Many centuries ago, Jain monks played ‘Mokshapatam’, which illustrated the steps to and slides away from moksha (liberation). It was later adapted for use in what is now Hinduism, with a choice of swargas (heavens) and subsequently found its way to Islam, and then to Europe and Christianity. In modern times, it is known around the world as the familiar ‘secular’ board game: Snakes and Ladders.
Kurush Dalal, assistant professor of archaeology and coordinator of the Centre for Extra Mural Studies (CEMS) at Mumbai University, says it is just one example of an ancient game not many know has Indian origins.
Ancient board game ali guli mane or ekke
Aside from chess, whose origins are fiercely disputed with Chinese, Persian and Indians insisting that their forebears invented it, there is also Pachisi , the ancestor of Ludo . In the epic Mahabharata , it was at Pachisi that Yudhishthira wagered and lost everything to the Kauravas.
Dice found in Harappa
Dr. Dalal says the earliest evidence for these games in the subcontinent has been cubical terracotta dice excavated in several Harappan sites. “But no boards have survived, and we have no clue what the game was.” Not enough study has been done in the field, he says, so pinpointing anything with accuracy is tough.
Next weekend, CEMS and the Instucen Trust will host a two-day festival, where visitors can learn about and play a dozen such games.
Ancient board game navakankari or nine pebbles.
The idea was born at their annual exhibition of archaeology and geology last year, where the stall of ancient Indian games was besieged with visitors. The team has since discovered other games, says Raamesh Gowri Raghavan, who is a member of the organising team.
At the CEMS office, a bunch of students are hard at work. One young man is quietly painting betel nuts for game pieces (which include pebbles, shells, and seeds and, incongruously, plastic pieces from modern game boards), others are working on the boards, which range from card and painstakingly sewn patchwork cloth to ancient designs printed on vinyl and etched stone slabs. A few groups are playing the games; they will teach visitors and need to have the rules down pat.
Aside from pachisi , mokshapatam , and chaturanga (a possible ancestor of chess), on offer will be tablan , a strategy board game from the Mysore region, navakankari, or naukhade , similar to nine men’s morris, tiger and goat ( wagh-bakri in Marathi, and adu puli attam in Tamil and Malayalam, meka puli atta in Telugu, and adu huli atta in Kannada), pallanguzhi ( alli gulli mane , similar to mancala , a counting and strategy game played with cowries on a board with two rows of depressions, possibly the most ancient of the lot at around 4,000 years among others, ashtapada , and a possible descendant, ashta chamma ( chaukabara, ashte kashte, daayakattam ), chaupar (also chausar, chaupad, chopat or chapur , similar to Ludo), and kachapani (like mikado, but with fragments of glass bangles).
Mokshapatam.
The team calls Radha Sinha, a retired architect, the prime instigator. She says her interest was kindled on a field trip when she saw lines etched on a temple wall, which Dr. Dalal told her was a game board (the surface was probably once flooring but had been repurposed at some point as a wall). “Some of these games still exist and are played,” she says, but not too many.
Information came from all over, says Dnyaneshwari Kamath, another organiser: books, of course, and the Internet, but also from older relatives or domestic help with links to rural India.
Lost heritage
Mr. Raghavan, an advertising professional, says many games have been lost though they find mention in ancient texts. He points out that the sutrakrtanga — a part of the Jain canon — forbids Jain monks from playing the ashtapada while the Buddhist treatise Vinaya Pitaka bars Buddhist monks from playing a ‘game of eight rows played with dice’. “There are lots of lacunae,” he says.
Of the CMES team, he says, “We are a large, happy, chaotic community of amateurs, working during the week, and on Saturdays and Sundays we come and learn. Dr. Dalal is the only professional historian or archaeologist. Mugdha Karnik [CEMS’s director] somehow finds the funds for all this.”
Kachapani
Ms. Karnik credits the students for all the work.
But opening up the games to a larger audience has a deeper significance for her. “I feel pain when I see children sitting together, but not looking at each other, looking at their phones. I ask them why, and they tell me they’re playing games! Let them play electronic games, but they should have these alternatives,” she says.
Dr. Dalal hopes the weekend will set off interest and get people to study ancient games. “We’re at a bizarre cusp,” he says. “A large number of traditional games are on the edge of extinction.”
Ancient Games Weekend: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., June 16 & 17, Centre for Extra Mural Studies, Kalina campus, Mumbai University. Registration: archaeomaha@gmail.com. More: instucen.org/researches/ancient-games/
