The Gazetteers Department

A number of forms of recreational activity such as games, sports, and amusements are traditionally known to the people and are in popular practice in the region for a long time. They are mentioned below with a brief description of their distinctive characteristics.

In the play activities of infancy and early childhood, toys predominate over games. Babies are fascinated by multicoloured rattles (khulkhula) and toys that make a variety of sounds-all Kinds of pipes, whistles, drums and tamborines. These are followed by their keen rival, the doll, and then come the ' toys on wheels'. It is not an uncommon sight to see a child tripping about the house with a pangula-gada. or running about dragging behind him a toy-vehicle attached to a short string.

Children of four to five vears of age play a few simple games taking part by turns. Siva-sivi is the simple chase and tag game in which one of the children becomes a chaser and others run. The chase is simple with little or no dodging and the tagged player becomes the next chaser. Children love swinging and jhoke ahene which is but a reversion to the days of their infancy when the cradle rocked them to sleep, holds a pleasurable attraction to them. Golanti (somersault) wherein the child puts his head on the ground and swinging his legs and body backward lands supine facing the sky is a brave performance enticing others to follow.

Games of the " imitative " or " make-believe " type, wherein various roles like that of a cartman, horse-driver, engine-driver, music-player, palanquin-bearer, etc. enacted with fidelity to real life are a particular attraction of early childhood. They are games of the sort played with no set rules but with a good team spirit, every player having a part to perform. Ghoda-ghoda (horse) is played in several ways. Usually two children stand, one (driver) behind the other (horse) and both run forward, the driver holding the 'horse' by its garment. Some times, a rope is passed from the back of the neck of the ' horse', and the ' driver' holds in one of his hands the two ends of the rope and carries a whip in the other. Another variety of this game consists of the ' horse' moving on all fours with a ' rider' on his back. Horse and rider is also played by only one child, the child (rider) holding a long stick (horse) between the two legs one of the ends resting on the ground behind and the other held on the hand. Palakhi (palanquin) is usually played by three. The two stand facing each other, each gripping with his right hand his left elbow and with his left hand the right elbow of his friend opposite. In the arm-square so formed they carry the third who sits with his arms resting on the shoulders of the two. Ag-gadi (train) is just a queue of children, each holding the garment of the one in front of him. The engine-driver is at the head, at the tail is the guard, and in between are the ' wagons'. The guard whistles and gives the signal, the 'wagons' get ready to move and the ' engine ' speeds up.

Doll-dressing and doll-marriage are a favourite pastime among girls. Bhatukali is the game of house-keeping often played enthusiastically by girls with secondary roles given to boys. Doll's marriage may form a part of bhatukali or be played as a game by itself when planned on a grand scale. Gadya-gadya-bhingorya is a game of whirls in which children go round and round themselves till the quaint sensation of giddiness sets in.

A number of " chase and tag " games are played by children between the ages of five and nine. Sankhalici Siva-sivi is a more complex game than the ordinary tag. In it as the chaser tags one player after another they all join him to form a chain and run together to chase others. Chappa-pani is a tag game with the restriction that the chaser cannot touch a player who squats and the squatter cannot get up unless helned by some player who is on his feet. In Andhali-Kosimbir (blind man's bluff) the blindfolded player tries to tag anyone that comes within his reach in the fixed playing - area. Lapandav is the game of hide and seek. The seeker stands facing a wall with his eyes closed while the others hide. After all the players have found a hiding place they call out Coo-Coo-Ch-Coo. On this, the 'seeker' unfolds his eyes and starts searching the hidden players who rush to the spot and touch an object previously agreed on before the ' seeker' touches them. In Una-Una-Savall the playing area consists of an open sunlit place with spots of shaded places scattered all over. The chaser stands in sun light and he can only tag the other players when they are not under some shade. In Sat-Talya, the chaser faces a player from the group while others stand near the latter, ready to run away. The facing player gives the chaser seven claps, the last being the signal to run. The players run, followed by the chaser who tries to tag one of them.

In all " chase and tag " games the player who is tagged becomes the chaser and the game starts afresh.

