a few school going children passing by walk in and very intently watch us photograph the incised floor. Word of mouth spreads; alerted by the commotion, arrive half a dozen villagers to inspect as any visitor is easily identified in this close knit rural setting. They were surprised by interest shown by me to learn the games; as soon as my box of pawns and dice, which I always carry on field visits, is opened there is palpable excitement in the air. On my invitation a teenage boy comes forward to play but he gets restrained by elders. An unwilling Rangaswamy, a man in his fifties is decided to be my opponent. He is cajoled by Sri N. Veeraraghavan, the temple priest, to accept the challenge; usually priest occupies an important position in rural society and his words are followed with regard.

It looked like the honour of the entire village was at stake, a confident sounding Rangaswamy picks four larger pawns and passing me forty-eight smaller ones declares that he, the tiger, would like to hunt goats. First ten minutes are spent introducing goats from corners. Despite a few careful moves by me I was cornered and Rangaswamy claims his first victim, within next two moves he fells half a dozen goats in succession, the onlookers rejoice. I desperately try to save my flock but the predator lurking large keeps me on my toes, a momentary lapse claims three more goats. I am convinced that I have a formidable opponent well versed in the stalking moves of the big cat; children burst into a loud round of applause as another goat succumbs and we end the game.

Rangaswamy's folks are delighted by this win. It is in the conversation, later I learnt, that this village has several experienced gamers who play for hours at a stretch during spare time when agricultural activity is at its bare minimum.

Life Imitates Art

In rural households across Karnataka our team of researchers found innumerable game boards tucked away in attics, lofts and lying amidst rarely used utensils. When we generally enquired if any person knows how to play, it always turned out that an elderly woman in the household had played the game long ago as an young bride and later on the boards sat abandoned in the dusty corners of the house.

In the monsoon of 2007 we (Raghu, Dr. Dileep and myself) had been to Biligiri Rangana Betta (BR Hills) which is a couple of hours drive from Mysore. While returning we stopped enroute at a picturesque village Ummattur in Chamarajanagar district. What caught our attention was the beautifully carved and colourfully painted wooden pillars and doors of traditional houses.

Huge houses with a frontage of several feet which once upon a time might have housed very large joint agrarian families now had been partitioned several times and each dwelling had a frontage reduced to ten or twelve feet and different colours of their exterior paints indicated the boundaries with shared walls.

Walking into the village square we stood in front of the Urukaatheshwari Devi temple trying to locate game boards on the floor of that ancient structure. To our dismay, walls and floor had recently been fixed with glistening ceramic tiles; even the robust granite pillars were not spared. There was no chance of finding a game board there because if there were any they now lay buried under ceramic tiles.

Disappointed, as we went around the temple a scene caught our attention. It was an octagenarian lady Chemmaramma teaching three young girls a game of Aligulimane (mancala). Raghu wasted no time to capture the scene on his camera.

It was almost a week later, when we were reviewing the photographs, that Dr. Dileep remarked the similarity of this snap with the painting which G.L.N. Simha had painted a few months earlier.

Voila! It was the case of life imitating art.

Raghu has written following Kannada rhyme for the above painting.You can also see it in his blog here.

ಬೇಸಿಗೆಯ ಮಜಾ

ಇದೋ ಬಂತು ಬೇಸಿಗೆ

ರಜವಾಯಿತು ಶಾಲೆಗೆ

ಸಖತ್ ಮಜಾ ನನಗೆ

ಹೊರಟೆ ಅಜ್ಜಿ ಮನೆಗೆ

ಸಿಕ್ಕಿತು ಕವಡೆ, ಅಳಿಗುಳಿ ಆಟಿಗೆ

ಸೀಟಿದೆ ಪತ್ತಾ, ಕರುಗಳ ಬಗೆಬಗೆ

ಖಾಲಿಮನೆ ಪಿಗ್ಗಿಗಳು ಅಜ್ಜಿಗೆ

ನಕ್ಕಿದೆ ಮರಳಿ ಆಕೆಯ ಮಡಿಲಿಗೆ

An elderly lady is seen this picture teaching her grand daughter nuances of the game at the game parlour during Kreedaa Kaushalya exhibition.

Rosewood Inlay Game Table

The inlay tradition of Karnataka is largely concentrated in Mysuru, some of the best examples of which may be seen at Gumbaz at Srirangapatna. The doors of the Amba vilas palace in Mysuru too have fine inlay work.

The technique of this work is, a paper tracing of the design is pasted on a card board and the templates which are cut by chisel are placed on the selected plank and the outline traced and cut by a bow saw, the marked position on the main background is scooped and the pieces fixed with glue to form the design. The excess layer of glue and wood is flattened using sand paper and a fine coat of colourless polish is applied.

The designers at RKP have used the traditional inlay technique with geometric floral patterns to create the above table with Aligulimane or Mancala pits.

Design : R.G. Singh, RKP

Crafts person : Ismail, Mysuru

This panel depicting HH Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar playing navagraha pagade aata with his consort has been created using the marquetry technique, which is a recent development to this craft tradition.

