>So, what does this tell
us? I tells me that, even though many countries did enjoy sports, in
today's context our modern sports have basically come from >Greece/Europe
etc. That is - the Western idea of sports is dominant.
You are right. It tells that
the Western idea of Greek sports continued in the West till now. In countries
like India it did not. Looking at present performance, in China it might
have continued to some extent. I am intterested to find why and when it discontinued in India.
We can say the mental games continued in India: Chess, Cards, Ludu, Paxa, Kouri
etc
But for games like Polo. I
don't think we find any reference of this game being played even during Ramayana
or Mahabharata days. re? There are references of wresting etc though.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] EVEREST HISTORY time
line
Dear Barua,
>Unlike India, ancient
China was comparable to Greece in sports ;
>See article
below:
The article you sent is
impressive. But look at this one - which also refers to ancient India and
Greece and sports. Highlights mine and there are a many more articles on
the subject.
So, what does this tell us?
I tells me that, even though many countries did enjoy sports, in today's
context our modern sports have basically come from Greece/Europe etc.
That is - the Western idea of sports is dominant.
--Ram
| The history of sports in India dates back
to the Vedic era. Physical culture in ancient India was fed by a
powerful fuel--religious rites. There were some well-defined values like
the mantra in the Atharva-Veda, saying," Duty is in my
right hand and the fruits of victory in my left". In terms of an ideal,
these words hold the same sentiments as the traditional Olympic oath:
".......For the Honour of my Country and the Glory of Sport." The
founders of the Olympic idea had India very much in mind when they were
deciding on the various disciplines. There is a fascinating link
between Greece and India which stretches back to 975 B.C. The zest for
chariot-racing and wrestling was common to both the
countries.
![Sports]() In India, dehvada or the body-way is
defined as "one of the ways to full realisation." In the day and age of
the Rig-Veda, Ramayana and Mahabharata men of stature and
circumstance were expected to be competent in chariot-racing, archery,
horsemanship, military tactics, wrestling, weight-lifting, swimming and
hunting
The guru-shishya (teacher-pupil)
relationship has always been an integral part of Indian sport from time
immemorial. Indian sport reached a peak of excellence when Buddhism held
sway here. In Villas Mani Majra, Tiruvedacharya describes many
fascinating games, namely, archery, equitation, hammer-throwing and
chariot-racing. In Manas Olhas (1135 A.D.), Someshwar
writes about bhrashram (weight-lifting), bhramanshram
(walking) and also about Mall-Stambha (wrestling).
It is more than likely that many of today's Olympic
disciplines are sophisticated versions of the games of strength and
speed that flourished in ancient India and Greece. Chess, wrestling,
polo, archery and hockey (possibly a fall-out from polo) are some of the
games believed to have originated in India.
|
On 5/16/06, Barua25
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Ram:
Unlike India, ancient China was
comparable to Greece in sports ;
See article below:
RB
| Sports in Ancient China and Greece
|
|
|
The history of the Olympic Movement may be divided into the
ancient and modern periods. The ancient period covered at least
12 centuries from 776 BC when the first Olympic Games was held
in Greece to AD 339 when the Roman emperor Theodosius the Great
prohibited the Olympic Games as a pagan activity. Then came a
lull of some 15 centuries in which no Olympic Games were held,
though the ancient Olympic ideals had not perished from the mind
of many a great thinker. The modern period has covered less than
one century, starting from 1896 when the first modern Olympic
Games was held ---on an international rather than national
scale.
Chronologically, the ancient period of the Olympic Movement
corresponded in Chinese history to the period from the Eastern
Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC) to the Jin Dynasty (265-240 AD), while
the modern period corresponded to the period from the latter
part of the region of Guang Xu (1875-1909) of the Qing Dynasty
to the present-day People's Republic of China. In the ancient
period,China had no relations with Greece in the field of sport,
although there was the Silk Road serving as a channel of trade
and cultural exchanges between the East and West from the second
century BC. In the modern period, however, China has been
associated very early with the Olympic Movement. Such a
relationship is more or less rooted in the common origin and
features shared by ancient China and Greece in the field of
sport, which forms part of national culture and is inseparable
from socio-political life---for all social communities at all
times.
The ancient Olympic Games were a four-yearly event with
sporting activities as its main content and the cessation of
hostilities among the city states in Greece as its main
characteristic. In those days, China also experienced divisions
from time to time. There were the Spring and Autumn Period
(770-476 BC) and the Period of Warring States (475-221 BC)
during the Zhou Dynasty before the First Emperor of Qin (259-210
BC) unified the whole Chinese empire. Following the Han Dynasty
(206BC-AD220), the main part of China was divided again during
the Period of Three Kingdoms (220-280), to be reunified under
the Jin court. As in ancient Greece, there were of course
intervals of peace between wars among the states or
kingdoms---not as a result of the proclamation of truce during
the Olympic Games which were non-existent in ancient China, but
as a result of diplomatic manoeuvres or military deterrent
forces. After all, there is the universal law of "split after
long unity and unity after long split," as Chinese philosophers
put it.
However, the non-existence of Games does not necessarily mean
non-existence of sports. As a matter of face, there are sports
whenever and wherever there are human activities. Man must take
up sports to keep fit for survival and amuse themselves after
work. In order to gather food , hunters in the palaeolithic
times not only invented tools, such as stone axes, balls, hooks,
spearheads and nets, but also learned how to use them more
efficiently, knowing that only with a stronger physique and the
ability to run and swim faster, jump higher and throw a
projectile farther and with greater precision could they catch
more game and fish. This was the origin of the running, jumping,
throwing and swimming events which figure so largely in the
Olympic Games today, and whose origin can only be attributed to
human instincts rather than to a particular race or individual
at a particular time. The stone balls excavated in Gaoyang
County in China's Shanxi Province date back to 100,000 years and
are supposed to have been used not only in hunting, but also in
throwing contests as athletes do in shot putting today. Archery,
another Olympic event, has appeared in the mythology of many
nations. Odyssey was said to have slain his wife's suitors with
his bow and arrows. A Chinese legend has it that during the Yao
times many thousand years ago, a marksman named Hou Yi shot down
nine of the 10suns in the sky which had scorched all plants on
the earth. Even today, bows and arrows are still used among many
ethnic groups in China as a weapon to kill animals and in
archery as a popular sporting event.