Games of gotya (marbles), bhomra (top), and patanga (kite) have a great attraction for boys between the ages of six and sixteen and are played with competitive zest. For hitting a marble usually the spring action of the drawn up middle finger is used. Each instance of correct aiming adds to the delight of the played and gives an impetus to the other to compete. For " spinning the top", the top is twirled with a long string, one end of which is held between the middle and the ring finger. The top is held between the thumb and the index finger and whipped on the ground so as to land spinning on its spike. Once a mastery over the ' spin' is acquired more skilful top-games are contested.

Days round about the festival of Sankrant is the season for kite-flying. Hoisting up a kite is as good as a challenge to anybody to have a " kite-fight". Each boy so handles his kite as to cut off the thread of his opponent. For these fights a special thread (manjya) treated with powdered glass and gum is used.

A number of team-games are played strenuously and boisterously in later childhood and adolescence.

Bada-badi or Rapa-rapi: A soft ball either of rags or rubber is tossed up in air for all to catch and the player who succeeds tries to hit with the ball any other player who tries to dodge. The game can continue indefinitely.

Gup-cup-toba: Players sit in circle facing in and one of them runs outside the circle with a toba a well-knotted piece of cloth, which he quietly and swiftly puts behind one of the players. If the player is alert he immediately picks up the toba and chases the player who dropped it behind him. The latter to avoid being hit by the toba by the chaser must reach the vacant place quickly.

If the seated player fails to detect the toba put behind him, the chaser completing the round picks up the toba and with it beats and chases the ' dullard' till he takes one round and resumes his seat.

Vagha Bakari: One of the players is made the tiger (vagha), another the shepherd (dhanagar) and the rest are lambs (bakari). They line up behind the shepherd, each holding the one in front by the waist. The shepherd handles a knotted piece of cloth for the protection of his lambs, and in spite of all the beating he gets the tiger makes repeated efforts till he captures all the lambs.

Suraparambi: The game is popularly played by cowherds. From a circle drawn on the ground under a tree a player throws away a stick as distant as he could. By the time the ' thief' runs for the stick and restores it in the circle all climb the tree. The game lies in the players from the tree jumping from or climbing down the tree and touching the stick before they are tagged by the thief. The one who is tagged becomes the next 'thief. Kuraghodi: Of the two teams of equal member of boys one acts as 'horses' and the other as 'riders'. The leader horse bends before a wall for support and others bend and file behind him each holding the one in front by the waist. The riders one by one take a start, run, jump and ride a horse. The leader-rider closes with one hand the eyes of his horse and asks to tell the number of fingers of the other hand held before him. If the horse tells the correct number all the riders get down and the teams exchanging their parts the game is resumed.

The difference between the play interests of girls and boys, though sometimes exaggerated in popular opinion, cannot be overlooked. Girls generally prefer amusements like doll-dressing and are greatly interested in dancing, skipping and singing. Boys, on the other hand love to play strenuous games involving muscular dexterity and skill. Following are some noteworthy games played by girls.

Girl Games.

Sagar-gote: This is a sedentary game played by girls. Big round seeds (gajage), pebbles, or shreds of pottery serve as ready material. Five to any convenient odd number of these are thrown up into the air and an effort is made by the player to catch as many as possible' with the palms turned backward. These are again hurled up into the air and caught in both the palms facing upwards. Thus each player goes on playing till she exhausts all the pebbles. In a more complex form of the game the player throws all the pebbles on the ground, picks one of these, tosses it up in the air and before hopping it again, picks up one, two, and sometimes a large number of pebbles all at once.

The tag-game of chappa-pani and khamb-khambolya, a game of dodges are more popular with girls than boys. Same could be said of Sidi (ladder) a game of ' hop scotch' in which the player, hopping on one foot, pushes with it a piece of flat stone over a pattern of lines marked on the ground.

Phugadya is a typically indigenous game usually played by girls in pairs. Two girls stand facing each other, keep their feet together with a distance of two or three inches between the toes, cross arms, keep them straight and hold each other's hands, balance the body backward, and each time, stepping the right foot a few inches to the right and sliding the left along with it, start an anti-clockwise movement. As the footwork quickens, the movement gathers in tempo till the players get swung in a whirl. They sing jocular couplets and blow rhythmic breathing sounds with the mouth known as pakva to keep time and add zest to the dance.

