The Game - History

The King of Games

"Let other people play at other things. The king of games is still the game of kings."

This verse, inscribed on a stone tablet beside a polo ground South of the fabled silk route from China to the West, sums up the ancient history of what is believed to be the oldest organised sport in the world. Polo was truly a game of Kings, for most of its reputed 2,500 years or more of existence.

Although the precise origin of polo is obscure and undocumented, there is ample evidence of the game's regal place in the history of Asia. No one knows where or when stick first met ball after the horse was domesticated by the tribes of Central Asia, but it seems likely that as the use of light cavalry spread throughout Asia Minor, China and the Indian sub-continent so did this rugged game on horse back.

As mounted Armies swept back and forth across this part of the world, conquering and reconquering, polo was adopted as the most noble of pastimes by the Kings and Emperors, Shahs and Sultans, Khans and Caliphs of the ancient Persians, Arabs, Mughals, Mongols and Chinese. The great rulers and their horsemen real and legendary, of those early centuries, were expected to be brave warriors, skilful hunters and polo players of exceptional prowess.

Some scholars believe that polo originated among the Iranian tribes sometime before Darius-I and his cavalry forged the first great Persian Empire in the 6th century BC Certainly it is Persian literature and art which give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. Firdausi, the most famous of Persia's poet-historian, gives a number of accounts of royal polo tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnamah.

Some believe that the Chinese (the Mongols) were the first to try their hands at the game. In the earliest account, Firdausi romanticises an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Syavoush, a legendary Persian ruler from the earliest centuries of the Empire. The poet is eloquent in his praise of Syavoush's skills on the polo field. Firdausi also tells of Sapor-II Sassanid, King of the 4th Century AD, who learn to play polo when he was only seven years old. Another 9th century historian Dinvari, describes polo and its general rules and gives some instructions to players including such advice as 'polo requires a great deal of exercise', 'if polo stick breaks during a game it is a sign of inefficiency' and 'a player should strictly avoid using strong language and should be patient and temperate'.

During the 10th century the Persian King Qabus also set down some general rules of polo and especially mentioned the risks and dangers of the game. The best known references to polo in Persian poetry are from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. He uses polo to illustrate philosophical points. Many of the Persian manuscripts in which these references appear are beautifully illustrated with miniatures depicting royalty and their best horsemen playing polo. The 13th century poet Nizami weaves the love story of the Sassanid King Khusru and his beautiful consort Shirin, around her ability on the polo field, and describes matches between Khusru and his courtiers and Shirin and her ladies-in-waiting. Nurjehan, wife of the 19th century Mughal Emperor Jahangir, was also skilled at polo. Polo was a popular royal pastime for many centuries in China, the Chinese probably having learned the game from the same Indian tribes who were taught by the Persians.

The polo stick appears on royal coats of arms in China and the game was part of the court life in the golden age of Chinese classical culture under Ming-Hung, the Radiant Emperor, who as an enthusiastic patron of equestrian activities. Less cultured, one might think, was the reaction of Emperor Tai Tsu in 9 10 AD who according to one source, ordered all the other players beheaded after a favourite was killed in a match.

The Japanese learnt polo from the Chinese, while across the Continent the game spread as far West as Egypt ,with the Arab conquests of the Asia Minor beginning in the 8th century. The game occupied an exhaulted place in Islamic court life, Haroon-al-Rashid being the first of the great Caliphs to play. The polo stick was an important motif in Islamic, was well as Chinese, heraldry, and the Jukandar Polo Master, was a well-known official in the Caliphs's entourage. It seems strange that the Crusaders did not take polo back to Europe with them, but the game did reach Constantinople under the Byzantine Emperors. The 12th century Emperor, Manual I Commenos was a patron of polo and it is recorded that one of his successors Emperor Hohannes Chinnasus, played until his leg and arm were crushed in a bad fall during match.

The Muslim conquerors also took the game eastward with them, to the Indian subcontinent where it was played by the Muslim rulers and adopted by local Kings and Princes as well. In a dusty, back alley near Anarkali Bazar in Lahore stands a monument to Sultan Qutabuddin Aibak, a 13th century King who died when his pony fell during a polo match.

