266 POLO 



CHAPTER III 



POLO IN INDIA 



How, when, and where polo was first introduced into British 

 India as a game for Europeans is a matter of controversy. 

 Some believe that it came from Kashmir and Afghanistan, 

 some that it was brought from China by the Irregular Cavalry 

 after the war of 1861, and others again that it was known in the 

 pre-Mutiny days, and authority for this last assertion is obtain- 

 able. Certain it is, that though the game was a favourite pastime 

 amongst the Moghul rulers of Hindustan as late as the sixteenth 

 century, yet historians seem to be silent on the subject subse- 

 quently, and there exists a hiatus in the mention of the game 

 between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is probable, 

 therefore, that it declined in popularity and died out. 



The first allusion to polo in works written within the last 

 half-century that considerable research has enabled me to find, 

 is contained in a very interesting volume by Vigne entitled 

 'Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, and Thibet,' published in 1842. 

 It is, of course, possible that Vigne may have mentioned having 

 seen the game played in Thibet on his return to India, but I 

 can find no evidence that, even if he did so, it was ever taken 

 up. Vigne's account of polo as played in Thibet is so- graphic 

 and interesting that I cannot resist quoting it and appending an 

 illustration that accompanies the description which vividly de- 

 picts the method of play, the ponies, and locality. He says: 



At Shirghur, in Thibet, I first saw the game of chauga'n, which 

 was played the day after we arrived, on the myddn, or plain, laid 

 out expressly for the purpose, being about three hundred and fifty 



