Traditional board games of India for quarantine edu-tainment

Everybody is in self-quarantine, the whole nation is under lockdown for the goodness of its citizens and Mother Nature is reviving to balance herself from all the damage we humans were doing all the time to her. I’m literally loving this phase of revival. People who were always there in the horse-race of daily hectic life are now calmly sitting in home. Some are getting bored while some always finds no time to keep up with the flow of their productive tasks. Carnatic singers in Instagram started playing Antakshari, while the commoners came up with dares and all other stuffs. Many of us are desperately looking for some new form of entertainment. We can’t go outside so outdoor games are ruled out and indoor games which are kind-of modern are still not up to the mark to engage us with more interest. But our tradition has always solutions for any kind of this problems. Our traditional indoor games might help people to engage themselves in entertainment at the same time some learnings as well.

This quarantine however is testing our patience to the core. It turned people from yearning for leave to making them restless to go to offices and get back to their work. This somehow reflects the people of present generation lacking patience, interest in dealing with family 24*7 and much more secrets. But helplessly we couldn’t come out of our phone and do something.

On top of everything, for parents to handle their children is the top priority however. Children now a days are more active and intelligent and to engage them is a big task. However some 100 years ago this was not the case. If we ask our grandparents about the entertainment in their childhood, they had played plenty of games. If you go to ancient temples like Chidambaram, many Hoyasala temples and other temples, you can easily find many game boards being carved in the floor. If you are curious enough to find out, you will enter the magical world of Indian traditional games. Have you heard of Pallanguzhi? Ashtachamma? Paramapada Sopanam? Aadu-Puli?

Traditional games in India are much more ancient than we could ever think of any dates. You can see many sculptures of Lord Shiva and his consort Parvathi playing dice games in the caves of Ajanta and Ellora (6^th CE) and many of the ancient games. We all know the great epic of Mahabharatha, which is about the Great War that happened because game of dice between Pandavas and Kauvaras. Do you know Shakuni’s famous dice was made of his father’s bone? 

Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi playing the game of Dice

Do you know that the Lord of the Seven Hills also played the game of dice with one of his devotees Sri Bhavaji? I will leave it to you to go and enjoy that story by yourself separately.

Bhavaji playing dice with Lord Venkateshwara (Source: Wiki)

These dice games are termed as Chaupar/Pachisi in Hindi, Dayakattam in Tamil which are played with dice or Thayyam (in Tamil). The boards and the squares includes various designs and shapes. In rural parts of India dice and board games are still played regularly.

Pallanguli is another form of interesting game. It is played with cowry shells and also the cheapest material is the seeds of tamarind. Cowry shells were used as currency throughout India and each one had price according to its size. Pallanguli is much more interesting if we play with the mathematical senses. There are so many styles to play this game. The movements of hand helps in form of an exercise, the mental calculation of maths helps inn concentration and in developing the mathematical skills. Even I remember playing Pallaguli with my grandma and spending quality time with her in my childhood. Checkout the famous scholar, musicologist Dr. Rama Kausalya explaining the benefits and methods of playing Pallanguli.

Then the Paramapada Sopanam is a ritualistic game. It represents the move and the ups and downs in our life. One who successfully passes all the ups and downs reaches the heaven. This game helps one to enjoy the experience of enjoying a chance/ladders and wailing about fate/snakes. This game has many forms. Jain versions which also represents different type of knowledge in each step, in Vaishnava chaupar board of Nepla and Maharashtra, it represents reaching the abode of Lord Vishnu after going through all the game.

Paramapadam

Another interesting game is the tiger and sheep game also known as Aadupuli Aattam in Tamil. Simple idea of the game is to safeguard the sheep from the tiger. There are many evidences that proves the antiquity of this game. Carvings in the ground of Lepakshi temple is one of the oldest. There are also many such games carved in the temples of Hampi, Chidambaram, Padmanabhaswamy temple, Srisailam temple and the Hoyasala temples of Belur and Hale Bidu in Karnataka. 

The world famous strategic game ‘Chess’ which requires high intelligence and patience to play is also invented during the ancient times in India and had been the favourite games of Kings throughout the history. Chathuranga in Sanskrit meaning a place of war, depicting the battle ground of kings including cavalries, soldiers, elephants and horses. Shatranj in Hindi and Sadhurangam in Tamil. No wonder the world famous chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was from India.

Chathuranga/Shatranj/Chess/Sadhurangam

Our ancestors tried their best to incorporate knowledge and traditions in games. That’s how the chess inspired the poet, philosopher and saint Vedanta Desika. In his famous work the Paduka Sahasram, Desika employs the ancient Sanskrit Chithrakavya, where poems are described in images. In two Slokas, he utilises the Caturanga Turanga Bandha, which is based on the game of chess. He writes two verses which are 

Desikar's Paduka Sahasram

Desikar writes these Slokas in a very clever design of the movement of the knight. As you all know/ atleast the chess players knows that a horse move in an ‘L’ shape. Desikar takes advantage of this movement and starts the first word of the first Sloka in the first block and the second letter of the first Sloka is in the square where the horse has to move first. This way by the end of the first Sloka, the horse has moved the entire board filling in the spaces and lands on to the empty slot which becomes the first letter of the second Sloka. By the end of two Slokas, the horse has filled the entire grid.

Desikar's Caturanga Turanga Bandha

(The above art of Desikar's Caturanga Turanga Bandha is done by world famoust painter, illustrator Sri Keshav Venkataraghavan.)

Mysore Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar-III invented and rediscovered a number of traditional board games in the mid 1800s. But we will see that another time in a different post. 

The beauty of our traditional games is that they don’t have any age barriers. Anyone in your house can sit, play and enjoy time together playing these games. You can play this for now in the quarantine and once you master these games, you can play them throughout your life.

Books referred: THE ART OF PLAY - Board and Card Games of India, edited by Andrew Topsfield & Vedanta Desikar - The Peerless Poet-Preceptor, by Dushyanth Sridhar

Yours East Gaterr