Traditional Board Games of India

Where there is a will...

2013-05-17T12:43:00.000+05:30

... there is a lawsuit!

It happened one summer night some 40 years ago when a game of Pachisi was in play. The half-fun wager literally ‘unto half my kingdom’ was taken seriously and the end result was that this property dispute case is still going on in the apex court of India!

The will to win was there but the dice refused to kowtow.

The point is that kingdoms have been lost and won on the throw of a pair of dice. There are epics that refer to this matter. The matter has been etched in stone slabs paved in temples, over the main gateways of sanctums, warning the unwary that it is not just cricket to wager with one’s spouse, house and assorted kin as stake.

That brother of the wife who is forever mooching around the dining room for scraps, is alright to be staked but one will discover that there will be no takers for such a bet. No one wants a human vacuum machine around the fridge!

The point being made here is that shaking a pair of dice is as old as civilization itself.

Ever since early man on discovering that he could exercise his vocal cords and not make any grunts and ooghs like the apes in one of the Tarzan books, suggested to rest of the cave dwellers that when they could take a break from hunting the sabre tooth tiger they could hunker down by the fire and play a game of Sabre tooths and Bisons.

Evolution did the decent thing and we now have the game of Tigers and Goats! And it was here according to cave wall scribblings that, the very first court case began with the crooked victor grilled over an open fire!

The dicey-ness of dice has been figured by seers of yore.

There is even a group of verses in the Rg Veda called 'Aksha Sukta' or ‘The Gamester’s Lament’ which we reproduce for you, loosely translated, of course :

“ The dangling nuts, born where the wind blows the lofty tree,
delight me with their rolling on the board.
The cheering vibhidaka has brought me joy,
like a draught of soma from Mount Mujavant.”

But after this euphoric draught of the intoxicating Soma, the gambler bemoans the loss of his wife and wealth through his addiction. (Check out A.L. Basham’s ‘The Wonder that was India’ , pp 403-405; and Wendy Doniger O’ Flaherty’s The Rg Veda, pp.239-42 )

The Skanda Purana also refers to a game of dice (or is it an early version of Backgammon?) played by the God Shiva and his consort, Parvathi, but there is no mention of the stakes being won and lost.

The feckless Yudhishtira’s losing his kingdom, and his wife being saved in the nick of time by the Lord Krishna and his various travails along with his brothers and of the King Nala who loses his kingdom and is out in the cold with his devoted wife Damayanti, have been recounted enough number of times in books, films and TV serials but there you have it, the lure of the dice is as strong as ever and people to this day gamble all that they have on the throw of a couple of cubes of ivory.

Today's wives would have filed a law suit against such husbands! And what is more, cleaned him of every thing except perhaps the shirt on his back.

Which is why savants of the old thought of this: Where there is a Will, there is not a Way but a lawsuit.

Board Games in Lawley Extension!

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Lawley Extension?

Just another name for Laxmipuram in Mysore where the late novelist R K Narayan lived and wrote some of his most memorable novels.

For those who have been brought up on a diet of early R K Narayan, Lawley Extension is an intrinsic part of Malgudi which many learned scholars and writers have claimed to be any little town in Tamil Nadu. This is blasphemy and calls for the heated iron and red hot coal treatment.

Narayan (who is even better than Chekov or de Maupassant anyday) wrote of life in Mysore as he saw and the people he met when he went for his stroll from his Laxmipuram residence (the sprawling house still stands there) to the heart of the city. He was briefly a correspondent for a Madras daily which he soon gave up to become a full time writer.

But it was the game of pagade that was played on the pyol (large verandah) of his house during the month long summer holidays that one recollects.

RKN wrote in long hand and then typed it out on an old machine. His favourite place was in one of the airy rooms while his mother and other family members and extended family members plus the younger ones sat on the verandah, chatted or like us played Pagade or Alu-Guli.

In fact, if one were to walk into any of the houses either in Laxmipuram or Krishnamurthypuram, on a summer evening, chances are that a game of Pagade would be in progress. Or it could be Alu-Guli or Chauka Bara.

