A Raja's Fascination with Games

The decisive fourth Anglo-Mysore war of 1799 marked the death of Tipu Sultan and the fall of Srirangapatna (Seringapatam as it was mis-spelt earlier), the island capital of Mysore kingdom. This paved the way for the greedy colonial power to establish a strangle hold over the vast sub-continent and then began the plunder which relentlessly went on for next 148 years subjugating one kingdom after the other.

The victorious army of East India Company and its allies savagely sacked the military stronghold and destroyed the remaining fortifications of Srirangapatna. After the death of Tipu Sultan, vehement pursuasion and pleading by the dowager queen Lakshmammanni resulted in East India Company restoring the kingdom of Mysore (which had been usurped by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan) to the ancient Wodeyar dynasty.

The choice of the king was the toddler, Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, and the capital was shifted to Mysore. This change heralded a renaissance in the fields of painting, sculpture, temple crafts, music, dance, literature and institution building which was continued by next four rulers finally ending in 1947 with the merger of the princely states, including Mysore, with the union of India.

The period between 1831 and 1881, referred to as rendition, was when the British took over (from Krishnaraja Wodeyar III) the reigns of administration of Mysore kingdom by appointing a commissioner and the Raja was reduced to a figure head with ceremonial powers.

It was during this period that the young Raja took deep interest in the art of play among other things now that he was free from the administrative responsibilities.

His fascination with the board games was intense. The painted murals and specimens of board games, pawns and dice on display at the Jaganmohan Palace at Mysore are a testimony of his deep interest. The talented artists in the royal atelier have painted an entire manuscript - Sri Tattvanidhi - running into several hundred pages dealing with varied subjects. The last section titled 'Kautuka Nidhi' deals exclusively with board and card games.

Other materials pertaining to board games have been recorded for posterity in the form of lithograph books, etched copper plates, sheets of litho prints, silk cloths, beautiful game rosewood boxes inlaid with ivory and game boards cast in brass and copper.

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Illustrations from top to bottom:

1. Aquatint showing an English soldier grabbing the bejewelled golden belt of Tipu Sultan before latter's death on 4 May 1799.
2. A painted manuscript despicting five year old Krishnaraja Wodeyar on throne.
3. A painting of Krishnaraja Wodeyar at the English durbar sometime before he was freed from administrative responsibilities.
4. One of the murals depicting 'Knight's Tour' at the game room of Jaganmohan palace, Mysore.
5. Pages from Kautuka Nidhi illustrating two suites of a Ganjifa card set.
6. An etched copper plate of Mysore having magic squares popularised by the Raja. Collection: British Museum.

Mancala Board - New Designs

The design wing of Ramsons Kala Pratishtana has created following mancala boards also called as Aligulimane or Chennemane or Pallanguli, using different craft traditions.

This is a brass mancala board crafted using 'cire purdue' or lost wax process. Along with regular double rows of seven pits, the board has two larger storage pits. The uniqueness of this design is that the traditional design of 'prabhavali', the arch topped with 'keerthimukha', has been used here to surround the two storage pits. The board stands on four legs designed like that of a lion. Two sides have been intricately crafted with the motif of a 'gandaberunda' in the centre. This beautifully crafted board is a collector's delight.

This is one more board with a slight difference in which each storage pit is shown as wide open mouth of a lion.

The above two boards have been crafted out of copper sheets with a splash of bright enamel. Usually we come across mancala boards in which the pits seem to be scooped out of the board. But in these boards pits are like two rows of cups kept side by side.

Game at the Wedding

Newspaper Article

The July 8 issue of Spectrum (one of the weekly supplement of Deccan Herald) carried a well written article 'Games People Played' by Meera Iyer. The article talks about the efforts of Ramsons Kala Pratishtana in research and reviving of board games and also about Kreedaa Kaushalya.

Click on the title of this post which is a link to that article.

Game board collection

These board games and accessories have been collected by the team of researchers of RKP on field trips to different places across India.

Neem wood Aligulimane - Napoklu village, Virajpet, Kodagu, Karnataka.^

Folding Aligulimane - Periyapatna taluk, Mysore district,Karnataka.^

Brass sheet metal Aligulimane - Tanjore, Tamilnadu.^

Marble Chess Board - Agra, Uttar Pradesh.^

Brass Aliguli Mane casted in traditional lost wax process - Mysuru, Karnataka.^

Fish shaped wooden Mancala board - Shivaganga, Tamilnadu.^

Rosewood pallanguli board inlaid with teakwood - Karaikudi, Tamilnadu.^

Inlaid Chess board - Mysore, Karnataka. Camel bone Chess set - Jaipur, Rajasthan.^

