Traditional and regional sports "GILLI-DANDA"

India is truly land of traditional  sports.There are many  traditional and regional sports in India,GILLI-DANDA is one of them.Such is their popularity that these interesting games are played even today.

GILLI-DANDA

Gilli-Danda is an amateur sport played in the rural areas and small towns all over India especially in Tamil Nadu, Punjab, as well as Cambodia and Italy.

Gilli Danda known by various other names: it is called Tipcat in English, Dandi-Biyo  in Nepali, alak-doulak  in Persian, dānggűli in Bengali & Assamese, chinni-dandu in Kannada, kuttiyum kolum in Malayalam, viti-dandu  in Marathi, kitti-pul  in Tamil, Gooti-Billa or Karra-Billa or Billam-Godu in Telugu, Gulli-Danda in Punjabi, Geeti Danna  in Saraiki, Iti-Dakar in Sindhi, Lappa-Duggi in Pashto and Kon ko in khmer, the Cambodian language.Guli Danda is an amateur sport, popular among rural youth  in southern Europe.

Origin :-

There are no records of the game's origin in the south Asian subcontinent or of its existence before the arrival of Europeans."Gilli Danda" origins in India date back to the "Maurya Dynasty" or even before that . This game is an extremely famous local game played all over the sub continent and even in South Asia.However a similar game known as Lippa has a history of being played in Italy and southern Europe and

Tip-cat which was played in the UK. Gilli Danda is also believed to be the origin of many such European and American games like Cricket, Baseball & Softball. This is due to the similarities of this game to the current version of Cricket or Baseball.

Equipment:-

Gulli-danda have no official requirements for equipment. The game is played with a gilli or guli and danda, whichare both wooden sticks. The danda is longer and handmade by the player, who can swing it easily. The gilli issmaller and is tapered on both sides so that the ends are conical. The gilli is analogous to a cricket ball and the dandais analogous to a cricket bat.There is no standard length defined for the danda or gilli. Usually, however, the gilli is 3 to 6 inches long and thedanda is 12 to18 inches.

Rules:-

There is  no such ways  to play this game,it depends on those player who will play this.

Way 1 

The objective of the sport is to use the danda to strike the gilli. For this purpose, a circle is drawn in the ground in which a small, oblong- or spindle-shaped hole is dug (the overall shape looks like a traditional boat). This hole is smaller than the gilli but as the play progresses the size may increase due to wear. The gilli is inserted into the hole either orthogonally, or at an angle. Many times, especially with children, no hole is used. The danda is then swung downward onto the end of the gilli, causing the gilli to jump upward. The striker then strikes the gilli outward, away from him. Another variation is when the danda lifts or pries the gilli out of the hole at a high speed. As it is quite similar to cricket, many people believe that cricket originated from it.

Way 2

"Gilli Danda" is played with 2 pieces of equipment- gilli meaning a small oval-shaped wooden structure. This is believed to have evolved into the cork, seasoned ball or softball for cricket and baseball. In this game a player balances the gilli on a stone in an inclined manner (somewhat like a see-saw) with one end of the gilli rested or touching the ground while the other end is in the air. Player uses the second part of the equipment called "Danda" which in English is the stick- this is believed to have been evolved in to the Cricket or Baseball Bat. With the Danda, the player hits the gilli at the end which is in the air- to flip it in the air and then strike the gilli as far as possible. The player is made to stand in a small circle with the Danda and the gilli. The objective is to strike the gilli while in mid air as far as possible. The player is required to run and touch a particular section as decided until the gilli is retrieved back.- This part is similar to runs in cricket or home-runs in baseball.

Popular way:-

step1- Toss the coin.The team which wins it can select batting af fielding.
step2- A circle and hole made in center from where batsman will bat.
step3- First player of team who is batting will bat and other team is spread in the ground to catch.
step4- Batsman lifts the gilli high in the air with the danda hitting the gilli at one end (tapered) and quickly strikes it.
           case1- Batsman not able to strike the gilli in 3 continuous chance then he is out and next player of same team will come to bat.
           case2- Batsman strikes the ball and fielder catches it before it touches the ground  then also he is out and next player of same team will come to bat.
           case3-  Batsman strikes the ball and gilli not caught then distance is measured from the center to where gilli falls and each danda is equal to one point.
step5- Each batsman of first team bat and we total the points team scored.
step6- Now fielding team bat and batting team fields and the team which scores more points will win the match 

Scoring and outs:-

There are many regional variations to scoring.

The gilli becomes airborne after it is struck. If a fielder from the opposing team catches the gilli, the striker is out. If the gilli lands on the ground, the fielder closest to the gilli has one chance to hit the danda (which has to be placed on top of the circle used) with a throw (similar to a run out in cricket). If the fielder is successful, the striker is out; if not, the striker scores one score and gets another opportunity to strike. The team (or individual) with the most points wins the game. If the striker fails to hit gilli in three tries, the striker is out (similar to a strikeout in baseball).While the Gilli has been struck the opponent player/players need to retrieve the Gilli back to the Circle or, in the best case, catch the Gilli in mid air without it hitting the ground - this was believed to have later evolved into a Catch Out in Cricket and Baseball.

Teams:-

There is no official maximum number of players or teams. Gilli-danda can be played where each individual plays for themselves, or between two teams.

Champions:-

So far,very few International tournaments played between India VS Pakistan. Pakistan defeated India in three out of five; two ended in a draw.

 The Pakistani Champions were: Noor Khan, Abdul Hameed Qureshi, Omar El Duraie,Nadeem Jameel, Iftikhar Hashmi, and Qaseem Siddiqui.

The Indian Champions: Deepali Gode from Kalyan, Varun, Ajay Kaushik,Rohit Mishra(allahabad),Vijay ChoudharyofDarbhanga,Somendra Kumar of Patna, Vivek Baranwal of Varanasi, Upender Kumar, Satyendra Tripathi, andSandeep Prakash of Lucknow Sudhanshu Yadav from jaipur..

Variations:-

As an amateur youth sport, gilli-danda has many variations. A common variation is where the striker is allowed to hit the gilli twice, once initially, and then while the gilli is in the air.

In some versions, the points a striker scores is dependent on the distance the gilli falls from the striking point. The distance is measured in terms of the length of the danda, or in some cases the length of the gilli. Scoring also depends on how many times the gilli was hit in the air in one strike. If it travels a certain distance with two mid-air strikes, the total point is doubled.

In Nepal, Dandi biyo is played in similar fashion.

•    In the Philippines, a game known as syatong is similar to gilli-dand
•    In Italy a similar game known as "Lippa", "Lipe", "Tirolo", or "S-cianco" is shown in the          movie called " Watch Out We Are Mad".
•    In the United States, a similar game is called pee-wee.

Cultural significance:-

The Bollywood movie Lagaan mentions the traditional sport of Gilli-danda as similar to the British import ofcricket.

Premchand, the famous Hindi literary figure, wrote a short story named "Gilli-danda" in which he compares old simple times and emotions to modern values and also hints at caste inequalities in India.