There was no house that did not have a Pagade board or a huge massive carved Alu-Guli board placed in a corner of the hall, ready to be brought into play. Some of the houses had ornate brass (or was it copper? ) Alu-Guli boards.

Pagade or Pachisi is a race game that was and is played in every nook and corner of the country.
Pachisi ( the word means 25 in Hindi) used to played for stakes and many of pictorial depictions of the game show usually royalty or nobility playing the game with bags of money by their side!

The Pagade board is four-armed with playing squares which are known as ‘Houses’ embroidered on a piece of square cloth. The stick dice too may have distinct pattern of dots that only those who knew the game understood what they meant!

The Pagade cloth board comes with four sets of counters (each set has four) coloured red, black, yellow and green and a pair of stick dice. Each of the players in his or her turn endeavors to send his counters racing across all four arms, counterclockwise right round the perimeter and then back to the starting point. The first one to get all his counters into the central square is the winner.

In the small narrow conservancy lane in Laxmipuram which became Kabir Lane in Malgudi, which in the early 50s, boasted a neat row of houses with small yards in front with the ubiquitous Tulasi Katte in the centre and there would be small bushes of Sampige or Jasmine and sometimes rose. There would be a small narrow verandah on which the man of the house relaxed after coming from work with the daily evening Kannada paper while the wife and other ladies would be preparing to go to the temple.

The youngsters after an argumentative game of tennis ball cricket would sit on the verandah to play Tigers and goats (Aadu-Huli Aata) or Snakes and Ladders or Ludo or Aluguli which was seen as a game for the girls. No boy would want to be seen playing Aluguli with his sisters. His life at school would be permanently ruined!

TV? The word was meaningless. Even radio sets were far and few. National, Ecko for the hoi polloi and Bush, Phillips for the wealthier. Newspapers were bought by every house and widely read by family and friends! Transistor radios were yet to be seen.

The result was that countless families and one is sure, across the country too, depended on simple, wholesome board games for entertainment and of course the daily newspaper.

Even under the shadow of the Dodda Gadiyara ( Big Clock Tower) next to the Rangacharlu Memorial Hall (the Town Hall to the uninitiated), near Curzon Park, loungers would be seated playing a game of Tigers and Goats drawn on the stone with bits of broken bricks.

The character, Raju, of R K Narayan’s Guide was a regular at these impromptu games. No, he, Raju, was not a figment of Narayan’s imagination but a pesky tourist guide who had a business tie-up with a tonga driver and between them they would hustle tourists from one place to another. Yes, Raju was as real as the Man-Eater of Malgudi or The Financial Expert, Margayya or Mr Sampath!

This was Malgudi. This was Mysore of the 40s and 50s. Those lucky enough to have lived in Lawley Extension (Laxmipuram)and elsewhere in this city, knew the pleasures of a simple game of Chauka Bara or Pagade that bound friends for life.

Like meeting an old friend after 50 years and discovering all that was evergreen in his memory was seeing yours truly playing Alu-guli with the girls! Priceless!

May the Force be with you !

2013-05-15T13:23:00.000+05:30

You will need it when playing Gyan Chaupar or ‘Game of Knowledge.’

You haven’t got my drift? Then I will continue snowing!

Gyan Chaupar is a souped up ‘Snakes and Ladders’ with a mystic twist to it. Much like the 'Star Wars' trilogy with its homespun spirituality spouted by highly evolved gremlins like Obi-Wan-Kenobi, the Jedi Knight whose confusing sayings are often mistaken for wisdom.

But Snakes and Ladders in its Gyan Chaupar form is highly sophisticated spirituality.

The dice are thrown in the game and the progress of the players plotted from various states of temporary enlightenment to states of illusion, vices, and finally to the state of enlightenment or oneness with God.
Heavy going, right?

Right up the main street of Mcleodganj with smoke from many hookahs clouding the brain.

Be that as it may.
The late 10th Century work, ‘Rishabhapanchashika’ attributed to Dhanapala and loosely translated means: “Like gamesmen, the living beings on the gaming board of Samsara (the cycle of rebirths) are carried away by the dice (or senses), but when they see you, O Jina, the place of refuge (or square on a game board), they become free from possession by prison, slaughter and death.”

