Govinda sport
Encyclopedia
Govinda or Dahi Handi is a sport organized on Krishna Janmashtami to celebrate the birth of Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

. It is very popular in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 and surrounding area of Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...

.

Govinda players gather together under Dahi Handi to making a human pyramid
Human pyramid
A human pyramid is a type of gymnastic formation in which the participants kneel together in a row or other formation, forming a base for another tier of participants who stand or kneel on their shoulders, backs or thighs. A human pyramid is very difficult to make. In case that the participants...

 to catch and then break an earthen pot (a matki
Matki (earthen pot)
Matki, is the Hindi-Urdu word for an earthen pot. It is used all over India, as well as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as a home "water storage cooler". It has been in use since ancient times and can be found in houses of every class....

 or handi
Handi
A handi is a deep, narrow-mouthed cooking vessel used in Indian, Bangladehi and Pakistani cooking. Because there are many specific Indian and Pakistani dishes cooked in this vessel, their names reflect its use, such as "handi biryani"....

) hung high in the air with the help of a rope. The players are known as Govinda
Govinda
' and ' are names of Krishna, referring to his youthful occupation as a cowherd. He is regarded as the Supreme Godhead in the Vaishnava tradition and also by much of the pan-Hindu tradition...

s or BalGopals. The sport is based on the legends about Krishna stealing makhan (butter) or dahi (curd) from handis.

History

Govinda was started somewhere in the eighteenth century in Girgaum in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

. Originally the sport was a religious ceremony to celebrate the birth of the Hindu god Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...

. A community called Pathare Prabhu
Pathare prabhu
Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities in the city of Mumbai . These people are among earliest settlers in the city. They are known to have one of the oldest academic traditions amongst Hindus on par with Brahmins. They were amongst the first of the Hindus to adopt to British educational...

 staying in the village called Girgaum in south Mumbai (then called Bombay) used to celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna by performing Govinda.
This community of Pathare Prabhu was affluent and had many servants to work on their farms. These workers were mainly from Kunbi community from Bankot in Konkan region of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 state in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. On Krishna birthday, earthen pot filled with Dahi curd
Curd
Curds are a dairy product obtained by curdling milk with rennet or an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then draining off the liquid portion. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds. The remaining liquid, which contains only...

s and butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

 and other eatables preferably bananas would be hung at a suitable height. Servants of the Pathare Prabhu families would collect and make a human pyramid under the pot and then a little boy most probably the youngest child from that family would climb over them, reach the pot and then break it. That was the sport to be played on that day to celebrate the birth of the lord.

Usually, the land held by this community of Pathare Prabhus was very large, called Wadi
Wadi
Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.-Variant names:...

. People participating in the occasion were going in a procession in and around the Wadi they owned and ultimately come to the main entrance of their mansions. Very often more than one family would join in the celebration and that used to give more servants for the performance of Govinda. The earthen pot called Handi held at a height in that place. All the female members of the family as well as those of the servants would be collecting at the entrance to receive the procession, also called, Govinda. Usually these processions accompanied with a chariot, pulled by either horses or bullocks and on the chariot were scenes from the life of Lord Krishna and with a band of lezim
Lezim
Lezim is a folk dance form from the state of Maharashtra, India. Dancers carry a small musical instrument with jingling cymbals called the Lezim, after which the dance form is named.This dance is named after a wooden idiophone to which thin metal...

 players and drummers. Old people say that, these processions were very magnificent. As the procession reaches the entrance of the mansion, all the members of the procession would collect under the Handi and form the circles to make the final pyramid. Lord Krishna, little child from the owners house sitting in the chariot as lord Krishna then climbed the pyramid and the pot was broken. While the little boy of the Govinda is trying to climb up to the Handi and then breaking it, crowd around would throw quantity of water on the Govinda to disturb them and to see that they cannot do it easily. This was the work of mainly women surrounding the Govinda. This was to remember that when lord Krishna used to reach the Handis, gopicas (maidens) would do such a thing to save their curds and milk from the hands of little lord Krishna. This is an episode from the life of lord Krishna. In that, it depicts that lord Krishna with his friends (Govindas) roamed around the city of Mathura, find the earthen pots filled with curds and milk, and steal it. Gopicas (milk maidens) used to hide these pots at a height so that little lord cannot reach it. Lord was very smart and he developed the idea of making a pyramid of his friends and then climbing it and get to the curd.
Interesting enough, all male members of the Pathare Prabhu community would mix with servants on equitable basis while making the pyramid. At the pyramid, every body was equal. No body was boss and no body was servant. They all were only worshipers of the lord Krishna. Even servant's sons would climb on the shoulders of the owners’ sons to reach the upper layer. This is how all the people involved experienced a sense of equality
Social equality
Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...

