‘Cricket’ played by the ancient Badagas?

These are the cricket crazy days. Life comes to a standstill when a ‘live’ match comes on the TV, that too when a twenty 20 match involving India is played everything else is forgotten.

But do you know that ancient Badagas played this game in a slightly different format called ‘Sendu Hoovadhu [Hitting the ball]’?

One of the important festivals in olden days was “Dodda Habba [Big Festival]” which was celebrated as a homage to and in remembrance of the ancestors. An important item of the festival was ‘Sendu Hoovadhu’ or hitting the ball. A ball made out of old cloth or the hay/husk is tossed up and hit by a ‘flatish’ stick by a ‘batter’ towards the ‘fielders’ a little distance away. If the ball is caught, he is ‘out’ and the ‘catcher’ gets to ‘bat’. Something akin to the ‘catching practice’ of these days.

Before the ball is hit, the ‘batter’ asks the filders ‘Haakkaakka [shall I hit?]’ and the fielders reply in unison ‘Haakku [hit]’. The honour of starting the game as the ‘opening batsman’ goes to the Poojari [priest] of the village temple followed by the Gowda [headman] and an elder.[info from Sivaji Raman’s ‘Badaga Samudhayam‘]

Kerban Bella Gowder has immortalised this ‘game’ in one of the songs of Berada Bellie ballad as ” Appa hoodha sendu, endu halla maduna buddhu hadadhay [the ball hit by father has fallen on the bank of the river]”

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By the way, a visitor Martin Parker (mlp9870817@yahoo.com), from the USA, writes : –
I was wondering someone might be able to tell me how one would say “I love you” in Badaga .

I am clean bowled. That is an interesting question. The exact translation for ‘love’ is a little tricky, it could be ‘gava’ [ more of a context for loving the children, elders , relatives etc. ‘priya’ is more for liking than I suppose for loving.

If you have to tell your lover, it could be, in my opinion, ‘Na ninna Virumbinay – I like you ‘, ‘Nee enaga hidithra – you are liked by me’.

Closest could be, ‘Naa ninna PRIYA maadinay‘ [Naa – I, Ninna – You, Priya – love, Maadinay – doing] – Wg Cdr JP

Martin Parker replies :-
Thank you very much for your reply.
I am from the United States, but I have long been fascinated by how many different languages there are around the world, and I enjoy collecting phrases and trying to understand how different languages are put together, so your explanations were very interesting. Thanks again…Martin