This is what set Gyan Chaupar apart from the plain old Snakes and Ladders. This is what separated the men from the boys when they played the game on Mahashivratri or the Amavvasya night that famous festival of lights, Diwali.

One kept awake on these nights and one way to stay awake was to play any one of the several board games, though the hardier settled down for a round or maybe several rounds of cards.

Just imagine a young Hans Solo and future Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker yet to get his funky headgear and breathe heavily like an ex-racehorse) play the game of Gyan Chaupar and the game will not be out of place at all.

There would be other denizens, like Jabba the Hutt or one of the Ewoks on the sidelines egging on the players as they stumbled, rose, fell and rose again in a bid to attain enlightenment.

Gyan Chaupar is also the theory of Karma illumined through a traditional game of snakes and ladders.
The Hindu Gyan Chaupar is not very different from the Jain Gyan Chaupar boards, it is just doctrinal differences. In the Hindu Gyan Chaupar boards games extensive use is made of Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta or Tantric philosophy.

The Sufi game of Gyan Chaupar incorporates some of the canons of Islam and Sufi mystical paths to take the seeker closer to God.

In the works of Amir Khusru and other Sufi saints the game is known as ‘Shatranj-al-arifin’ or ‘ Chess of the Gnostics,’ and a regular playing of the game is expected to lead one from the enticements of the world and the devil (think of Nicholas Cage in 'Ghost Rider’ and of course Faustus) to union with the Almighty.

Hard to believe? Then this ought to make you think a bit.

The Maharashtrian saint, Jnaneswar, used the Gyan Chaupar game known as Mokshapata (the Board of Enlightenment), to bring “relief to such people who have been afflicted by Samsara.”

Gyan Chaupar with its elaborate calligraphy and art was once upon a time an essential part of the Woodstock Hippie’s backpack. He or she would sell his jeans (most of them did so at the Anjuna flea market) but never his Gyan Chaupar board. Hey, we are heading towards enlightenment !

May the Force be with you!

Confessions are good for the soul ...

2013-05-15T12:31:00.002+05:30

...but not for the reputation and certainly not when you are playing ‘Tigers and Goats’

The confession that you haven’t the foggiest idea of how to play backgammon or that ancient hunt game of Tigers and Goats ( or Aadu Huli Aata as it is known in the Kannada language of the Indian State of Karnataka ) can lead to one acquiring a reputation of being not quite there! Chauncey Gardener could get away with it in 'Being There,' but you can't!

It was Thomas Robert Dewar whose name has been immortalised by one of the finest blended Scotch whiskies, who said: “Confessions are good for the soul but not for the reputation.”

When you are playing this simple game of Aadu Huli Aata (‘Goats and Tigers’ or even ‘Cows and Leopards,’ if that is your preference ) you will discover that if you are the tiger it is not just a question of swallowing the minimum of six plus one goats but being nifty in dodging the slow ganging up of goats who are hell bent on pinning you into a corner where all you can do is roar in impotent rage!
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This is one game that is not just played by two players but there is active participation of aunts, uncles, fathers and fathers-in-law, mothers and mothers-in-law, of daughters, sons, particularly those below 13 and other assorted kith and kin who crawl out of the woodwork when the word gets around that a game of Aadu-Huli Aata is about to commence. In fact permanent blood feuds have resulted from playing this game by the unwary.

Whether you are the goatherd or the owner of the tigers, you will be subjected to unwarranted , unsolicited advice which in most cases proves deliberately useless.

The game which in the old days, pre-Woodstock days, was usually scribbled with chalk on the floor of the verandah and everybody sprawled around. And if you were a hippie in India then you used a broken piece of charcoal or brick and drew the game on the floor of the shack or some ruin and called the local natives to join in the fun.

Go back further in time and you will discover that in many of the ancient temples, there will be this game etched by some sculptor goofing off and rounding up a couple of other members to play a game.

You don’t believe me ?

The next time you walk up the steps of the Chamundi Hill in Mysore, stop by the first archway and on the stone platforms you will discover this game etched deep in the rock.

