|
People of Punjab entertain
themselves in a variety of ways. These include games,
dhangals (wrestling bouts), folk songs and dances,
kite flying, cock fights, etc. The games in Punjab
are suitable for children, youth, adult and old
people alike. Many of these games have been lost
in the evolution of history, and the ones that remainare
losing for perhaps these are not in fashion except
a few which still survive.
GAMES
Tirinjen
One of the popular organized forms of work and
entertainment for young girls is Tirinjen - where
the girls spin and sing. Tirinjen is a kind of social
club, which can be organized in any home, where
place for spinning wheels and the girls is available
for a day/night. The girls would sing and dance,
would express their sorrow and happiness, pangs
of separation and joy of meeting. The spinning wheel
plays a significant role in the life of the women,
as a companion, counselor in distress, friend and
guide. An example of a song sung by a married girl
during Tirinjen:
Charkha mera rangla, vich sone dian mekhan,
Ni mai tenu yaad karan, jad charkhe wal dekhan.
My spinning wheel is multi colored
Inlaid with nails of gold,
I think of you
Whenever I see my spinning wheel.
Har charkhe de gere
Yad awen toon mitra
Each circle of the wheel,
Brings your sweet memories to my mind.
'Teej' or Teeans, which is celebrated in the month
of Sawan (July), is also a source of entertainment
for girls. Teej festival starts on the third day
of Sawan and continues for about thirteen days.
This is a period when rainy season is at its best,
having said good bye to the scorching heat, people
are out to enjoy the rains. It is also the time
for sowing. The whole atmosphere is relaxed and
people have a sigh of relief. The girls celebrate
it by having swings. One sees girls, even today,
on the swings all over the villages during the rainy
season. They have new clothes, special dishes to
eat and special songs for the occasion. This festival
has also made inroads into the urban society. A
number of songs are sung during the occasion pertaining
to various aspects of the social life.
Ral auo sahio ni,
Sabh tian khedan jaiye
Hun aya sawan ni
Pinghan piplin ja ke paiye
Pai ku ku kardi ni,
Sahio koel Hanju dolhe
Papiha wekho ni,
Bherha pee-pee kar ke bole.
Paye pailan pande ni,
Bagi moran shor machaya.
Arhio khil khil phaulan ne,
Sanu mahia yad kariya.
Come on all friends!
Let’s go and play Tian,
The Sawan Heartens us,
Let us hang the swings on the Peepal.
Swinging ku-ku O friends!
The cuckoo sheds its tears
And behold this Papiha
Which goes on singing pia-pia.
The peacock dances gleefully
Filling the garden with its crowings
These wretched blossoming flowers
Remind us of our Ranjan.
Kikli
This is another game, basically for women. Two girls
clasp their hands and move in circle. This was a
game, which was played by two or four girls and
multiple of two thereof.
Kikli kleer di,
Pag mere vir de,
Daupatta mere bhai da
Phitte mun jawai da
Gheeta Pathar
Some pebbles, stones or broken earthenware could
be broken further into pieces and used for playing
Gheeta Pather. This was a game, which did not involve
running or jumping and was played sitting on the
floor.
Khidu
The girls would sing along with Khidu (Ball), in
fact these rhymes and game is suitable for the children:
This was for the first round, there was the second
and third till the end was reached by counting ten
and singing the tenth song.
Kokla Chhapaki
This game is popular even today amongst the children.
Both boys and girls play it. Children sit in a circles
and a child who has cloth in hand goes around the
circle-singing: It is a kind of warning for the
children sitting in a circle not to look back. The
cloth is then dropped at the back of a child. If
it is discovered before the child who had placed
it there had completed the round, the child who
discovered the cloth would run after him and try
to touch him with it till he sits in the place vacated
by the one who had discovered the cloth.
Chicho Chich Ganerian
This game is for both boys and girls. It is generally
played by two teams and involves drawing as many
vertical lines as possible.
Lukan Miti (Hide & Seek)
This was also played by both boys and girls and
continues to this day. Two teams can also play this.
One has to hide, the other has to seek but before
doing it a call is given.
Guli Danda
This is basically a game for the boys and is the
simplest version of modern cricket. It is played
with a wooden stick and 'guli' (another small wooden
piece pointed at both the ends.) Two teams divide
themselves, one throws the guli and the other team
uses the danda- (stick) to strike it. There are
various other games that are played with Guli Danda
Kidi Kada or Stapoo
This is a game played both by the girls and boys.
It is still common amongst some of the children.
This game is played with in small boundary (court),
drawn on the ground and a piece of stone.
