Game or design?
CHENNAI : One of the biggest challenges of documenting the presence of traditional games on the floors of temples and monuments is understanding which of the markings are games and which are not. Some are obviously games, while a few others are not, and can’t be definitely identified as games. One of the markings that has given me the most questions is a flower design.
I first spotted this flower design at the Thiruvottriyur Temple in Chennai. It was an incomplete flower, in a slightly incongruous spot for what I assumed, was a kolam or a decorative element. However, the slab on which it was inscribed was a different colour from the neighbouring slabs. So, I dismissed it as something that had been relocated from elsewhere. However, I did photograph it because I photograph anything inscribed on the floors for documentation purposes. I later saw a similar flower, the same number of petals in the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai. Again, it was in a fairly incongruous spot, and in this case, it was not unclear whether that slab was originally there or not. The place though, was conveniently located on a step, making it easy for people to sit and play. That, actually, was the reason why I spotted it, because these are spaces where games are usually seen.
In subsequent years, I noticed a similar flower pattern in many other temples. What was a surprising coincidence, was that in all these places, it was not where floor designs or kolams are usually seen. It got me wondering about the flower. Could it perhaps be some long-forgotten game?
I shelved the idea to the back of my mind until I had an opportunity to visit New Zealand and the Maori Museum there. I spotted a game called Mu Torere which in some ways reminded me of this flower. The design of the game, Mu Torere was more obviously a grid, unlike the flower. However, I have seen the creativity of our ancestors in designing games and I got curious. I dismissed the idea of it being a game from New Zealand, as I thought it was perhaps farfetched to believe that there would be similarities in games between two countries so far away from each other. However an idea had been planted in my mind and it grew.
Further research showed me the game of Sishima, believed to be played in parts of Africa. This too resemble the Mu Torere board and seem to have the same number of intersection points as the flower.
This got me thinking, for after all the game of Pallanguzhi is popular across Africa as Mancala. Is it so farfetched to believe that another game could have travelled along trade routes and spread to a different country? Could this game have just been a forgotten game or was I just grasping at straws and was it merely a flower?
The question to be asked is this — could we have forgotten a game so completely that we can no longer recognise it? The answer is yes. In temples and monuments there are numerous grids we no longer recognise as games. Yet there is sufficient evidence to prove that they were games that were played once upon a time.