Not only this temple, the even more old temples of Aihole, Pattadakal, Badami, Hampi, Madurai etc., you are likely to see this game and many others inscribed on the stone slabs, flagstones, etc.

This is how the game goes: The powerful tigers or leopards ‘kill’ the weaker goats or cows by jumping over them in a straight line and onto a vacant point just beyond. The weaker sheep or goats do not have this advantage of leaping over but instead they ‘gang up’ and trap the powerful tigers into a state of immobility.

This is where your reputation is on the line. All your boasting that you have played this game many a times while you were still in your shorty pants will come a cropper if (and it doesn't matter if you are a goat or a leopard or a tiger) you get skewered or pinned as the case may be.

It is not a question of moving the pieces randomly hoping for the best. The game calls for devious thinking like a home-grown Ninja and outsmarting your opponent. Or a martial artist. Or a chess player!

Whether you draw the tigers or the goats, either way, you have to mentally plan your strategy and there are several ’what if’ questions that you need to work out mentally.

But if you are not able to count up to 20 without using your fingers and toes, then this game is not for you!

Traditional Board Games contests - a little like WWE !

2013-05-14T13:58:00.004+05:30

Traditional board games when played by family members on a late Sunday morning or by friends who have gathered around the embroidered square cloth often degenerate into the kind of fracas that is normally associated with World Wrestling Entertainment ( one prefers the earlier name, World Wrestling Federation which has a lot of gravitas to it)....Like sound and fury with nary a blow being given or taken.

Like John Cena and Triple XXX or The Rock, the players square off on either side of a pachisi board. The counters and the dice are placed. A coin is tossed to decided who is going to throw the dice first.

That’s when the trouble starts.

The various family members who have divided themselves into two camps now start baying for blood.

One of the players now calls ‘foul’ and claims that the coin was tossed in such a way that it would come up heads. The coin is now examined for crookedness! Everything is above board.

Now the players begin to brag with one consistently needling the other. The other assumes the kind of hurt look like The Rock assumes just when he is about to go ballistic.

The play begins with the throwing of dice. Another verbal fracas now beings.

The warring camps now demand that the dice be checked. “How do I know if the dice are not loaded?” asks one who has spent a dozen years in New York and has seen ‘The Godfather’ a hundred times... he even speaks from the corner of his mouth.... “With what” replies another defiantly who does not have the foggiest idea since he has not traveled beyond Mysore and has confessed to not having seen ‘The Godfather.’

Thus the game proceeds in fits and starts, with advice freely given to the players apart from insults of the funnier kind.

Another bout of verbal jousting ensues with bystanders egging on the contestants.

The game is yet to get underway and the counters yet to start moving.

At last, a couple of hours later, the game gets underway and another hour later , there is one winner and one sore loser.

The winner pumps his hand in the air while the loser gives out a mock roar that has the eerie resemblance to a Neanderthal man crying out his pain as the wooly mammoth makes its escape with a spear hanging from its rear!

Losers in board game do not go gently into the night ( Apologies to Dylan Thomas). There is a little pomp as he or she primps, looks as though he has been stabbed in the back when the referee was not looking even though the bystanders do.

In fact you can see a touch of Hamlet and Lear in the loser’s bearing while the victor smirks and preens just like the winner in a WWE tournament !

The Kreedaa Kaushalya Mela of traditional board games will not be WWE but an awesome smorgasbord of board games on display and for sale organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) in Mysore.

Kreedaa Kaushalya which began on May 10th will go on till May 26th at the RKP’s Pratima Gallery located above Aamarapalli on the Nazarbad main road.

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details.

Master of Board Games

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'Master of Board Games ' - This title goes to Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. And it was accorded by the learned masters of board games, both scholars and amateurs at several International Board Games meets!

A brief note about this king will not be out of place.

Mummadi ascended the throne when he was still a boy of five in uncertain times. It was a tumultuous period in history. Tipu Sultan had been defeated and the English on the urgings of the young king’s mother and later his guardian as regent, Rajamata Lakshmammanni, crowned him the ruler of Mysore. The period 1811 to 1868 saw the beginning of a new era for the kingdom of Mysore. But not it seems for the king, who according to historians, was a soft-hearted and kind man.

