Indian Traditional Game

  India has a huge and unique culture among all the countries in the world. Because of the flexibility in cultures, every state has its own sport to follow. In ancient time Indian sports and games were more concerned about the physical development and wanted to empower players with the art of defense and offence. Games were also considered as a kind of exercise, which played an important role in the development of one’s personality and fortunately India has a rich tradition of these games. Ancient time games were like Pachisi, played by Lord Shiva and Parvati, game of Dice in which Pandavas lost Draupadi and the Mughals enjoyed playing chess.  But steadily time changed and so did our sports. We have forgotten our traditional games. Remember the time we could not wait to come back from school so that we could play a couple of rounds of Kith-kith with our friends? Let us relive and remember one of this traditional game this Monsoon:

         Satoliya (The Seven Stone)
  

Satoliya is now commonly known as Lagori is the game of seven stone. This is not known much by other countries as it was played in the villages of India which then found its way in the Urban area.

This game is also known by other names like :

a)  Dikori

b)  Lagoori

c)  Lingocha (Hyderabad)

d)  Lingorchya (Maharashtra)

e)  Pitthu (Haryana)

f)  Satoliya (Rajasthan)

g)  Satodiya (Gujarat)

h)  Yedu Penkulata (Andra Pradesh).       i)  Dabba Kali (Kerala)

j)  Ezhu Kallu (Tamil Nadu)

Things Required to Play :

1)  A ball : Tennis ball or rubber ball types (not to hard)

2)  & stones : If not stones then its substitute.

3)  Two teams . Minimum 2 – 3 players in each team. More the players, a lot more fun.

How To Play :

 1)  To start the game two team with equal number of players are required.

2)  To decide who shall take the attacking role first, a coin is tossed.

3)  Seven stones or any of the substitutes should be on top of each other as a pile within a circle. The defending team will take their positions for the fielding purpose. The position of fielding team will be wicket keeper who will be standing behind the stones and others around the stones randomly as fielders stand in cricket. All the players belonging to the attacking team will be taking their position behind the crease line in an appropriate distance away from the pile of stones.

4)  The attacking team will be getting three chances to hit the pile of stones with the ball in either of the ways i.e. underarm or overarm , to knock the pile of stones.

5)  The attacking team has to hit the pile of stones in three hit.

a)  Opponent player catches the ball in one tip and stones are not destructed then the player will be out and the next player will come.

b)  If the opponent player can not catch the ball and stones are also not destructed, then he will get another chance up to three. After three chances he will be out and the next player will attack.

c)  If the opponent player catches the ball and also stones are destructed, then player will get a chance from ONE.

d)  The opponent player can not catch the ball and the stones are destructed, then the real game begins.

6)  If they fail, then the defending and attacking team interchange places and continue to play, with one point to the defending team in the case of worst aiming skills of the attacking team.

7)  As soon as the ball knocks off the pile of stones, the defender team will get hold of the ball and try their best to get the opponent team members OUT by hitting them with the ball in their leg below the knees.

8)  The aim of the attacking team is to rearrange the pile of stones and trace the circle three times with their fingers before the other team can make all the players OUT.

9)  If they succeed doing that, their team gets a point and they get a chance to throw ball again. But, if all the players are OUT, then the defending team will get a chance to hit the ball and will gain a point.

10)  Fielding team cannot run while having ball in the hand, they can pass the ball to their teammates.

11)  If batting team is able to arrange stones back they will got one point and their all players who are out will alive again.

12)   If fielding team is able to hit the ball to any one of batting team member then whole batting team will be out and fielding team will do batting.

13)  The team which scores seven points first will be winner.

These additional rules make the game even more interesting.

Clearly mark the boundary. If any of the seekers crosses it then he is out.

If the person trying to knock down the pile cannot do it in three tries then he is out.

In any of the three tries, if the thrower’s ball does not knock down the pile and is caught by an opponent after the first bounce then the thrower is out.

If the seekers succeed in restoring the pile then they can use the point scored to buy back their ousted team mate

Skills

Throwing the ball;

Evading the ball;

Building the pile of stones;

Distracting the opposite team from building the pile