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 recently 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 earlier this week, Dr G Anjaiah, an assistant professor at Osmania University, said, “There are references in Telugu and Sanskrit literature of contemporary period to the popular indoor and outdoor games played by the 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 the Kakatiya age, officials and the public enjoyed playing games such as dice, chigava gunthalata, ashta-chemma, pacchis 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 the Kakatiya rule,” Anjaiah said. Called Kanduka Krida then, it was a popular game of not only the Kakatiyas but also of the Reddy kings who ruled the state in the 14th century. Often, the kind of games turned morbid and a little cruel. 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 the dismembered head of Partishwara, Anjaiah said.
Apart from these, duels or malla yuddham (combat wrestling) were also a popular sport during the Reddy reign. Not just duels by men but animal fights — elephants, bulls — were also vastly popular in those days.