It is believed by some scholars that it was only after Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar ‘gave ‘ up the throne in 1831 that he had the time and the inclination to patronise the arts and indulge in his passion for board games and mathematical puzzles.

Such was his vast grasp of various board games that he not only devised several new variations of some of the classic games but wrote voluminous commentaries on games, commissioned court painters to paint murals of board games so that the whole world would come to know more about them.

Written manuscripts, murals, inscribed copper plates, game boards, dice and counters and inscribed copper coins form the vast corpus of work of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar on board games.

Among his many writings, mention may be made of : Chaduranga Sarasarvasvam, SriKrishnaraja Chaduranga Sudhakarah, Kempu Kitabu, Sankya Shastra, Chaduranga Chamaatkrita Chakra Manjari, Chanduranga Bannada Mane.

The top floor of Sri Jayachamaraja Art gallery (the erstwhile Jaganmohan Palace) is a veritable treasure house of the board games invented, devised and improvised by Mummadi.

The murals which have now been restored to their past glory are in dark earthy colours of reds, orange, yellow and black and are in the form of boards ( 6x6, 8x8,10x10 and a few 12x12 squares). Many of the murals have figures of animals or have geometric patterns.

The Karmic game of Shivasayujam ‘ reinvented ‘ by Mummadi is a spiritual version of the game of snakes and ladders meant for four players . In Mummadi’s variation, the deity appears in a 'Mukhalinga' form in the middle of the board wih at the centre, with Nandi, Ganesha and other deities. The four players each have six pieces, whose starting squares are marked within lotuses at the corners of the board.

The games of Shivasayujyam and Devisayujyam ( which is also based on the law of Karma ) have religious motifs and are supposed to lead the thoughts of the players to the realm of the gods themselves.
There are of course several other writings of Mummadi that deserve to be mentioned but one that is stupendous in its scope is ‘SriTatvaNidhi.’ A rough translation could be ‘ Illustrious Treasure of Truth.’

According to scholars, SriTatvaNidhi is a compilation of the iconography of South India deities and planets and commentaries on them. It is believed that apart from two surviving copies , one at Mysore’s Oriental Research Institute (ORI) and the other at the Saraswati Bandaram Library at the Mysore Palace, there is one other section of this work that is in an undisclosed private collection in the USA!

The SriTatvaNidhi was meant to be a reference work and one portion (Nidhi) the Kautuka Nidhi ( published by the ORI) is a compilation of the board games, their history, rules of the game as well as the variations devised by Krishnaraja Wadiyar.

Mummadi is also said to have devised complex card games to be played with Ganjifa or Chad cards. In SritatvaNidhi’s Kautuka Nidhi, Mummadi describes 13 card games requiring anywhere between 36 and 360 cards.

Mummadi’s contributions have yet to be recognised in this country though he is better known in the rarefied air of board games players abroad.

Kreeda Kaushalya hosted by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) is in one way a homage to Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.

Kreeda Kaushalya which began on May 10th at RKP’s Pratima Gallery above Aamrapalli Showroomon the Nazarbad Main Road will conclude on May 26th at around sevenish.

Kreeda Kaushalya is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country.

Did Ganjifa cards originate in Mysore ?

2013-05-14T13:43:00.004+05:30

For some strange mysterious reason, it is often presumed that Ganjifa cards, those circular playing cards with strongly painted characters in vivid colour, had their origins in Mysore.

One reason could be found in one of the former palaces of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, the Jaganmohana Palace, the king divested of all temporal power by the British, spent his time writing tomes about board games, inventing variations and so on.

Ganjifa cards seem to have been known during the king’s reign and he devised several new games for these Ganjifa cards. The Mysore Ganjifa or Chad cards as they are known range between 36 and 360 per pack! But where did the cards come from?

Historians says that Ganjifa cards came from Persia even though one would life to make Mysore their home.
The earliest reference to these circular cards is made in Rubaiyat-i-Ganjifa by Ahli Shirazi, the Persian poet of either 1514 or 1515 and you could pick either year and it won’t matter much! The Rubaiyat refers to a eight suited pack.

