State of play: The story of modern Karnataka

{ CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, REVOLUTION } AN UNBROKEN ARC

- Sukanya Datta

here are no teams; no winners or losers. No one is ever knocked out. There is just a seething mass of players, taking turns to be king. An ancient version of dodgeball is played rather differently in Karnataka.

The ball is thrown up in the air and everyone waits until it bounces three times, counting time with the term "Rama, Bhima, Soma ... " (a sort of "Ready. Set. Go").

Whoever is nearest the ball then grabs it, and is now temporarily king. He hurls it at a target player while everyone dodges. (If a player manages to physically touch the person holding the ball, they cannot be targeted. So the king has reason to dodge too.)

Whoever catches the ball after it is thrown is now king. And so the game rolls on, "an infinite loop across the group, creating an endless web of relationships, until such time as collective exhaustion sets in, or ... the bell rings for class," writes Srikar Raghavan, in his book Rama Bhima Soma: Cultural Investigations into Modern Karnataka (2025).

In many ways, this potentially eternal game mirrors the story of Karnataka, adds Raghavan, 30. "It carries a metaphor of democracy, of perennially fluctuating power. It also reflects the atmosphere of debate and dialogue that is crucial to Kannada society."

Raghavan (right), an independent researcher from Mysuru and a research fellow with New India Foundation (NIF), has spent four years investigating the literary, artistic, political and social transformations that have shaped the state of Karnataka.