The polo game which
is played on horseback using a ball and a mallet seems to be invented by the
Scythians of Central Asia as early as 500 BC. The game soon was assimilated by
the Persians who used it as a way to train their cavalry for battle. In fact,
the warlike tribesmen played the polo game as a miniature battle.
In a recent TV
program about the Silk Road , Alfred de
Montesquiou, a French reporter and war correspondent, mentioned an interesting legend
on the subject. The story goes that King
Darius gave Alexander the Great such
a ball and mallet with the intention to treat him as a mere boy, “here is a
ball, so play!” But Alexander thanked
him with the wise observation that the ball was the earth and the mallet represented
himself, meaning that he was the master of the world!
This story may well come from one of the many versions of the Alexander Romance, who knows?
In time, polo was
played in Persia
by men as well as women and notably by the nobility. King Khosrow II (reigned 590-628 AD) and his courtiers are known to
have played Polo just like the queen and her ladies.
From Persia ,
the game spread to Arabia and the Muslims, in turn, introduced it to India in the 13th
century. Who would have thought that the polo game could boast such a long
history?
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