The name, Ganjifa, is a corruption of the Persian word, ‘Kanjifa’ that means ‘ Treasury’

The cards made their way into India with the emigration of Turkoman kings at the beginning of the 15th Century. In the Babur-nama (Chronicles of Babur) written somewhere in the 16th Century and also Abu’l Fazl-i Allami’s ‘Ain-i-Akbari ‘there are references to these Ganjifa cards. That would place the cards making their presence in the 16th Century.

The cards seemed to have gradually died in the Middle East with the orthodox ruler, Shah Abbas II of Persia banning the game. But the march of the Mughal kings who were expanding their kingdoms also meant the movement of this card game across the country.

The cards pictorial designs too changed from pure Mughal art motifs on the cards like ghulam( servant), taj( crown) shamser ( sword) ashrafi ( gold coin) and so on to Ganjapa ( It’s Oriya for Ganjifa) cards where the Ghulam suit becomes Gulab (rose) and so on.

Dashavatara Ganjifa which portray the 10 incarnations of Vishnu or the Chad cards of Mysore of which, the Chamundesvari Chad with 16 suits about which Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar has written in the SriTatvaNidhi and of course there is more.

Obviously it is clear that Ganjifa cards’ oirgin can be traced back to Persia and it acquired various avatars and methods of playing depending on that part of the country.

How do you play a Ganjifa card game?

If you have played Bridge, then you should be able to pick up the nuances of this more complex game. But that can wait for now.

A variety of Ganjifa cards are on display and are for sale at the board games biennale, Kreedaa Kaushalya , organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) in Mysore at its Pratima Gallery, above Aamarapalli showroom on the Nazarbad Main road. Earlier editions were an annual affair.

This year’s mela which began on May 10th will conclude on May 26th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of Ramsons Kala Pratishtana Trust, set up in 1995, to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details.

Learn to be calm in the face of chaos!

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Or you will lose the game of Tigers and goats

The legendary mountaineer, the one and only Reinholt Messner, gave this mantra that he followed and climbed every mountain solo and without oxygen. One, Learn to be calm in the face of chaos; Two, Perseverance: if you to have crawl on hands and knees, you are going to get there and three, Observation: Pay attention to detail.

You will need all three qualities when you sit down to play the game of Aadu-Huli aata or Tigers and goats, or its more complex variation, Leopards and deer. This is a hunt game and while it looks simple it as complex chess or the Japanese game of ‘GO’.

This game of Aadu-Huli aata is one where two unequal forces are pitted against each other.The powerful Tigers or Leopards on the one hand and the weaker sheep or goats ( and sometimes men) on the other.

The games proceeds thus: The powerful tigers or leopards ‘ kill’ the weaker sheep or goats by jumping over them in a straight line and onto a vacant space. But the weaker sheep or goats do not have this advantage of leaping over but instead they ‘ gang up’ and pen the powerful tigers into a state of immobility.

Whether you draw the tigers or the goats, either way, you have to mentally plan your strategy and there are several ’what if’ questions that you need to work out in minutes before you even make a move.

If you are the goatherd then being calm in the face of the chaos let loose by the tiger is necessary and if you are tiger then willy-nilly you will have to kill as many goats as possible to your opponent gives in.

The third dictum of Messner , Observation is straight out of Go since you have take the board and the placement of the tigers and the goats in its completeness.

Was this game invented by shepherds to pass time?

No one knows for sure. But the presence of these game drawings etched in various courtyards of temples across the country suggests that this game was, to use a typical Indianism, “ time pass’!

Look at the various names for this game, bakri-bagh or bagh bakri in Maharastra and Orissa or bok bakri , athara satiya elsewhere... and there must be many more names... for this game played by common folk in cities and villages.

The quilted and embroidered cloth Tiger and Goats boards in all their diversity including variations of this game involving complex moves, can be seen this year at the board games biennale, Kreeda Kaushalya , organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) Trust established in 1995, in Mysore at its Pratima Gallery located above Aamarapalli showroom on the Nazarbad Main road.

This year’s mela which began on May 10th will conclude on May 26th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details.

