King Chandaiah Hegde wanted to appease his pregnant wife Neelamma. So, according to her wish, the couple engages in Chenne mane, Neelamma's favouite game, in which Chandaiah embraces defeat every time. Finding his prestige dangling, the king moved the pawns in his favour, as Neelamma calls for a recess. The Queen, on return, smells foul play. She was so vexed that she returns to her native.
Her brother, who takes vengeance on his sister's behalf, leads a battle against Chandaiah, in which the king dies. Later Neelamma, who couldn't bear her husband's demise, dies of heart burst.
The tragedy is Sediyapu Krishna Bhat's short story “Chenne mane”. Fiction or non - fiction, it is true that board games were played erstwhile in immense excitement. One of our epics — Mahabharata — itself bets an excellent example of this. The Pandavas had to undergo 14 years of forest life following defeat in the board game “Chathuranga”, a variant of chess.
The ongoing exhibition Kreeda Kaushalya, organised by Ramsons Kala Prathishtana in Mysore city, sweep off the visitors to those bygone times when board games were played with a tad more excitement and enthusiasm than with which video games or for that matter any such games are played today.
"With the advent of computer games and TV, the board games gradually ebbed away from city houses. They are still played in villages, but the number of players there too is dwindling. Different kinds of board games were played as pastime by people in the past— whether by royals in Palaces or commoners under trees or temple verandahs. It was played with great enthusiasm and spirit," said Raghu Dharmendra, the designer at Ramsons, who said the expo was to revive the spirit of these games.
Traditional games such as Ali guli mane, Chowka bara, Huli Kattu (Padhinaitham Puli in Tamil), Pagade, Chathuranga, Chenne mane, African game Mancala and enormous variants of the common board games such as snake and ladder and chess are showcased.
In order to turn the eyeballs and retain them there, Ramsons have laced each game piece with tads of craftworks, at the exhibition, which otherwise would have turned a dull display.
The exhibition houses a myriad of traditional game boards and pawns (game pieces) chipped out diligently with hues of different forms of crafts. The game boards are either carved out of wood, imprinted on silver, hand - painted on palm leaves and clothes, embroidered with colourful threads or painted with kalamkari art. Every piece displayed has an affluence of art floating over them.
Three boxes resembling old treasure chests catch attention as soon as one enters. The top lid has the game Chenne mane on it. Opening the two - panelled top flanks of the box, a two - panelled game board for pagade is exposed. Like a magic chest where the wonders keep on popping out, the box keeps on giving out three more boards of different games — panchi, cows & leopards and chathuranga.
Raghu Dharmendra explained that this game box was invented in the court of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar. It has an intricate design, with five pairs of wooden planks stacked inside a box with skill. They are devised to fall in precision, even as they are opened, to form the boards for the games inside. Only a few such boxes exists now in city. "We found some in Urs families," Raghu said.
Some bidris (game pieces) displayed are a cynosure of all eyes. They are carved in rosewood or camel bones. In a life - size chathuranga board, whose prize soared to a whopping Rs. 86,500, each game piece was a marvellous toy in itself. Instead of a mere representative piece as we see in chess, the king is carved in camel bone to be seated in an elegant palanquin, on an equally wonderous war - elephant. The pawns are also carved human figures.
A huge silver game board is also to be seen. "These are collectors' item. They can be played, as well as displayed to luxuriate your interiors," said Raghu, who added that the purpose of exhibiting them is to educate the new generation about how the royalty in olden days played these games.
Ramsons houses a research wing to carry investigations on traditional games and crafts. The research results have been put up as more than 60 posts in their blog kreedakaushalya. blog spot.com. "The collection displayed were the result of 11 years of research," says R. G. Singh, Secretary at Ramsons, though they started holding exhibitions only in 2007.
“Bored” out through your vacation? Let's play a bit of “board” game!
U. K. Rumana
Courtesy: Star of Mysore