There are various types of phugadis. In danda-phugadi the players hold each other by the danda (upper arm); in nakulya they interlock their fingers in a hook grip. In basa-phugadi one player keeps moving with bent knees while the other is comparatively erect. Ekahataci-phugadi is played with only one hand engaged in the grip and the other resting on the hip. In lolana phugadi the players bend the legs and hold the-great toes and then start rolling on the back and then sit. In bhui phugadi the dancers start with a full squatting position and arms resting on the knees, and then scrape the feet alternately in oblique kicks balancing the steps with backward and forward movements of the arms.

Jhimma, Kombada, Pinga are phugadis of different kind. There are no whirling movements done in pairs, in a way they are callisthenic movements repeated with rhythm of songs and pakva and acted in pairs and groups, they lead to a competitive zest.

Major games.

A number of major games, both of Western and Indian types. are played in Kolhapur. Characteristically they require no elaborate equipment. Of the Indian major games, the well-known are: (1) hu-tu-tu, (2) kho-kho, (3) circle kho-kho, (4) langadi, (5) atya-patya, (6) viti-dandu, and (7) lagorya. These games when popularly played are played with regional variations. Standardised forms, however have been carried out by institutions like the Akhila Maharashtra Saririka Siksana Mandala which are now widely adopted and strictly observed when the games are played in contested matches.

Akhadas or Talims.

Kolhapur is famous for its Talims and Akhadas which are old, indigenous institutions for the training of ahletes, wrestlers and gymnasts and generally for providing facilities for exercise and physical culture. A talim is usually managed by a committee of pancas or notables of the locality and their number varies from five to fifteen. Funds are raised by subscription from residents of the locality for the initial stage of construction and equipment of the talim and further for celebrations such as urus, Ganapati festival or Satyanarayan puja, etc. A talim is conducted by one or two senior persons known as ustads or masters who are much respected by their disciples. As trainer-gymnasts they train young people who come to the talim for exercise and for learning wrestling and other athletic arts. In villages, the Maruti temple usually serves the purpose of the gymnasium, but in towns a talim may have a building of its own. In its necessary paraphernalia could be included lathis, bothatis, farigadgas, lezims, dandpattas, malakhamb, karela, jod-jodis, hatte, heavy stone-balls and nalis (stone wheels) and sometimes dumb-bells and modern weight-lifting apparatus. Every talim has a hauda (wrestling arena) and one or two deities, either a MarutI and/or a Pir. Sometimes a talim has an open ground attached to it.

Talims usually aim at turning out good wrestlers. Wrestling matches are arranged between young and mature athletes of different talims in the city or with athletes from outside. The winner is usually awarded an amount in money. When such matches are arranged the wrestler is put on some special training and diet. In villages the yearly ' challenge meeting' usually held on the day before Dasara is a great event. The winner gets a handsome prize-a bracelet, a turban or a waist-cloth. Similar wrestling bouts known as hagama is a regular "feature at most fairs.

Recreation-cum-Instruction.

The religious-minded Hindu, particularly if he has taken to saguna devotion (idol worship) attaches great religious merit, to the uttering and hearing of and meditating upon the name of god or that of his favourite deity and attending different kinds of religious expositions known as purana, pravacana, hatha or kirtana and bhajana delivered by professionals in a technique of their own.

The professional readers and reciters of sacred books are known as puranikas who are engaged sometimes by a rich householder or by a temple management to read purana. These readings take place either in the afternoon, or at night from eight to twelve o'clock. They read usually from the Ramayana, Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharata in Sanskrt and expound it in the regional language. Pravacanas are learned religious discourses delivered by sastris well versed in the knowledge of Hindu scriptures. A pravacanakar need not be a professional lecturer or puranika.

A kirtana is & musical discourse in which God and religion are described and expounded in poetry and prose. A klrtana-kara (performer of kirtana or preacher) is also known as Haridas (servant of Hari or Visnu) or kathekari (expounder of Hari-katha). Of the nine stages of bhakti (devotion), kirtana is the second stage and the objective of a kirtanakar it to express his love of God, sing His praise and at the same time lead the hearers to a life of faith and morality.

