Traditional Sports in Rajasthan

The history of Rajasthan not only depicts the glory of its brave rulers, but this feature of bravery can also be noted in the sports they play.  The sports they played require the proper blend of mental and physical strength.  Some sports have become the records of epic era. However, there is series of traditional sports which were played by the royal families and also by their citizens who participated in these games with courage and excitement.

With the changing time the royal and traditional sports are replaced  by the modern and adventurous games of cricket, para gliding, mountaineering, aero games etc. The forth coming paragraphs brief the introduction of such sports.

Polo: Polo is considered to be originated in India but the royal rulers of Rajasthan adopted the game as their favorite game. The main reason behind its popularization amongst the people of royal family was due to their riding skills. The palaces of the royal families have separate stables for the horses of polo game. There are several forms of polo which include horse polo, elephant polo, cycle polo etc. earlier this game was played only the members of royal family but now the game is played by the members royal family and trained professionals.

Tonga and Camel Cart Race: This is one of the oldest game of Rajasthan. Horses and camels were the major source of transportation in the yesteryears. Tonga race is related to horses, as when horses are binded with the cart it is known as Tonga in the local language and the same stands for camel cart race. These games forgotton by the youth. To maintain the existence of such traditional games every year in Pushkar fair and Nagaur fair the state government organizes such races.

During the fair camels are beautiful decorated with beautiful jewelry, this adds a flavour in their looks.  Due to excitement involved in these races they are famous amongst the foreign tourists. However, as the means of transport they are considered the slowest mean, but during the race their speed during the fair can surprise any one to bite his finger by strange.

Kite Flying: The passion towards kite flying can be seen during the months of winter. Every city has kite flying clubs which are involved in organizing kite flying competitions at regular period from time to time. During the winters with early morning the sky gets filled with colourful kites flying covering the boundary of sky.

Jaipur the capital of Rajasthan is an illustrative place for kite flying. Every year on Makkar Sankranti in month of January kite festival is organized in Rajasthan. In earlier days some kite fliers even took bets on kite flying.

However, the modernization has also effected the kite flying, now various new designs of kites can be seen flying in the sky.

Despite of this there are few traditional games which are still played by the kids in rural area, infact, they even attract the foreigners. To name few can be illustrated as:

Gulli Danda: This is a team game. This game does not require any specific kit nor there is any kind of time boundation to play this game. This is played with the help of two pieces of sticks of which one is smaller and the other one which is bigger, the smaller piece of stick is called as Gulli and the bigger one as Danda. However, the excitement can be felt at every step of the game, here, the player has to hit the smaller stick with the bigger one. The game proceeds after successfully hitting the smaller stick.

Glass Balls (Kanchae): This is also one of the traditional game where the player has to hit the glass ball. The main attraction of this game is the direct hit to the ball.

Sitolia (Game of seven stones): This is the game played with the help of ball and pebbles. The game is called Sitolia for the reason that seven pieces of stone pebbles are used for playing. This is also a kind of team game, where the player of one team has to hit the series of seven pebbles with the ball and the players on the other side have either to catch that ball or have to hit the player with ball before he arranges the series of pebbles. The main attraction of this game is rearranging of the pebbles after hitting the ball.

Kabbadi: This is also a kind of team game. At present this game is again getting popularity after it got recognition in the Asian Games. However, it is also one of the traditional game of India. Each team has seven players. The major requirement beside the physical strength, is control on the breathing, as the player has to get himself free from arms of the players of the opposite team. The ground is divided into two portion and every time player from one side crosses the border of other team and enters in its area and try to hit the player of other team with his hand, where as the players of other side try to grab him and do not let him cross the border.

Thus, there are few such games which still are played with full courage in villages but have lost their recognition in the urban areas.