Ganjifa cards and box - Mysuru, Karnataka.^

Ganjifa cards and box - Sawantawadi, Maharashtra. ^

Pagade Rhyme

ಪಗಡೆಯ ಆಟ ಬಲು ಚೆನ್ನ
ಓಟದ ಆಟವು ಇದು ಅಣ್ಣ
ನಾಕು ಜನ ಎದುರು ಬದರು
ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಹಾಸನಿಟ್ಟು ಒದರು
ಕಾಯಿ ಕೆಂಪು ಕಪ್ಪು ನಾಕು
ಹಳದಿ ಹಸುರು ನಾಕು ನಾಕು
ಎರಡು ದಾಳ ಕರಗಳಲಿ
ಉಜ್ಜಿ ಬಿಡು ಕೆಳಗುರುಳಲಿ
ದುಗ ಇತ್ತಿಗ ಎಂಟು ಹನ್ನೆರಡು
ನಡೆಸು ಜೊತೆಯ ಕಾಯಿ ಎರಡು
ಕಾದು ಕುಳಿತು ಕಾಯಿ ಹೊಡಿ
ಜೋಡಿಯಿಂದ ಜೋಡಿ ಬಡಿ
ಹೊಡೆದ ಕಾಯ್ ಹೊರಗಟ್ಟಿಸು
ಮರಳಿ ಅದನು ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸು
ಒಂದು ಪೂರಾ ಸುತ್ತು ಹಾಕು
ಹೊಟ್ಟೆ ತಲುಪಿ ಮಲಗು ಸಾಕು
ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಾಯ ಹಣ್ಣು ಮಾಡು
ಇಷ್ಟವಾಗೆ ಮತ್ತೆ ಆಡು

How to Play Vimanam

Contents: 1 Game board; 2 sets of 6 coins (total 12 coins); 6 cowrie shells.

This is a two-player race game. Each player gets 6 coins of same colour and keeps it in his home outside the game board as shown in Fig 3. This is the initial position of the coins and every time they are cut, they return to their respective homes.

Goal: To bear off all six coins, first.

Throw of six cowrie shells:

• One mouth up (Fig.2)- introduce one coin on starting square or move one square & play again
• Two mouths up- move two squares
• Three mouths up- move three squares
• Four mouths up- move four squares
• Five mouths up- introduce one coin on starting square or move five squares & play again
• Six mouths up- move six squares & play again
• No mouths up - move twelve squares & play again

How to play:

1. The board is always kept in the centre during the game.
2. Each player keeps his coins in his home as shown in Fig.1. The first square on the tail end near his home is his starting square ('a' is the starting square of player-1 and 'b' is that of player-2).
3. Players alternately throw all six cowrie shells on the floor and move a coin as indicated by the throw of shells.
4. The movement of the coins is different (shown by different arrows) for both players and is given as follows.

5. Player 1: a-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-n-q-r and off. (Blue arrow in Fig.4)
6. Player 2: b-c-d-k-j-i-h-g-f-e-m-n-o-p and off. (Red arrow in Fig.5)

7. If a player’s coin lands on a square occupied by opponent’s coin, then the opponent’s coin is cut and the player gets an extra turn to play.
8. The cut coin returns to its home and has to be reintroduced on the starting square and go round all over again.
9. The darker squares (rest squares) though, are safe places and no coins present here can be cut.
10. Player-1 bears off his coin from ‘r’ while Player-2 bears off his coins from ‘p.’
11. The first player to bear off all his coins wins the game.

Extra Turn:

• Whenever a ‘one,’ a ‘five,’ a ‘six’ or a ‘twelve’ is got during a throw of cowrie shells, the player gets to play another turn.
• When a player cuts opponent’s coin, he gets an extra turn to play.
• During an extra turn, either the same coin or some other coin can be played.

Points to remember:

• Both players’ coins move in the same direction at two places - from 'c' to 'd' and then from above 'd' to 'n'.
• A player should cut his opponent in order to move his coins into the inner stem of squares (i.e., 'm' or 'l' to 'n'). Otherwise he has to move another coin or forfeit his turn until he cuts atleast one of the opponent coin.
• If a player has cut once, all the coins can move into the inner stem, not necessary for every coin to cut opponent.
• No limit for a player to cut opponents’ coins.
• Each coin has to be first introduced (or reintroduced if it has been cut) on its starting square (on the throw of either a 'one' or a 'five') before it starts moving.

Variation:

Some play this game using two stick dice instead of cowrie shells. Four sides of each stick dice contains 1, 2, 3 and 'null' dots. Both dice are rolled together on the gound and coins are moved according to the number of dots present on the top face of the dice when they come to rest.