Soon, the monsoon will turn heavier here & most of us will have nothing much to do outdoors. Time to catch up with our reading/ writing/ art/ needlework...... Time to play indoor games too. Computer games have already phased out board games like chess, scrabble & ludo, carrom, cards,.... And, to think that not so long ago, these games were blamed for phasing out the traditional indoor games like chennemaNe!
ChennemaNe is popularly thought to be a traditional game of the 'rain-rich' Malnad & coastal K'taka. But, it is not so. It is known in the west as Mancala and is believed to have come to coastal K'taka from Egypt (sea trade links) many, many centuries ago..... so long ago that we believe that we invented this game!! Actually, Chenne is the local name for a tiny, red seed (Red lucky seed - used to play this game) & maNe means plank/ board.
I won't be surprised if this game is known elsewhere in the country, by other names, of course!
To play chennemaNe, you'll need this plank with 14 + 2 pits, 56 tiny seeds (4 in each small pit), and, of course, 2 players (actually, 1 can play for 2 too!).
I know one version of this game. In this, player 1 has to pick up the seeds from any one pit on his side. Starting from the adjacent pit and proceeding anti-clockwise, he has to drop 1 seed into each pit. At the 5th pit, he has to pick up the seeds and carry on. Soon, he'll end at a pit and find the adjacent pit to be empty. He wins the seeds in the pit next to the empty pit (to be placed at the 'home pit' to his right). It's now player 2's turn. He picks up the seeds from any pit on his side and plays and wins seeds like player 1. When all the seeds are won, the player with the most is the winner.
Well, that's only Round 1 ! The game can be continued. The loser plays with lesser seeds & pits and the winner has extra seeds at home. Played this way, it can be a never ending, challenging game!
I know, it sounds like a simple game, but, it's not! Picking the right pit to win the maximum number of seeds requires some mathematical skills... something that you realise and learn as you play the game!
You'll find very artistic planks in museums and in ancient households. The one that I have posted here is the one at dad's - hand-made by my mother. Well...she wanted to play this game, and, back then (during my school days), B'lore did not have sports shops selling traditional games. Hunting for an idle carpenter & explaining this board to him would have been a very tiresome task. My mother made her own board instead, with some available plank! Scale, compass, a sharp knife and emery paper were her only tools.
You know, my mother would have turned 60 this month. We lost her - a few weeks before her 53rd b'day, and, this particular chennemaNe board, to us, is one of the reminders of her skills & spirits.
ChennemaNe is popularly thought to be a traditional game of the 'rain-rich' Malnad & coastal K'taka. But, it is not so. It is known in the west as Mancala and is believed to have come to coastal K'taka from Egypt (sea trade links) many, many centuries ago..... so long ago that we believe that we invented this game!! Actually, Chenne is the local name for a tiny, red seed (Red lucky seed - used to play this game) & maNe means plank/ board.
I won't be surprised if this game is known elsewhere in the country, by other names, of course!
To play chennemaNe, you'll need this plank with 14 + 2 pits, 56 tiny seeds (4 in each small pit), and, of course, 2 players (actually, 1 can play for 2 too!).
I know one version of this game. In this, player 1 has to pick up the seeds from any one pit on his side. Starting from the adjacent pit and proceeding anti-clockwise, he has to drop 1 seed into each pit. At the 5th pit, he has to pick up the seeds and carry on. Soon, he'll end at a pit and find the adjacent pit to be empty. He wins the seeds in the pit next to the empty pit (to be placed at the 'home pit' to his right). It's now player 2's turn. He picks up the seeds from any pit on his side and plays and wins seeds like player 1. When all the seeds are won, the player with the most is the winner.
Well, that's only Round 1 ! The game can be continued. The loser plays with lesser seeds & pits and the winner has extra seeds at home. Played this way, it can be a never ending, challenging game!
I know, it sounds like a simple game, but, it's not! Picking the right pit to win the maximum number of seeds requires some mathematical skills... something that you realise and learn as you play the game!
You'll find very artistic planks in museums and in ancient households. The one that I have posted here is the one at dad's - hand-made by my mother. Well...she wanted to play this game, and, back then (during my school days), B'lore did not have sports shops selling traditional games. Hunting for an idle carpenter & explaining this board to him would have been a very tiresome task. My mother made her own board instead, with some available plank! Scale, compass, a sharp knife and emery paper were her only tools.
You know, my mother would have turned 60 this month. We lost her - a few weeks before her 53rd b'day, and, this particular chennemaNe board, to us, is one of the reminders of her skills & spirits.
A friend in Bangalore used to call this game "AlguLi Mane". She used tamarind seeds, worn out on one side ( I don't know why worn out), instead of chenne seeds (guess chenne seeds are not available in Bangalore).
ReplyDeleteAn aunt once told me that when she was small, elders in the family would look down upon the game as one that involved gambling/betting!
Betting & gambling associated with THIS game! That's news !! In fact, sounds unbelievable!
ReplyDelete