Traditional Games of India
India has a long history of board games. You hear about these from the times of the Mahabharata and the Mughal empire. Some of the popular board games that originated from Indian Traditional games include Chess (Shatranj), Ludo (Pachisi) and Snakes and Ladders (Moksha-Patamu).
Recently, Orissa, a state in eastern India, introduced a child-friendly programme called Srujan (creativity) in the primary schools. About 18 million children took part in four activities like story telling activities, traditional games, traditional art and craft and music and dance and riddles over a period of three years (2007–2010). The result is that while there are hundreds of varieties of folktales, the varieties of traditional games are limited. About three hundred traditional games both in door and out door were commonly played and it was found that the traditional games contain mathematical knowledge (like counting, measurement, shapes and size, geometrical ideas and finally socialization through action). The traditional games are the best ways of teaching and learning.Interestingly, when these are applied in the primary schools, many teachers revealed that children know many games that the teachers have forgotten.
Indoor board game like "Kasadi" ( a wooden board with 14 pits played with tamarind seed by two ormore than two girls in the domestic domain) was most popular ansdit is still not vanished from the society. DrMahendra Kumar Mishra, a folklorist and an educator has collected these games and has documented in video form.Besides other games in the domestic domain is the goat and the tiger and ganjifa. These were the forerunners of the card games of today. Ganjifa used to be circular painted stack of card like things which were played using certain rules.
Read more about this topic: Indian Folklore
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