Chatushkam Praptam! That’s smashing it to the boundary

RAJKOT: You see the umpire signal for four runs, but you don’t hear the commentator excitedly saying ‘chaukka’! Instead you hear someone eloquently adulating the feat as a ‘Chatushkam Praptam’! Stumped? Don’t be, it only means that it’s indeed a boundary, but said in chaste Sanskrit.
Wait. There’s more. How about the cricketers playing in traditional dhoti and kurta, hitting fours and sixes with aplomb? This time, you are definitely “Bahishkrutam’ or let’s say clean bowled, right?
This is happening in reality on a cricket ground in Rajkot where Karmakandi Brahmins (who have taken formal training in performing Hindu rituals) are taking part in a tournament involving eight teams.
Organizer Tejas Trivedi told TOI, “We wanted to break the stigma that dhoti-clad Sanskrit shloka chanting Brahmins can’t play cricket with equal ease!”
The commentators using many such unheard of terminology in the ancient Indian language is making cricket even more interesting to hear as well.
The tournament is organized by Bhudev Seva Samiti only for the Karmakandi Brahmins specifically from Rajkot and Jamnagar. The tournament is being held in Ratanpur village around 15km away from Rajkot on the Morbi road. The ground is jam-packed with spectators from nearby villages who are keenly enjoying the unique cricket matches.
In the two-day tournament, matches were played since Friday in which of the eight participating teams, too will battle it out at the finals to be played on Saturday.
“Sanskrit is the common language they speak for internal communication, that’s why we decided to keep the commentary language Sanskrit. If we can deliver cricket commentary in Hindi and English then why not in Sanskrit?” Trivedi asked.
He said that the tournament got a huge response as well as queries from Ahmedabad and Surat too, though he regretted that the organizers found it difficult to accommodate everyone this time.