Ghaggar Phissi
This is another game for the boys. One boy would
bend and the other boys, may be one or two or three
get on top of him, if he could bear the weight,
he would win. In case he could not bear the weight
and fell, he would lose.
Kabbadi
This game is popular even today and is played now
by both boys and girls. This was included in the
Asian Games also and is popular all over south Asia.
The game is played between two teams. A line is
drawn between the two teams and each team would
send a player across the line. If the player after
crossing the line is able to touch a player of the
opposite side and came back without being caught,
the team doing so would win and a point was added
to its score. This process by the player crossing
the line has to be performed in a single breath.
The team with higher score would be the winner
Rasa Kashi (Tug of War)
The men generally played this game. These day’s
women also participate in the game which is played
by two teams. A line is drawn between the two teams,
each having one end of the rope in its hands. The
team, which is able to drag the other team to its
side, is the winning team.
Akharas
These were very popular. Located near the well outside
the village, sometimes near the temple. These were
the places where the boys learnt wrestling from
a Guru or Pehlwan-Wrestler.
Martial Art
This was also a part of the teaching in Akharas,
where the boys learnt the use of weapons. Nihangs
practice martial arts to keep up the traditions.
Kite Flying (Patang Bazi)
It is now very much an urbanized game and is popular
with the rural folks as well. It has now assumed
an International character.
Besides the games mentioned above, Chaupat, Shatranj
(Chess), camel and bullockcart races, cock fights
in addition to Kabutar bazi, chakore bazi and bater
bazi are well known.
LATTOO ( yo-yo), played mostly by the boys.
SPORTS MEET
Today in almost 7000 villages in Punjab in one
decade or the other rural sports competitions are
being held. Rural folk organize them. In fact these
village sports have opened the floodgates of village
development.
Before Independence in 1947 major importance was
given only to Kabaddi and wrestling, after Independence
the circle of rural sports also got widened. The
rustic "Khido Khaoondi" (literally a ball
made out of cuttings of cloth and a stick twisted
at the end like a flat hockey and players from villages,
having no facilities beyond uneven grounds to play
began to dominate in the game. Twelve of our country’s
greatest hockey players have come out of a single
village called SANSARPUR in Jalandhar District.
TOYS
The earliest hand-made toys of Punjab can be traced
back to the Indus Valley Civilization, dating from
2500 to 1700 BC. These bear a remarkable resemblance
to the traditional toys of a much later period,
which remained popular though the ages till recently
when factory made toys found their way to the villages.
However, in some the remote village’s traditional
toys are still made, though the factory made mass-produced
toys are pushing them out gradually.
Among the most prominent toys of Indus Valley Civilization
is the exceptionally large number of small terracotta
carts. In their expression is a preoccupation characteristic
of Indian Art of the subsequent epochs. As example
we may cite the immense 12th century Temple of the
Sun at Konark, a building of vast dimensions supported
by gigantic stone wheels and conceived and erected
in the form of a cart. Or the Indian temple cart
in which images of the gods, taken from the shrines,
were carried in solemn procession through the streets.
These more obvious instances are paralleled by later
works of folk art depicting animals, equestrian
figures and wheeled vehicles, all of which, though
varying in quality and intended for different purposes,
also mostly as toys, may be regarded as belonging
to a constantly recurring type.
Traditional toys generally serve a two-fold purpose.
They can be used as playthings by the children and
as decoration pieces by the adults. Toys of cloth
stuffed with cotton are still made by the women
in the villages. Dolls, birds and animals are some
of the common subjects. These are embellished with
colorful additions of beads, buttons, feathers,
tinsels and tassels. Sometimes the body of the toy
is appliqued. The material used in this folk art
reflects the dynamic spirit of improvisation. Besides
their ornamental quality these toys have a sentimental
value as well as emotional appeal
The popularity of the clay toys is diminishing day
by day but still there are to be seen sporadic instances
of miniature dolls in clay, animals and kitchen
utensils, roughly colored with kharia mitti and
decorated with motifs in bright colors.
Edible toys in sugar have a great variety of shapes.
In village fairs one comes across toys with a scientific
touch though naively native in character. In a basin
of burnt clay is a figure of a man carrying Lord
Krishna and a concealed siphon. When the water is
poured into the basin, it rises to the feet of Lord
Krishna and flows away, commemorating the rise of
the waters of the Jamuna to touch the divine feet.
In the past, village workers would bring a newborn
infant toys, representative of their respective
trades. Thus a carpenter’s wife would bring
a miniature bedstead or a toy cart to earn a rupee
from the infant’s parents. The potter would
bring a small earthen vessel or a toy in clay and
the cobbler a leather necklace and receive some
grain in return.