. This shows that many qualities are required to make the pyramid successful. They are, sense of responsibility, collective contribution, sense of equality and mastermind. At personal level, other qualities were required. They are confidence, daring, patience, capacity to sustain pain and other injuries, respect for other fellow members. Looking to these aspects of Govinda, one business management school in Mumbai has accepted Govinda as a lesson in their training course.

This continued until nineteen fifties in this style in the Girgaum village. By that time, the village had become a full-grown city of Mumbai and called Mumbai-2. Lands were all sold and gone. Now the big land holding were reduced to narrow link roads but still they were called, Wadis. Phanas Wadi, Navi Wadi, Khhotachi Wadi, Zawbachi Wadi were known to be holding regularly these Govindas in Girguam. Now, the format of the Govinda procession had also changed. Now, all occupants in these Wadis, whether servants or just tenants, anybody who would enjoy the occasion and the sport, would join. By now, the servants had taken this interesting sport to their native place Bankot
Bankot
Bankot is a town in India. It was made part of Bombay Presidency in 1756.Its most famous structure is Bankot Fort . This was the first residency of the British Raj in Southern Konkan.-References:* * *...

 in Konkan. Many servants and their progeny had left Girgaum and settled in other parts of this city of Mumbai. Wherever they went carried the sport and this is how the sport spread in other parts of the city and in vicinity like Thane
Thane
Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...

.

Chariots carrying shows from the life of Lord Krishna were abandoned and only Govinda teams remained. They started moving in trucks and some boys moved on their motor bikes and scooters along with the trucks. They carried with them water and other requisites. By this time Pathare Prabhu, community was gone into oblivion.

Govinda reached new heights when media discovered the advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 potential of the sport. After that, professional politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

s followed the suit. At present Govinda has become a sport to reckon with.

Technical side

The sport has four parameters: height of the Handi, width of the place under the Handi, number of people to perform the Govinda, and the number of layers to perform the Handi break. Centring exactly under the Handi was a matter of skill. Very often, centring was not proper and finally the boy reaching the height would be a little away from the Handi and that is failure of Govinda. When many new practitioners experienced this, they introduced a remedy to this by not breaking the Handi but only saluting it. This is how two types of Govindas came into existence. Govinda with Handi and Govinda with Salaam (salute) without Handi. Originally, Govinda had layers gradually receding in diameter and forming a neatly shaped pyramid like structure. This required a large number of members to make it. These Govindas were solid that means each layer is filled with boys and that made the Govinda very strong. However, such pyramids required a very large number of boys. In later period, so many boys were not available and so hollow pyramids came to be common. Only outer ring formed and the boys would climb on them to reach the upper layer. The conventional Govinda had only top most boy alone standing and he would break the pot. When Spanish sportsmen came to see our Govinda they introduced ladder arrangement, which was their practice in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. In Spain, they have a sport similar to our sport of Govinda. Now boys of this Govinda have picked up that ladder arrangement to increase the height of Govinda to reach Handi at higher heights. All these arrangements made it possible to make a Govinda with less number of boys.
Many engineering innovations are possible to make this sport more interesting and visually impressive, said one structural engineer
Structural engineer
Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...

 from Mumbai. He added that the ladder pattern if made using triplets (three persons), instead of single person so, that will increase the stability of the pyramid. With this innovation Govinda could reach enormous heights. Three layers of such triples will add another 15 feet to Govinda easily.

Health of members

Experts opinion, no special exercise is necessary to these boys. Experienced athletes recommended that sports such as Kho-kho, Atyapatya, Kabaddi (Hutu too), all local games, are most suitable to bring agility required in this sport. Ideal member for this sport should be strong, muscular and tall. Very heavy bodied members may be suitable at the lowest level on the ground. Average height of members recommended in here is 5 ft. 6 in. at ground level and for upper layers height must be above this. Govinda can reach bigger heights, preferring taller boys.
Many boys indulge in drinking liquor. This practice is in some places encouraged by the organizers.

