His account reveals that tukkals, which were similar to a Chinese lantern, were ‘favoured as fighting kites in the 18th century’ and that ‘the word patang emerged to denote the best type of tukkals.’ įig. There is even a mention of kite flying in Maulana Abul Halim Sharar’s translated work Lucknow: The Last Phase of an Oriental Culture he wrote that the interest in kites grew during the reign King Shah Alam I in the eighteenth century. The event is celebrated today as Phool Waalon ki Sair. It is believed that upon Jahangir’s return to Delhi from a three-year exile in Allahabad in 1812, the residents of the city flew kites to celebrate his return while his mother offered a chaadar. Mughal paintings and miniatures from the time show both men and women flying kites. With growing popularity, the design was also enhanced for better aerodynamics. Under the Mughals, kite flying was turned into a sport, primarily among the nobility. Kites being sold for the Uttarayan festival in Guujarat (Courtesy: ) ![]() According to Nikita Desai, the author of A Different Freedom: Kite Flying in Western India, there are also mentions of kites in the Ramayana and the Vedas.įig. In his epic poem Ramcharatramanas, the seventeenth-century poet Tulsidas also mentioned kites and provided an anecdote of how Hanuman retrieved Rama’s kite that had flown to Indralok. Along with poets from Western India, there are written accounts of the kite from the Awadh region in the Satsai of the Hindi poet Bihari.Īlso read | What are the Differences between Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr? Written accounts of kites also exist in the songs and poems of sixteenth-century Marathi poets such as Dasopant and Ekanatha, both of whom call it vavadi. In his poems or gathas, he called it a gudi, and there is a mention that the kites were made from kaagad (paper). The earliest written accounts of the kite in ancient Indian literature can be found in the poetry of the thirteenth-century Marathi saint and poet, Namadeva. ![]() Kites are believed to have come to India with Buddhist missionaries from the East through the Silk Route, following which they travelled to distant lands such as Arabia and Europe. A man sorting kites on the roof of a house in India (Courtesy: Meena Kadri/Flickr) Various sources suggest that by 169 BC, kite flying was in place under the Han dynasty, and that the Chinese general Han Hsin had ‘a kite flown above a besieged town to calculate the distance his army would have to tunnel to reach under the city wall.’ As time passed and contact was made with other cultures, along with other commodities, kites reached the Indian subcontinent.Īlso see | Tusu: A Harvest Festival of Chhota Nagpurįig. The earliest written account of kite flying, from 206 BC, mentions that Heuin Tsang had flown a kite to overawe the army of Liu Pang. Some historical sources suggest that the kites could have origins in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, but it is widely believed to have been invented in China. The origin of the kite is still disputed. ![]() While the kite has a simple structure, its history in the Indian subcontinent is rather knotted. While, over the years, this popular pastime and sport might have lost mass popularity, on occasions such as Makar Sankranti, Baisakhi and Independence Day, kids and adults continue to indulge in it with fervour and passion. Come spring, the Indian sky is often dotted with colourful kites of all shapes and sizes, and one can occasionally find a kite runner or two dangerously dashing through the gullies collecting the ones cut. Most of us have experienced the joy of watching vibrant kites soaring in the sky, if not flying one. Here, we trace the history of the kite in the Indian subcontinent and shed light on how a Chinese invention became pivotal to various festivals across the nation. Even though there is no historical evidence or written account of the kite’s association with the festival or the occasion, it is an age-old tradition. Be it the festival of Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan or a celebration of Indian independence, both are synonymous with kite flying.
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