Pallamkuzhi attracts youngsters

Pallamkuzhi is a traditional indoor game that is played in South India and Sri Lanka, popularized in Kerala by the Tamil Brahmins. In Tamil, ‘Pal’means "many" and ‘kuzhi’ means "pit" – combining both the words – many pits.

Pallamkuzhi board

Two players can play the game. You need a Pallamkuzhi board – usually a wooden board with 14 pits, 7 on each row – and few cowries to play this game. Each row belongs to a player. The pit on the middle of both sides is referred as ‘Kasi’ where the players store their cowries which indicate the wealth. Each player will be given 72 cowries which are to be equally distributed in 6 pits except ‘Kasi’in one side. The player will start distributing cowries in clockwise direction. The pit you had chosen initially is left empty. The attempt is to collect all the shells of the opponent. The immediate pit that comes after an empty one on the other side belongs to the player and thus the cowries in it. Thus the game goes on till one player’s cowries are totally captured and the game demonstrates the art of capturing pits. Quick counting of the cowries and judgement of the number of pits to be filled requires one to be very attentive and the ability for some rapid mental calculations.

“Generally boys were discouraged from playing this game but I don’t know the reason behind this. It is a good brain exercise and perhaps a defense against Alzheimer's like diseases too. Different variants of games are played like ‘Mukkattam’ etc. using the same board and cowries. You can use ‘manjadikkuru’ or ‘kunnikkuru’ instead of cowries; but the rhythmic sound that produced using cowries are excellent” – says Santha Sabesan, President of Kerala Brahmana Sabha, Vanitha Vibhagam, Mattancherry who is an expert in this game.

Former history professor of Madras University V. Balambal says she was was surprised to see the western scholars had conducted researches on the game to find out the various skills of students at various levels. The game is taught in schools to improve the memory and motor skills of the students, and gender plays an important role in the game - she said. She has traced 11 versions of the game and though played for entertainment, at a subconscious level the game is credited to have improved memory, motor and mathematical skills.

Kerala Brahmana Sabha has included this indoor board game in “Vipra Vismayam” – the Sports and Games competitions for its members conducted in alternate years. A recently released movie song “pallamkuzhiyin vattam parthen otrai nanayam” popularised Pallamkuzhi among the youngsters; anyhow the actual 'vattam' is a little bit more than that of a one rupee coin.