gilli-danda

See also: Gilli Danda

English

Alternative forms

• Gilli-danda
• Gilli-Danda
• gilli danda
• Gilli Danda
• gillidanda
• guli danda

Etymology

Ultimately from Sanskrit दण्ड (daṇḍa). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. Where is the first element from?

Noun

gilli-danda (uncountable)

1. A game played in several Asian countries, in which a large stick is used to hit a small oval-shaped piece of wood. It is played much like tipcat, baseball, and cricket.
   • 1970, Instructor, Volume 80, Instructor Publications

     It is played by children of all ages. Boys like it especially, but it is not unusual to see girls and even adults playing Gilli Danda!

   • 2004, Triveni: Journal of Indian Renaissance, Volume 73, Triveni Publishers:

     Bhuvan the hero of the film to understand 'cricket', relates it to his understanding of their native folk game of Gilli Danda. He says: ball (image of the silli thing) is gola-gola-ball, bat-phalli-phalli-bat.

   • 2011, Bhaskar Majumder, Rethinking Villages, Concept Publishing Company, page 110:

     The indigenous games like gilli-danda, goli, kabaddi, tash, kabootar urana (pigeon flying), erhi koodna (long jump), surra, cheel jhapatna, tahat etc., were commonly played by both children and adults of the village[...]

   • 2013, Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, Shantanu Chakrabarti, Kingshuk Chatterjee, The Politics of Sport in South Asia, Routledge, page 156:

     This happens because the hero of the film asserts that cricket is only a poor copy of their own age-old children's game of gilli-danda. So this mockery inverts the colonizing mission of civilizing the childlike natives on its head and also 'desecrates the "purity" of cricket roots' asserted by the British.

   • 2013, Hachette India, Indiapedia: The All-India Factfinder:

     Also called guli danda, Gilli Danda is a sport for an amateur which is very popular among rural youth. It is known as Danguli in Bengali, Kuttiyam Kolum in Malayalam, Kitti-Pullu in Tamil, Chinni-Dandu in Kannada, Gooti-Billa in Telugu and Lappa-Duggi in Pashto. It follows the structure of cricket or baseball, only it is played with sticks.

   • 2015, Victoria Williams Ph.D., Weird Sports and Wacky Games around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbing, ABC-CLIO, page 122:

     A game of gilli-danda continues until all players have had a turn at being on strike. The winning team is the side that records the most danda lengths and thus scores the most points.

Translations

game

• Bengali: ডাংগুলি (ḍaṅguli), ড্যাংবাড়ি (ḍêṅbaṛi), গুটবাড়ি (guṭbaṛi), ট্যামডাং (ṭêmoḍaṅ), ভ্যাটাডান্ডা (bhêṭaḍanḍa)
• Hindi: गिल्ली डंडा (gillī ḍaṇḍā), गुल्लीडंडा (hi) m (gullīḍaṇḍā), गुल्लीडण्डा (hi) m (gullīḍaṇḍā)
• Kannada: ಚಿನ್ನಿ ದಾಂಡು (kn) (cinni dāṇḍu), ಗಿಲ್ಲಿ ದಾಂಡು (kn) (gilli dāṇḍu), ಹಾಣೆ ಗೆಂಡೆ (kn) (hāṇe geṇḍe), ಚಿನ್ನಿ ಕೋಲು (kn) (cinni kōlu)
• Konkani: कोयंडो बाल (koyaṇḍo bāl)
• Marathi: विटी दांडू (viṭī dāṇḍū)
• Odia: ଗୁଲି ବାଡ଼ି (guli bāṛi), ଡାବଲପୁଆ (or) (ḍābalapuā), ପିଲବାଡ଼ି (or) (pilabāṛi), ଗୁଟିଡାବୁଳ (guṭiḍābuḷa)
• Punjabi: ਗੁੱਲੀ ਡੰਡਾ (gullī ḍaṇḍā)
• Tamil: கிட்டிப் புள்ளு (kiṭṭip puḷḷu)