Luck be a lady tonight

2013-05-14T13:22:00.001+05:30

Frank Sinatra’s slow liquid drawl as he sings , ‘Luck be a lady tonight’ mirrors the prayer of the riverboat gambler as he shakes the dice in his cupped hands, the pile of chips dwindling fast.

There is something about Dice and women .. like deep calling to deep... both fickle .... that sets the pulse racing!

Think of J. Bond in his tux made by Huntsman of Savile Row in the Casino Royale, throwing dice, watched by sultry, slinky slinky ladies and assorted villains fingering Walther-PPKs or what-have-you and you will get the picture.

Change the scene from Bond to say, a river boat on the old Mississippi to a barsati in Delhi or a long pyol in one of the older houses in T-Nagar, Chennai or even the old fashioned verandah in old Mysore, dice when thrown evokes the in-drawn breath, prayers to the Almighty and the kiss of the lucky charm or amulet.

Dice just are not thrown, they are cupped in the palm of the hand, the palm closed and brought close to the mouth so that much like’ The Horse Whisperer,’ one whispers that secret mantra and then flips them on to the mat or floor.

Then there are several variations like staring at the dice as if trying to hypnotise them into submission, or shaking them overhand , then underhand and like some flair bartender using both hands and shaking them with desperation and finally much to the relief of other players, flipping them on the mat.

Dice whether they come in the form of ivory pieces or made of precious stone like Onyx, jade and exquisite lacquer ware, are all the same... they are as fickle as a woman. Remember Carlos Santana’s ‘Black Magic woman’ or that song of an earlier decade, Cliff Richard’s ‘Devil Woman’ ... She’s just a devil woman with evil on her mind...’

Before the vast army of feminists rouses itself baying for blood, one spreads out the Pachisi board and four players gather their counters and one of them begins to roll the dice. Peace is restored?

Each of the players in his or her turn endeavors to send his counters racing down the centre of the arm from the middle, counterclockwise right round the perimeter and then back to the starting point. In the meantime every attempt is made to sidestep and ‘kill’ the opposing counters in the melee.

Incidentally, this player who threw the dice seven times in a row and got the number seven when toted up, felt this was an omen too good to be true. He then legs it up to the races where he places a sizable sum on a horse wearing the number seven in the seventh race. Even the jockey had seven on his jacket. The race started and the Number seven came seventh in the race, the last one. The player has now given up Pachisi since it involves throwing dice and has taken up chess instead!

If not chess then you are liable to come across an even more incredible collection of board games at the board games mela, Kreedaa Kaushalya Board Games Mela , organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) in Mysore at its Pratima Gallery. above Amarapalli showroom in Nazarbad.

This year’s mela which began on May 10th will conclude on May 26th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP Trust established in 1995, to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details.

‘I see a bad moon rising’

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I see a bad moon rising ... I see troubles on the way......’ sang Neil Diamond (or was it Cat Stevens?). Never mind.

The Gyan Chaupar is just what the local shaman or neighbouring voodoo lady ordered to get one’s head fixed in the right direction and to get on with life in spite of all the stuff that fates throws at you!

Gyan Chaupar loosely translated means, ‘Game of Knowledge’ or you could stretch things a bit and call it the ‘Tao of Knowledge.’ Or even better call it the good old board game of ‘Snakes and Ladders.

For years this entertaining household game for children and adults across the length and breadth of the country where of course it was known by several other local names, has kept people happy and contented!

In spite of the incursions of video games.Throw open a ’ snakes and ladders’ board and watch the family drawn like flies to the honey pot and settle down for a game with bystanders aggressively seeking their chance to throw the dice.

But snakes and ladders or Gyan Chaupar which one will see in a variety of forms at the Board Games mela, Kreedaa Kaushalaya which has been going on from May 10th in Mysore , was much more than a fun game, it was and continues to be a deeply spiritual course of instruction for the players and the onlookers.

The dice are thrown in the game and the progress of the players plotted from various states of temporary enlightenment to states of illusion, vices, and finally to the state of enlightenment or oneness with God.
Heavy stuff, right?

