From Madras to Madrid: Chennai’s Kreeda traces the origins of the traditional game, dahdi

For Vinita Sidhartha, the crippled of dahdi which has 3 nested squares, is thing she refers to, astir fondly, arsenic her ‘problem child’. Walking astir her office, she points to posters connected the walls, galore bearing photos of these squares etched onto the level astatine temples, humanities monuments and adjacent an excavation site. 

“This peculiar crippled tin beryllium seen connected the floors successful truthful galore temples successful Tamil Nadu which includes astatine slightest 10 temples present successful Chennai. I person ever been amazed that cipher recognises oregon remembers this crippled adjacent though not excessively acold distant successful the Telugu heartland, it is called dahdi,” she says. 

Her fascination and travel to unearth the past down this crippled and its astonishing links to Spain has been documented and is connected show arsenic Madras to Madrid, an exhibition, astatine the bureau of Kreeda, Vinita’s institution that has been moving for implicit 2 decades successful researching, processing and reviving accepted games. The dahdi, is besides known arsenic 9 men’s morris and is simply a strategy crippled which involves players placing their 9 pieces connected the committee and forming mills oregon 3 pieces successful a enactment to outsmart their opponent.  

Vinita says that arsenic she began to papers this crippled recovered crossed the country, she began to get a clearer representation of however aged it mightiness be. “I recovered a precise absorbing benignant of etching astatine the Hoysala temples successful Karnataka, crawled done shrubs astatine the JNU campus, Delhi and recovered the crippled etched connected chromatic there, and adjacent astatine the temple unearthed successful Salavankuppam station the tsunami successful Tamil Nadu,” she said. 

It was a travel to Madrid, however, 5,500 miles distant that not lone gave her penetration into an aboriginal documentation of the game, but besides an absorbing geographical link. Many churches successful Spain, she points out, besides person the crippled etched connected the floors, overmuch similar the temples here. 

“At the Library of the Monastery of El Escorial, adjacent Madrid, I was capable to look astatine the Book of Games commissioned by Alfonso X of Castille successful 1283. The publication features 9 men’s morris, arsenic good arsenic absorbing stories astir games travelling from India,” she says. 

A illustration of the publication has besides been recreated by Vinita, which is connected show arsenic portion of the exhibition. 

“Another breathtaking find for maine was to spot these nested squares carved into chromatic nether the Butterball oregon the ample balancing stone successful Mamallapuram. I was hardly capable to crawl nether and instrumentality a fewer pictures of the games etched underneath. Popular legends accidental that the Butterball has astir apt been present since the 1100s oregon 1200s. This gave maine immoderate consciousness of the antiquity of the crippled successful India” she says. 

This travel to unearth the planetary dispersed of accepted games, Vinita says, has been an eye-opening 1 that has near her with galore questions, imaginable answers, and immoderate fascinating insights that she has documented done the exhibition. “I besides noticed a crippled fractional hidden nether the Butterball, a crippled antithetic from the dahdi. I americium already gearing up to hunt for much answers,” she laughs. 

Madras to Madrid volition beryllium connected show astatine the Kreeda bureau till November 30. From 10am to 6pm connected weekdays for groups; connected weekends by request. Contact 9841748309 oregon 40091500.