In ancient times men engaged themselves not only in flight
with nature, but also in flight among themselves. Therefore
sport has yet another aim: to improve the ability to beat the
enemy, with or without weapons. During the rule of the Yellow
Emperor, who has been held as the first ancestor of the Chinese
nation, a rebel tribe headed by Chiyou trained his warriors in
fighting with cow horns fastened to the head, which was included
in the "one hundred amusements" and developed into various forms
of wrestling in later generations. Military training in ancient
China included all kinds of martial arts, such as wrestling,
pugilism, fencing, tripodlifting, horse-racing, stone-throwing,
hunting and swimming. During the Spring and Autumn Period, a
high-ranking official in Qi state named Guan Zhong (?-645 BC)
ordered the building of swimming pools by conducting the water
of three rivers and awarded heavy prizes to good swimmers among
his "water troops." A copper pot excavated in Chengdu in Sichuan
Province is inscribed with a battle on water in those days.
Among the Greeks there is note of occasional swimming races, and
a famous boxer swam as a part of his training.
Sports also served military purposes in a ancient Greece,
especially in Sparta where all citizens received stoic military
training from early childhood, in almost the same sports as in
ancient China. According to historical records written during
the Period of Warring States, the Chinese kings and emperors
ordered their officers to teach archery, charioteering and
wrestling in winter and "required the populace to spend six
hours farming and two hours practicing martial arts every day."
The ancient Chinese and Greek civilizations shared another
thing in common in sporting activities, that is, they were often
combined with dancing. A pot in the Neolithic Age excavated in
Qinghai Province's Datong County shows on the inside surface
three groups of dancers. It is said that in those times China
was hit by frequent torrential rains and floods and people
suffered a lot from unbroken spells of wet weather. In order to
relax their stiffened bones and muscles and dispel their gloomy
moods, they would dance a kind of dance that "could conduct the
flow of blood and vital energy in the body." The military
training in Sparta also included dances and there were
choreographic competitions at the ancient Olympic Games.
Actually there was little or no difference between physical
exercises and dances as is the case with such modern sports as
figure skating and artistic and rhythmic gymnastics.
What should be emphasized here is that sports were included
in the educational system both in ancient China and Greece.
During the Zhou Dynasty and the previous Xia (21st---16th
century BC) and Shang (16th---11th century BC) dynasties, all
seats of learning were at the same time places for teaching
martial arts. The great Chinese philosopher and Educationist
Confucius (551-479 BC) was also a good athlete in archery and
charioteering and took an active part in fishing, hunting,
excursions and hill-climbing. Paying equal attention to moral,
intellectual and physical development of his 3,000 pupils, he
carried out an educational system of "Six Arts," namely,
rituals, music, archery, charioteering, writing and mathematics,
which were supplementary to each other. In archery, for
instance, he insisted on proper conduct, or what we call
"sportsmanship" today, pointing out that an archer should do his
best to win and what's more important, "be modest and observe
rituals." Besides, he advised people to keep a good eating
habit, to abstain from stale dish and meat and not to talk when
taking a meal. Such guiding principles were similar to those of
the great Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BC) who held that
physical training and sanitation should become an important part
of education and that one should train his physique through
sports and mould his temperament through music. The curricula at
his time included gymnastics, which was broadened to embrace
hygiene and dietetics. The Greek gymnasium also taught
philosophy, literature and music, and public libraries were
nearby.
It is interesting to note that both Chinese and Greek
educationists in ancient times emphasized that physical training
should suit different ages. According to the Chinese classic
work Li Ji (Book of Rites), children should learn "civilian
dances" at 13, "martial dances" at 15, and archery and
charioteering at older ages. Plato also advocated different
sports for different age groups---music and singing for 7-12,
dancing, wrestling, archery and horsemanship for 12-17 and more
physical training for 17-20.
Whether out of historical necessity or contingency, sports in
both ancient China and Greece were closely combined with
productive labour, military training, dancing and the whole
educational system, thus providing an ideological foundation for
China's ready acceptance of the modern Olympic ideals, which
were deeply rooted in the ancient Greek society, in spite of the
cessation of Olympic Games for15 centuries.
| |
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 12:10
AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] EVEREST HISTORY
time line
Dear Barua,
>It is because of our caste system that sports never
became a >national event in India like that in Greece.
I was with you all this way - but now you have lost me.
What in the world has the caste system to do with playing chess or wrestling
(like Greece)?
Sports did and does exist in India. From the very ancient
times sports played a huge part - malla judho, hunting (sports), kings also
played games/sports riding elephants and did hold gynastic
competitions.
Yes, of course they did not play tennis or cricket or
skating - but these were all western concepts. The Japanese/Chinese have
sumo wrestling and judo etc.
But for the life of me, I can't name original sports/games
from China and Japan or even countries in Africa.
Lets face it, most of the games came from variations of
the Greek Olympiads and Rome (parallel bars, Roman rings), and many of the
modern sports came either from England or Eastern Europe.
Is it because of the caste system that countries like
Japan, China, or from Africa have not developed sports?
--Ram
|