It was about this time that the hordes of Changez Khan swept down from the North to conquer all the Asia Minor from the Muslims. If his followers had not already played the game, they certainly learnt it from the Persians. One legend has it that Timurlane, a descendent of the great Khans, once ordered his cavalry to play polo with the heads of their captives. When a follower of Timurlane, Baber, founded the great Mughal Empire in India in the 16th century, he played polo and established it as the most popular of royal sports for his successors. Akbar the Great was especially found of the game, sometimes playing at night by torchlight. His vast stables, which can still be seen near Agra, housed his favourite polo ponies. The most spectacular tribute to polo in antiquity is a city laid out around a Kings Polo Ground. Towards the end of the 16th century, the capital of the Safavid Kingdom of Persia was moved to Isfahan and Shah Abbas the Great decided to redesign the city to make it the most beautiful in the Orient. He planned his city around a vast, central square, the Maidan-i-Shah. The maidan, which served as the royal polo ground, was about 500 yards long and 150 yards wide and at each end were stone goal posts eight yards apart, which is today the regulation width of a polo gal. At approximately midfield the Shah built a seven storey palace, Ali Qapu. As the central feature of the palace his architects designed a towering royal gallery, its roof supported by 18 graceful, wooden columns. At the south end of the field just beyond the goal posts Shah Abbas constructed the magnificent Masjid Shah, whose mosaic domes and minarets make it one of the most beautiful in the Muslim World. Beyond the northern goal is the elaborately decorated Qaysariya Gateway leading to the Royal Bazaar.

The stone goal posts, as well as the palace, the mosque and the bazaar can still be seen today, although ornamental pools and gardens have replaced the field where ponies galloped and mallets flayed centuries ago. The Bazaar in Isfahan offers, in addition to the normal wares of an Eastern market, an astonishing variety of souvenirs decorated with old polo scenes copied from Persian miniatures.

One can note at sites like Isfahan and in ancient art and literature certain differences in polo of past centuries and the game as we know it today. The fields were often longer and narrower. Teams were frequently much larger than the four-a-side standard of today. The game was sometimes started with the ball placed at midfield and the two teams charging one another from opposite ends; sometimes the ball was thrown into the air and hit towards goal to start a match. Mallets were of shapes which would appear curious to the players of today. In Japan and in Byzantium, the sticks carried racquet heads rather than mallet heads and a leather covered ball was used.

For more than 20 centuries polo remained a favourite of the rulers of Asia who played the game or were its patrons. Their Queens played as did the nobility and the mounted warriors. It was the nearest equivalent to a national sport in those times from Japan to Egypt, from India to Byzantium. As the great Eastern Empires collapsed, however, so disappeared the glittering court life of which polo has been so important a part, and the game itself was preserved only in remote villages.

Evolution of Modern Polo 

The start of polo for the rest of the world outside Asia is due to British officers playing polo in North - East India. They formed their first polo Club at Cachar - in 1859 and the Calcutta Club started in 1862. The game rapidly spread among regiments all over India, helped on by officers in the North - East, who, when on leave in Kashmir played with teams from Gilgit visiting the Maharaja of Kashmir. The oldest important tournament is the Inter-Regmental in 1877.

In 1891, the Indian Polo Association was formed. The rules were re-written and set a new standard. By 1902, there were 175 clubs playing under IPA rules. The Calcutta Polo Club is regarded as the oldest polo club in the world. The British took the game to England and from there it spread to the whole world.

Today the top polo playing countries of the world are Australia, Argentina, USA, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, England and New Zealand. But for centuries, Lahore has been the centre of polo Kings, Emperors, Rulers and Princes of the Sub - Continent. Sultan Qutab-ud-Din Aibak, a 13th century Muslim emperor of India died when his pony fell during a polo match at Lahore. He is buried near Anarkali Bazaar at Lahore.

Are you interested in the history of Polo in Australia ? We are looking for an amateur historian to put together information relating to Polo in Australia and Victoria. If you are keen to assist please contact the Victorian Polo Club.

Photos courtesy of Derek O'Leary www.derekoleary.com & Carolyn Yencken