HYDERABAD: We know much about the trade relations, economy and warfare of the State in the medieval era. But have you ever wondered how the nawabs or the rajas and maharajas used to wind down after a hard day of ‘ruling’? Well, a paper released on Friday highlights the kind of games that kings and queens, officials and citizens from ancient period used to play.
Presenting his research paper, ‘Sports and games as gleaned from the literary sources of Medieval Telangana’, on the second and concluding day of Telangana History Congress held at Prof G Ram Reddy Centre for Distance Education on Osmania University campus on Tuesday, Dr G Anjaiah, an assistant professor at OU, said, “There are references in Telugu and Sanskrit literature of contemporary period to the popular indoor and outdoor games played by rich and common people alike in Andhra Desa. The travel accounts of Niktin, Barbosa Nilcolo-de-Conti, and other foreigners also contain such information.”
During Kakatiya age, officials and the public enjoyed playing games such as dice, chigava gunthalata, ashta-chemma, and thokkudu billa. Perhaps, the most significant game to have been played during the medieval period and is still being played widely even now is polo. “Polo was played mostly in medieval Muslim kingdoms. But it was also played in Telangana during Kakatiya rule,” Anjaiah said. Called Kanduka Kreeda then, it was a popular game of not only Kakatiyas but also of Reddy kings who ruled the state in the 14th century. When Maharaja Ganapati Deva, a major king of the Kakatiya dynasty, defeated and killed Parthiswara, inscriptions say that a type of football game was played with Parthiswara’s dismembered head, Anjaiah said.
Apart from those duels or malla yuddham were also a popular sport during Reddy reign. “In Simhasnadvatrasika, Koravi Goparaju described a duel between two servants. In ancient Andhra, people used to engage in elephant fights and bull-fights apart from the still-prevalent-but-illegal cock-fights,” he said.
‘Indian history written from northern perspective’
Other speakers lamented that the study of Indian history in India has been predominantly of North Indian or Gangetic belt-based. “There is a huge gap in Telugu history before the advent of Satavahanas.
This is because most historians concentrated on the north,” a speaker said. “Pulakesi, the most famous ruler of Chalukyas, defeated Emperor Harshavardhana in 618 AD. “Pulakesi stopped Harsha from conquering South India. We know nothing about Pulakesi but everything about the other. This is because Indian history has been North-centric,” he remarked