Gattaगट्टा

Players and stones

Gatta is for one to four players. Five stones are used. One of them, the gatta, is tossed into the air on every throw; the other four lie scattered on the ground. Each player plays their own stages: the scatter is laid out fresh for each player and for each new stage.

Players take turns in seat order. On your turn you keep throwing until you miss.

Making a throw

In the courtyard, a throw is one toss of the gatta. While it is in the air you must do the move the stage asks for, then catch the gatta before it lands. Here, the timing bar stands in for your hand. The marker runs from one end of the bar to the other and back, and the window shows the moment the move works. Tap to stop the marker. Inside the window, the throw succeeds. Outside it, the gatta drops and the throw is a miss.

Harder moves have a narrower window and a faster marker. The way the stones fell matters too: stones lying close together are easier to pick up at once, a stone near the arch is easier to flick through, and a tight group is easier to sweep into the cave.

The eight stages

• Ek tippe: pick up one stone with each toss, four times, until all four are in your hand.
• Dui tippe: pick up two stones with each toss, twice.
• Tin tippe: pick up three stones with one toss, then the last one with the next.
• Char tippe: pick up all four stones with a single toss.
• Back of the hand: toss all five and catch them on the back of your hand, then flip them up and catch them in your palm. Two throws.
• Overhand: catch all five on the back of your hand as before, then flip them up and snatch them out of the air with your palm facing down.
• Arch: make an arch with the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. With each toss, flick one stone through it. Four throws, one for each stone.
• Gufa, the cave: cup your other hand on the ground like a cave. Sweep all four stones inside with one toss, then lift the cave and gather all four with the next.

Missing a throw

If a throw fails, the stage starts again from its first throw: the stones you had picked up go back on the ground, scattered anew.

In the standard game, a miss also ends your turn and the next player throws. When your turn comes round again, you carry on from the start of the stage you were on. Stages you have cleared stay cleared.

Winning

The first player to clear the last stage wins straight away. The other players are ranked by how many stages they cleared.

Playing alone, there is nobody to pass to: a miss only sends you back to the start of the stage. Your score is the number of throws it took to clear every stage, misses included, so fewer is better.

Where these rules come from

Gatta is played many ways from one village to the next. This version follows the eight stages described by ECS Nepal in its piece on Nepali street games, which begins with a single stone and moves on to two, three and four at once, then catching on the back of the hand, the overhand catch, the arch and the cave. The Kathmandu Post (2019) describes the same idea: toss, pick up, catch, and later stages where the other hand forms a cave or a gateway. Onlinekhabar notes that some groups play with five, seven or nine stones. Republica's guide to Nepali games and the children's poem Gatta khelne sathi in Sarathi Bal Patrika remember it as a game of friends on the doorstep.

Quick game

Play only the four picking stages, ek tippe to char tippe. It takes a few minutes and is a good way to learn the timing.

Three tries per stage

ECS Nepal describes three tries at each stage. Choose three tries and a miss still restarts the stage, but you keep the turn until your third miss at that stage. Clearing a stage gives you all three tries again. The standard table uses one try: a miss passes the turn.

More stones

Some groups play with seven or nine stones. This table always uses five.