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Sports And Games
In the area of recreation and sports India had evolved a number of games. One would be surprised to know today that games like, Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate had originated in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further developed.
Kalaripayat from Kerala was transmitted to China by a sage named Boddhidharma in the 5th century The Chinese called him Po-ti-tama He taught this art in a temple This temple is today known as the Shaolin temple Thus Judo, Karate, Kung Fu and other similar marshal arts which are today identified with the far-east actually
originated from India.
At times the changes made in the original nature of the Indian sport-forms were so many and so fundamental that the game lost all similarity with its original form in India.
Some Indian games were not transmitted abroad and remained confined to India. For instance we have Kabbadi, Kho-Kho, AtyaPatya, Malkhamb, Gulli-danda, etc., which are being played today exclusively in India. In this chapter we shall look into how the games like Chess and Ludo (Snakes and Ladders), the martial art of Karate, and Playing cards had existed in India for the past 2000 years and how in some cases the indigenous form of the game became totally extinct erasing the fact that- the game had ever been played in India.
Author : Shri Sudheer Birodkar
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