Economics

Ever since Govinda became a recognized sport, it also tended to become a profession for some people. The financial side of this activity shows, three months before the advent of the birthday of the Lord Krishna, they have to start practicing for Govinda. Daily for at least three hours they practice. During practice, they need a substantial diet fortified with carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

s and protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

s. Some experts suggest that during practice each one member of the Govinda consumes about 3000 or more of calories of energy. At present, no substantial diet made available for these people and as a result, quite often some of them withdraw from the sport eventually. Their body cannot sustain the exertion due to their improper diet. To develop a sport out of this activity, supplementary diet for the loss of calories during the practice is required; and for that those Govinda organizers will have to give the members some special food during each practice. A dietician has suggested that each on of these Govinda members must get a food supplement consisting of three chapattis, an omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...

 of three eggs and a glass of sweetened milk or fruit juice. At present prices in the city of Mumbai, the cost works out to be about 40 rupees per serving. For a medium sized group of Govinda team we need at least 50 boys. That works out to a cost of 2,000/- rupees per day for the food of the team during practice. With this as standard statistics we find that during three months of practice a Govinda team shall have to spent at least 1,80,000/- rupees.

During the festival day, these teams have to travel distances to reach these Govinda Handis in different localities. This requires transport
Transport
Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

. The cost of transport comes to about 5000/- rupees for that day. In all, having not considered any other cost, such as, salaries or remuneration of the members, however, in most of the cases they work voluntarily and so all that we find each Govinda team of a medium size has to incur the cost of at least 1,85,000/- rupees for the preparation as on year 2009. For large sized Govindas this cost will be almost double this.

Presently, it is found that no Govinda organizer spends this much money on these player today and that is why if this sport is brought for competition with other Govindas from abroad such as Spain, they shall be defeated. The boys being malnourished
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....

 will not be able to stand the rigour required for such competitions. It is observed that on an average a Govinda team cannot attend more than three Handis in that day successfully. Formation of a good-sized Govinda (pyramid) requires at least fifteen minutes and preparation may require about at least another fifteen minutes. Excess time in loitering is about one hour. The only earning side is the prizes given on these Govinda Handis. While other options of earning are completely neglected. The other options are TV coverage, news coverage.

Sponsors of Govindas are collecting money by contribution from respected and interested parties such as business companies, shops, and politicians. These people contribute to the fund and the amount is generated. It has been seen that advertisements in and around the place of Handi are those of these contributors. At present TV channels and news coverage does not pay anything to the organizers of Govinda to cover the event.

To calculate arbitrarily what should be the minimum prize money
Prize money
Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...

 for a Govinda we have to consider how many Handis a team can attend successfully? An investigation has shown that not more than three are possible. This amounts to about one and a half hour per actual operation of formation of Govinda (pyramid). Rest of the time goes in travel to reach the Handi. Since the cost of preparation of the team for Govinda of three months and travel is about as we have shown earlier comes to 1,85,000/- rupees and this does not include the remuneration for the team members minimum cost per Handi must be not less than 65,000/- rupees. If remuneration is to be added the cost will be more; that comes to 1,30,000/- rupees or more. Any Handi prized around this amount or more is a feasible Handi and anything less means that Handi is not for medium sized Govindas. A medium sized Govinda team can reach height of 40 feet if other requisites are properly satisfied. This explanation gives general idea of the feasibility of Govinda.

Cheating

It shows that most of the organizers of these Govindas finally cheat the members of the team by not paying them anything at all. The unscrupulous people, who are mostly from some or the other political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

, fool these members. Not even good nourishment provided during the practice. It is observed that, mostly the members of the Govinda join the sport not for making any money but just for the valour. They belong to economically backward class and mostly not well educated. Political leaders who hold control on these teams know these weak points of these poor boys and they take full advantage of it.

Future prospects

This situation must be changed and that may be possible if this sport is recommended for Olympics sport by the authorities. It would be one more Indian Sport to be included in the Olympics next to Mallakhamb
Mallakhamb
Mallakhamb or Malkhamb is a traditional Indian sport in which a gymnast performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope. Mallakhamb also refers to the pole used in the sport....

. Already we have two countries to join the sport at international level, the other is Spain. More nations who have tradition of acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...

 and Gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 may join such as Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and USA. In addition, this sport must be made compulsory for Army, Navy and Air Force of all nations. The qualities required to be successful in this sport at group and at personal level are important for these forces. Police force can be made to play this sport. We have already noted that a management school at Matunga in Mumbai has accepted this sport for its qualities.

See also

  • Krishna Janmashtami
  • Pathare Prabhu
    Pathare prabhu
    Pathare Prabhu is one of the Hindu communities in the city of Mumbai . These people are among earliest settlers in the city. They are known to have one of the oldest academic traditions amongst Hindus on par with Brahmins. They were amongst the first of the Hindus to adopt to British educational...

  • Castell
    Castell
    A castell is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia, Spain. At these festivals, several colles castelleres or teams often succeed in building and dismantling a tower's structure...

    , a similar tradition from Catalonia
    Catalonia
    Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

  • Amcha juna jamaana by Rao
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