As the countryside is becoming more urbanized, the
tradition of handmade toys is dying out and with
it the individuality of design. This is not something,
which can be revived artificially, for to do so
would be to get the antithesis of the genuine tradition.
But by preserving samples from the past we may,
through contemporary designers, regain some of the
beauty, individuality and delight of the simple
form of old toys.
Folk Toys of Punjab
A large number of those belonging to art circle
tend to ignore creative works of the village folk
and thus add their bit not to conserve village culture
already gravely undermined by rapid changes. Their
concern, particularly of those whose philosophy
of life-style revolves round self-ego, are little
concerned with the past and the cultural heritage.
This vision of theirs often perpetrates that of
their former colonial masters and, sometimes, they
even go to the extent of deprecating observations
made by the great Indian men of art like A.K. Coomaraswamy.
In this context it is nearly paradoxical that they
appreciate great modern masters like Gauguin and
Picasso without even realising that Gauguin's success
depended on his interest in primitive art and that
of Picasso on the discovery of African Negro sculpture.
Among the native art forms one of the most ignored
is of folk toys, which unfortunately, like many
other forms of village culture, has been considered
a kind of vanity or at the most as synonymous with
mere decoration, but this is not true. They are
the products Of artistic and social values combined.
The earliest hand-made toys of punjab can be traced
back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, dating from
2500 to 1700 B.C. These bear a remarkable resemblance
to the traditional toys of a much later period which
remained popular through the ages till recently
when factory made toys found their way to the villages.
However in some of the remote villages traditional
toys are still made, though the factory made mass
produced toys are pushing them out gradually.
Among the most prominent toys of Indus Valley Civilisation
are the exceptionally large number of small terracotta
carts. In their expression is a preoccupation characteristic
of Indian Art of the subsequent epochs. As example
we may cite the immense 12 th century Temple of
the Sun at Konark, a building of vast dimensions
supported by gigantic stone wheels and conceived
and erected in the form of a cart. Or again we might
recall the Indian temple carts in which images of
the Gods, taken from the shrines, were carried in
solemn procession through the streets. These more
obvious instances are parallelled by countless later
works of folk art depicting animals, equestrian
figures and wheeled vehicles, all of which, though
varying in quality and intended for different purposes,
also mostly as toys, may be regarded as belonging
to a constantly recurring type.
Traditional toys generally serve a two-fold purpose.
They can be used as playthings by the children and
as decoration pieces by the adults. Toys of cloth
stuffed with cotton are still made by the women
in the villages. Dolls, birds and animals are some
of the common subjects. These are embellished with
colourful additions of beads, buttons, feathers,
tinsels and tassels and also with coweries. Sometimes
the body of the toy is appliqued. The material used
in this folk art reflects the dynamic spirit of
improvisation. Besides their ornamental quality
these toys have a sentimental value as well as emotional
appeal.
The popularity of the clay toys is diminishing
day day but still there are to be seen sporadic
instances of miniature dolls in clay, animals and
kitchen utensils, roughly coloured with kharia mitti
and decorated with motifs in bright colours.
Edible toys in sugar have a great variety of shapes.
In village fairs one comes across toys with a scientific
touch though naively native in character. In a basin
of burnt clay is a figure of a man carrying Lord
Krishna and a concealed syphon. When the water is
poured into the basin, it rises to the feet of Lord
Krishna and flows away, commemorating the rise of
the waters of the Jamuna to touch the divine feet.
In the past, village workers would bring a new-born
infant toys, representative of their respective
trades. Thus, a carpenter's wife would bring a miniature
bedstead or a toy cart to earn a rupee from the
infant's parents. The potter would bring a small
earthen vessel or a toy in clay and the cobbler
a leather necklace and receive some grain in return.
In the eastern districts of Haryana, the ironsmith's
wife would bring a tiny iron ring for the child's
foot and be given a garment or some sweetened bajra
in return.
As the countryside is becoming more urbanis , the
tradition of handmade toys is dying out and with
it the individuality of design. This is not something
which can be revived artificially, for to do so
would be to get the antithesis of the genuine tradition.
But by preserving samples from the past we may,
through contemporary designers, regain some of the
beauty, individuality and delight of the simple
form of old toys. But a prerequisite for this would
be that those of the art circle who repudiate everything
of the cultural heritage, particularly of native
arts and crafts, shun this attitude and, thus, strengthen
the mutual understanding of cultural diversity and
the affirmation of that identity on which each people's
creativity is based.
|