Two schools of kirtana are generally followed at present, the Narada and the Varakan. In the Narada type, for the purvaranga (first part) the preacher chooses as his text a Sanskrt verse from sacred books or a song of a poet-saint, makes out a philosophical theme of it and follows it up in uttararanga (second part) expounding the principle by an illustrative story. In the Varakari type, the distinction of purvaranga and uttaranga is not observed. The preacher quotes themes by way of reciting abhanga rhymes and songs of famous poet-saints, one after another and immediately expounds them with illustrative examples and commentary. Off and on he pauses and starts a bhajan in which his accompanists and even the audience joins.

Bhajan is the chanting of religious songs in chorus. Almost every village has a bhajana group, which consists of a leader-singer (buva), a mrdangi (drum-player), a harmonium player and several talakaris (cymbal-players). The buva. who is equipped with vina (lute) and a cipli (castanets) gives out the song, the mrdangi and the harmonium-player provide rhythm and tune and the talakaris pick up the refrain and vociferate it in chorus clicking their tals in unison.

A recreational fare similar to that of bhajana and kirtana is served by Gondhalls, a community of religious mendicants and hereditary worshippers of the goddess Ambabal in whose honour they sing and dance. MaratM Hindus, and even some Brahman families, after some joyful event in the family such as birth or marriage, visually hire Gondhalis to give a gondhal performance at night. A high wooden stool is set in the middle of a room and a handful or two of wheat is laid on it. On the wheat is set a copper cup with betel leaves in it, and over the leaves, a half cocoa-kernel holding some rice, a betelnut, and a copper coin. Near the stool is set an image of the goddess Ambabal and a light lamp stand, the three or four dancers playing on the sambal (double drum), tuntune (one-stringed fiddle) zanj (cymbal). One holds a divati (lighted torch). The head dancer dresses in a long robe and garlands of cowrie shells and stands in front of others, lays sandal, flowers and naivedya before the lighted torch and takes the torch up, dances with the torch in his hands for a time, sings, and at intervals makes a fool of the torch-bearer. The dance lasts about an hour, and after waving an arati in front of the goddess and throwing copper and silver coins in the Plate holding the lamp the dance is over.

Tamasa.

A popular recreational activity, is the Tamasa. It is an indigenous species of folk entertainment which includes singing, dancing, dialogue, etc. Usually a Tamasa-party which is known as ban consists of about seven persons, the minimum number considered necessary being five. It includes artists of histrionic talent and of musical skill. There is one dancer, one drummer, a comedian and two others keeping time, one with a tuntune (a string instrument) and the other with a pair of small cymbals. In a bigger party there may be an additional-dancer, and a drummer and some actors. Sometimes a tambourine-player is also included. A village may be proud of its tamasa-party of amateurs. Besides, there are many tamaia-troupes of performers. The nacya (dancer) in amateur troupes is generally a boy dressed as a girl, while a fomale dancer and singer is the chief attraction in professional tamasas.

Tamasas are usually performed at the annual fairs of local shrines where people congregate in great number and in gay mood as the harvesting season is just about to close. Tamasa parties prefer villages to towns as they get better patronage in rural areas. Night is considered the proper time for the performance.

As the participants enter, they make obeissance to the audience. A prayer in chorus is then offered. The general prayer, called arati, is followed by a song in praise of Ganapati known as gana. The item that follows the gana songs is known as gavalana in which the traditional Krsna-milk-maid theme is enacted with characteristic repartees between the boyhood friends of Krsna and gavalanas (milk-maids) headed by Radha. Lord Krsna's dramatic appearance on the scene and at the end singing of some devotional gavalan songs by the maids to the accompaniment of appropriate gestures and movements. After gavalan comes ' the farce', a humorous presentation of a story, the chief role being enacted by the comedian. The ' farce' is followed by sangit bari, an interesting item of ' dance and song' by the woman dancer. Lavanis, zagadas and modern songs from the movies and other popular ones are sung and danced and members of the audience sometimes give small amounts to a particular singer for a song which has particularly pleased them. This extra collection earned by the dancer is known as daulat jada. Then starts the vag or the dramatic presentation of a story. The story is often taken from the Puranas or some historical incident. Tamasa troupes have now taken to modem-social themes and present them in the way of stage actors. The vag has an indefinite duration from one to three hours. Generally the songs sung during a vag are sung by all, irrespective of their roles. The performance is brought to an end with; the singing of a prayer.

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