It is a Sunday afternoon as Kolkata Polo 2010 (17-25 December) gets underway. The murmur of the crowd dwindles to near silence as the horses canter to the centre of the field with their riders restless to begin. Before you know it, the umpire throws a white ball between the two teams and there is a spurt of energy as the sounds of galloping hoofs and snapping wooden mallets ring into the air. It is hard not to be fascinated by the sheer skill, power and speed of polo – the game of kings, one of the oldest and most fast-paced team sports in the world.
Cradled in a corner of India's northeast, the beautiful state of Manipur lays claim to being the place of origin of polo. According to the ancient scripture Kangjeirol (The Art of Polo) believed to be dated before Christ, the game was introduced at a festival during the reign of King Ningthou Kangba in 3100 BC. The king at the grounds skillfully used his walking stick to dribble a bamboo root clump. The next day, his subjects began to play the game on horseback, as his queen Leima Tanu Sana watched eagerly from the shades of her royal canopy. The earliest version of polo thus came to be known as Sagol Kangjei, which in loose translation means Kangba's stick on a horse or pony.
In Manipur, polo gets its charm from the legends passed from generation to generation. The indigenous people of Manipur trace their ancestral lineage to the Mongols and are today a blend of Mongoloid and Aryan cultures. Up until 6,000 BC, they made their settlements along the hills and plains of Manipur, but thereafter, they, along with other migrants from Southeast Asia, moved towards the Manipur valley, taking the game of polo along with them. There are also claims that polo originated in the harsh encampments of the nomad warriors of Central Asia and that the Persians played a similar game known as 'Pulu' ca 525 BC, but the Manipuris' bond with the game is something special.
Lord Marjing, the chieftain of the Chenglei tribe, is recognized by the Manipuris as the deity who introduced polo to the human world. According to legends, it was the Chenglei tribe that first domesticated and bred the Manipuri ponies and encouraged the equine culture in the valley. Even today, in ritual ceremonies, mostly during the Lai-Haroaba festival (loosely translated as 'merry making of the Gods'), the descendants of the tribe make offerings of mallet and bamboo root to Lord Marjing. In the villages of Manipur during this religious festival, a Maibis (priestess in Manipuri) performs a unique dance form outlining the game of Sagol Kangjhei with a mallet in hand.