Design : Kamalesh, Bengaluru

Crafts person : R. Puttaraju, Mysuru

Game Boards in Kasuti Embroidery

The Kasuti of Karnataka state seems like an all embracing world, the motifs range from architecture to a cradle, from an elephant to a squirrel, the tulsi platform, nandi - the sacred bull etc.

Stitches in kasuti have to be vertical, horizontal or diagonal and the lines or the motifs have to be completed on the return journey filling the blank partitions. It is done in two types of stitches, the gavanti line (double running stitch) and murgi (zig zag) done within the darning stitch, akin to gavanti. In both, the two sides are neat and identical. Neyge (weaving in kannada) is the ordinary running stitch which is used for large designs and the overall effect is of a woven design by weft threads.Kasuti shows up best on thick materials against dark shades.

Excerpts from Handicrafts of India

by Kamala Devi chattopadhyaya

The designers at RKP have used raw silk cloth and 80gms of silk cloth with woven borders incorporating both gavanti and murgi technique to create these embroidered game boards.

Designer : H.S. Dharmendra, RKP

Crafts person : Rekha Nagaraj, Mysuru

Navalgund Game Board Dhurry

Navalgund is a small town 40 kms from Hubballi (Hubli) in Dharwad district of Karnataka. The highly decorative and intricate designs of the colourful Navalgund dhurry is its individual signature.

The main designs are geometrical in juxtaposition, the outlines are in delicate tracery with floral motifs with a bird or animal incorporated. The weaving is done on pitlooms with 'punja', a metallic countrivane almost like an extension of the outstretched palm used to pull back firmly and fix in place the weft yarn, while weaving. The dyed yarn is shuttled by hand up to the point where the coloured weft is required; the design is prepared by interlacing of weft with warp yarns, different effects are produced by using threads of varying thickness, thin for warp and thick for weft.

Excerpts from Handicrafts of India

by Kamala Devi chattopadhyaya

Once upon a time Navilu-gunda meaning 'the peacock grove' was home of the flamboyant national bird of India - Peacock (Navilu is peacock in Kannada); the 'char-mor jamkhana' with four stylized peacocks woven around the pachisi game board is a tribute to the exotic bird.
Although the end users are predominantly Hindus these works of art are created by women weavers from the Muslim community. Till not very long ago a jamkhana (dhurry) with a pagade aata was a part of the bridal trousseau and also pledged to secure loans.
The team of designers from RKP have incorporated traditional patterns of saada phool - geometrical floral form, pagade aata - the central pachisi board, char mor - four small peacocks and bada mor - a single large peacock in various permutations and combinations to create these traditional floor coverings.

Designers : R.G. Singh & H.S. Dharmendra, RKP
Crafts person : Farzana Begum, Navalgund

Links:
1. Deccan Herald article
2. Blog post

Game Boards in Bidri Craft

Bidricraft is a well known craft of 'Koftagiri'- inlaying of a light metal on a dark one, technically known as damascening, here the dark metal plate is an alloy of zinc, copper, tin and lead. Zinc in bulk forms the base, the design is drawn with a free hand on the surface, then engraved with a sharp chisel in varying depths as demanded by the design. Then silver wire or pieces of sheet are embedded on the chiselled patterns by hammering, finally the artefact is dipped in a hot solution of saltpetre containing clay and ammonia to turn the zinc into a lovely velvety black and the silver retains its white brilliant colour.

Excerpted from Handicarfts of India

by Kamala Devi chattopadhyaya

The craftsmen of bidriware concentrated in Bidar and adjoining areas make a variety of objects like boxes, ashtrays, stationery items, vases etc. The team of designers at RKP have designed these game boards using following techniques used by the artisans.

Tarkashi - inlay of wire

Tainishan - inlay of sheets

Zarnishan - low relief

Aftabi - cut out designs on overlaid metal sheet

In the game board of 'Elephants and Men' (the board in the centre of the picture), silver wires were thinned to the required girth by drawing them through diamond-drilled holes in the steel plate and then inlaid into the outline of the chiselled game pattern using tarkashi technique. The border has been beautifully inlaid in the famous 'phuljari' design.

Design : H.S. Dharmendra, RKP

Crafts person : Abdul Hakeem, Bidar

Channapatna Lacquerware Pawns

Channapatna in Ramanagara district of Karnataka holds an honoured place in the lacquer ware world. It is an old industry practised by craftsmen called chitragars and also has a sizeable number of craftspersons belonging to the muslim community.

Haalay is the main wood used here as it is extremely close-grained, moderately hard and ideal for turning.

A very old speciality of Channapatna is a complete set of miniature cooking utensils and kitchen ware. The modern innovations include telephone sets, planes, engines, trains, trucks, rattles etc. Popular dolls include snake charmer, vegetable vendor, lady with a water pot, set of music makers playing various musical instruments.

Excerpted from Handicrafts of India

by Kamala Devi Chattopadhyaya

The design team of Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) has used the traditional turning technique of Channapatna to create these stunningly beautiful pawns using following organic colours.

Yellow - Turmeric

Red - Kanchi Kumkum + Allerthin

Orange - Kanchi Kumkum

Green - Indigo + Turmeric

Design : H.S. Dharmendra, RKP

Crafts person : B. Venkatesh, Channapatna