Kodagu (Karnataka): Puliyanda Thimmanna was barely 10 years old when he first sat in the dugout watching his father play hockey in the Kodava family tournament. His main goal at the time was to play for the team. He was desperate just to get his hands on a jersey. And his only chance of playing was when any playing member of his family did not show up.
Little did Thimmanna know that this hunger to get on the field with his relatives would drive his passion and he would go on to represent India in both junior and senior categories in the years to come.
“I dreamt of playing in the family hockey tournament before I could imagine playing for the country,” says Thimmanna, now 30. Today, the 2019 Ekalavya Awardee is a celebrated figure in Kodagu district and finds himself on the elite list of sporting icons from the coffee growing region in southern Karnataka, about 250 km from Bengaluru. But he still enjoys the annual month-long family hockey festivities, which are an integral part of Kodava life.
Thimmanna is one of the hundreds of ‘manepedas’ family or clan names in the Kodava culture, a martial ethnic group that calls Kodagu or Coorg their home. Soon after the busy coffee picking season, the entire community has only one thing on their mind: family hockey namme (‘festival’ in the Kodava language).
The 2023 edition with nearly 5,000 players from 336 family teams began on 18 March with a traditional dance and procession through the streets of Napoklu village in Madikeri Taluk. The Appachettolanda family is hosting this year’s tournament at the Napoklu ground and aspires to make it to the Guinness Book of World records as the largest hockey event globally. They will officially initiate the process once the tournament ends on 9 April.
Each clan plays other clans in teams comprising 11 members–men, women and children, sometimes as young as five. Teams have their distinct jersey colours and are often accompanied by other members of the clan who come to support their respective families on the field. Married women can choose to play either for the clan they now identify with or their maiden family.
The month-long sporting event offers Kodavas the opportunity to savour and soak in the rapturous surroundings of never before seen crowds for a game of hockey. Games post the quarter finals see attendance in excess of 10,000-20,000 with crowds swelling up to over 30,000 on the final day.
Spectators scramble for space and occupy almost every inch of the ground except the playing field, placing themselves precariously close to the swinging hockey sticks and bullet-like turf balls.
Crowds were denser this year as the tournament came back to life after three years of Covid-induced disruptions.
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‘Hockey in the blood’
Three men sitting in the shade of the makeshift stadium in the Napoklu hockey ground engage in a spirited discussion. They are down a peg or two of brandy and make no secret about it. But they soon start cheering when an eight-year-old, just a foot taller than the average hockey stick, dribbles the ball skilfully past three players at least four times his age.
“Buttkodra” (Kodava equivalent for whacking the ball) one of them calls out, while the other slaps his thigh in disappointment as the young player misses a goal by a whisker.
The boy is part of the losing side but he gets all the adulation from his team, the opposition and a whole lot of praise from the 200-odd people who had gathered to watch the game.
On any given day, until the pre-quarterfinals, there are three matches going on simultaneously—one in the main ground and two in adjacent fields a few metres away.
Men, mostly in their 20s and 30s, enter the venue smartly dressed with fancy caps, shorts and chic loafers, while women are at their stylish best with broad-brimmed hats and sunglasses.
The event has more than just sport on its plate, PK Bopanna, Kutappa’s son, and president of the Kodava Hockey Academy says.
“With such huge crowds coming in, there is also matchmaking of the matrimonial kind happening during match time,” he says.
There are counters serving cold beer and scrumptious food like ‘pandi curry’, a signature dish from the region with succulent pieces of meat in black vinegary gravy, while a few more have games to keep children entertained.
Though only Kodavas can play this tournament, visitors from elsewhere have made it part of their tour to the hill station, nestled in the southern corner of the western ghats. In the Kodava community of about 200,000, everyone on the field more or less knows each other as ‘Bendakas’ or relatives.
But this district (including members of other communities) has produced around 50 international hockey players over the years that shows how the sport is inextricably woven into the Kodava culture. This includes those who captained the Indian side like BP Govinda, MP Ganesh and MM Somaiya.
“Hockey runs in the blood of Kodavas,” said Bopanna.
But Manu Muthappa, the head of the Appachettolanda family and convenor of this year’s tournament, has one fact tugging at his heartstrings.
“Since 1936, this is the first time that there is no Kodava in the Indian hockey team and it is sad that we do not have any representation in the Olympics,” Muthappa says in Kodava Takk, the native language of the community. “We are identifying 25 youth whom we will train with the help of larger organisations to help them join the national squad.”
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‘Sport, spirit and the soldier’
The Kodava family hockey namme was the brainchild of (Late) Pandanda Kuttappa, a retired banker who envisioned the creation of a purpose to unite the community and channel their love for the sport. In 1997, there were 60 teams and the event has since become part of the Kodava annual calendar.
“Kodavas are very energetic, athletic, Army people but at home there was infighting. Brothers fighting over property; education wise, there were troubles in every family. He (Kuttappa) thought that by conducting this (tournament), families can come together and sort out their misunderstandings,” says Mollera P Ganesh, who captained the Indian hockey team in the 1973 World Cup.
Love for sport, spirit and the armed forces is one way of describing the Kodavas. The Army is a natural fit for many members of the community. Thoughts of Kodagu instantly reminds people of Field Marshal KM Cariappa, Independent India’s first commander-in-chief of the Army and General Kodandera Subayya Thimayya, the third Army chief.
Hockey followed into the district as more youth took up the sport following Independence.
“Most of hockey came through Army officials and soldiers from Coorg. They played hockey here when they came home on two months’ leave,” Ganesh says, sitting in his picturesque estate in Balele.
Back in Napoklu, a volunteer uses a blower to remove the dust of the markings as the next match begins with just five minutes between games.
“Chailil Kaliri makkale (Play well children),” says an elderly woman as she passes a team about to enter the field.
(Edited by Prashant)