Tribal Sports: A Study of Games and Riddles of the Baiga Tribes

Tribal studies have largely concentrated tribal subsistence patterns, their methods of farming, tribal folklore etc. Social scientists have to a large extent neglected the study of tribal sports in India. This paper attempts to study some of the genres of tribal sports, particularly of the Baiga tribe, prevalent in parts of central India. The idea is to analyze tribal sports viz. hunting, children's games and riddles seen not just a physical exercise involving a contest between two players and regulated by formal rules. An attempt has been made to bring out the performance elements of the participants involved as players and also as actor at the time of the staging of the game. Sports in three different forms discussed below in seen as an opportunity for tension release and for channeling variety of emotions under socially sanctioned and controlled conditions. The idea is to understand the structure and meaning of tribal sport by locating it within the framework of conceptions and evaluations of the social order