Gillidanda


Gilli Danda also known as Viti Dandu and by other variations, is a sport originating from the Indian subcontinent, played in the rural areas and small towns all over South Asia as well as Cambodia, Turkey, South Africa, Italy, Poland, and in some Caribbean islands like Cuba. The game is played with two sticks: a large one called a danda , which is used to hit a smaller one, the gilli . Other than using a smaller target stick, rather than a ball, it bears many similarities to bat and ball games such as cricket and baseball.
Gullidanda is an ancient sport, possibly with origins over 2500 years ago.

Names

Gillidanda is derived from ghaṭikā , literally "tip-cat". An explanatory definition is given in the commentary as ghaṭikā is "a game played using two sticks: one long and the other short. It is played by hitting the shorter stick with the longer one." Ghaṭikā is still known to countries from the Indian subcontinent and south Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, SriLanka. In Bangladesh, it is known as ḍāṅguli khelā; while in Nepali, it is known as Dandi Biyo, which is a similar game. The longer stick in a ḍāṅguli khelā, should be about and the shorter stick about There are certain rules for preparing the sticks and playing the game with them.
Gillidanda is known by various other names: it is called Tipcat in English, itti dakar in Sindhi, Dandi-Biyo in Nepali, guli-badi in Odia, gulli-ṭāṇ in Bhojpuri, alak-doulak in Persian, dānggűli in Bengali, Tang Guti in Assamese, chinni-kolu ಚಿನ್ನಿ ಕೋಲು in Kannada, kuttiyum kolum in Malayalam, vitti-dandu विट्टी दांडू in Marathi, Koyando-bal in Konkani, kitti-pul in Tamil, Gooti-Billa or Karra-Billa or Billam-Godu or chirra-gonay in Telugu,
Gulli-Danda in Punjabi, Geeti Danna in Saraiki, Iti-Dakar in Sindhi, Lappa-Duggi in Pashto, Kon ko in Cambodian, Pathel Lele in Indonesian, syatong in Tagalog, awe petew in Ilonggo, çelikçomak in Turkish, ciang sat in Zomi language, "Đánh Trỏng" or "Đánh Khăng" in Vietnam, Quimbumbia in Cuba and Lippa in Italy.

Rules

"Gillidanda" is played with two pieces of equipment – a danda, being a long wooden stick, and a gilli, a small oval-shaped piece of wood. It is played with four or more players of even numbers, or even 100 players.
Standing in a small circle, the player balances the gilli on a stone in an inclined manner with one end of the gilli touching the ground while the other end is in the air. The player then uses the danda to hit the gilli at the raised end, which flips it into the air. While it is in the air, the player strikes the gilli, hitting it as far as possible. Having struck the gilli, the player is required to run and touch a pre-agreed point outside the circle before the gilli is retrieved by an opponent. There are no specific dimensions of gillidanda and it does not have limited number of players.
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 with a throw. If the fielder is successful, the striker is out; if not, the striker scores one point and gets another opportunity to strike. The team with the most points wins the game. If the striker fails to hit the gilli in three tries, the striker is out. After the gilli has been struck, the opposing players need to return to the circle or, in the best case, catch it in mid-air without its hitting the ground – this was believed to have later evolved into a Catch Out in cricket and baseball.

Variations

As an amateur youth sport, gilli danda has many regional variations. In some versions, the number of points a striker score depends 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 points are doubled. If the gilli is not struck far enough the player has to pick it up and try again.
Shobhit Maurya is world champion of gilli danda at present with several world records in his name. The UNESCO Advisory committee and the International Council of Traditional Sports and Games are keen to revive and promote all such traditional sports which are almost dying in the World.

Similar games

In 2014 Vitti Dandu a sport-drama Marathi movie was made on the same sport produced by Ajay Devgan and Leena Deore.
The Bollywood movie Lagaan mentions the traditional youth sport of gilli-danda as being similar to cricket.
The Hindi writer Premchand 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. The protagonist and narrator of the story recounts his inability to play gilli-danda well in his youth. He remembers a friend who could control the gilli as he wished. He goes away and comes back as an adult and a government officer. He searches for his old friend and finds him – he is very poor and says "Where do we get the time?" when asked by the protagonist whether he plays gilli-danda. The protagonist convinces him to play – he cheats at every opportunity, but his friend meekly submits, even though he would not have let him get away with such deceit in his youth. After being defeated, the friend invites him to a gilli-danda match the next day. The protagonist is shocked when he sees his friend play just as well as before and realises that he had indulged him because he knew that he had forgotten the basics of gilli-danda. The protagonist feels very small and goes back to the city humiliated.
1934 Laurel & Hardy film Babes in Toyland features Laurel playing the US version of the game, which he refers to as "Pee Wee."