This is straight out of something by Herman Hesse. But it happens to be an authentic Late 10th Century work, ‘Rishabhapanchashika’ attributed to Dhanapala, translated by scholar Micaela Soar in an article in ‘Board Games in perspective,’ and it runs thus:

"Like gamesmen, the living beings on the gaming board of Samsara ( the cycle of rebirths)are carried away by the dice ( or senses), but when they see you, O Jina, the place of refuge (or square on a game board), they become free from possession by prison, slaughter and death.”

The theory of Karma not as defined by the Haight-Asbury or South California or Manali hippies but as propounded in great theological works and the manifold working of the principle of Karma in the life of the individual and spiritual ascensions to the ultimate, are the basis of the game of Gyan Chaupar.

The Hindu Gyan Chaupar is not very different from the Jain Gyan Chaupar boards, it just doctrinal differences. In the Hindu Gyan Chaupar boards games extensive use is made of Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta or Tantric philosophy.

There is even a Sufi game of Chaupar where some of the canons of Islam and Sufi mystical paths have been integrated to create a path to God.

A closer reading of the works of Amir Khusrau and other Sufi saints reveal that the game known as ‘ Shatranj-al-arifin’ or the ‘ Chess of the Gnostics,’ leads one from the wayward enticements of the devil to union with god.

The Royal Asiatic Society, London, has a stunning 100 squares chaupar board on paper of the early 19th Century. The 100 squares are auspicious as it is the number of the names of God or 101 if the throne of Allah is counted.

The great Maharashtrian saint, Jnaneswar( 1920), also used the Gyan Chaupar game known as Mokshapata ( The Board of Enlightenment), to bring “relief to such people who have been afflicted by Samsara.”

A much more detailed description of the concept behind these moralistic Gyan Chaupar boards can be found in the Kreedaa-Kaushalya portion of Harikrishna’s magnum opus, Brihajjyotisharnava, composed in 1871.

But moralistic preaching can get one down and if one sees the games for what they are , as that bonding glue that brings the family together with only the slightest of morality running through them, , then one will no longer quaver, “ I see a bad moon rising ‘ but continue to the end of the song to see the rainbow of salvation at its end.

One more digression about gyan chaupar and karma!

One episode of the hit comedy, ‘Two and a Half Men’ shows Alan opening the door, and you hear Charlie in the background, “ Who is it, Alan?’ Alan gestures to the visibly pregnant girl to come inside and replies, “ Karma, Charlie!” The basic idea behind Snakes and Ladders is to take life as it comes even if it peppered with a few shocks!

But if you go beyond snakes and ladders then the smorgasbord of board games on display and for sale at the biennale Kreedaa Kaushalya Board Games Mela , organised by Ramsons Kala Pratihstana (RKP) in Mysore. should be a feast for the eyes and the mind.

Kreedaa Kaushalya which has been going on since May 10th at RKP’s Pratima Gallery located above Aamrapali on the Nazarbad Main road,will conclude on May 26th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details.

‘Welcome to my parlour’, said the spider to the fly

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For men and women, young and old, dudes and nerds and many others who wandered in, losing their way, the traditional board games mela, Kreedaa Kaushalya, going on at Ramsons Kala Pratishtana’s Pratima Gallery located above Aamarapali on the Nazarbad Main Road, was the classic ‘ welcome to my parlour, said the spider to the fly ‘ scenario since the lure of board games is as stickily adhesive as a spider’s web!

‘Kreedaa Kaushalya’ mela evidently awakened dormant memories as enthusiastic visitors eagerly took up the chance to try their hands and match their wits with others at impromptu games and many clutched a couple of board games to take home with them.

Kreedaa Kaushalya has been going on since May 10 and will continue everyday from 10 am to 7 pm and conclude on May 26th , sevenish or thereabouts.

What’s so sticky about traditional board games?

Its fun for the family, serves as a talking point, adds that touch of class to your living place.

Buy one of those huge multi-game boards inlaid on a rosewood coffee table with that dark sheen and place it in the centre of the living room. Next place the counters and pawns which are a sturdy six inch carved figurines of man and animal and you are all set to be one of the Mauryan or Pandyan or even Vijayanagar kings getting ready to play a board game with his favourite Queen or mistress!

Finally board games beat the hand held gizmo computer games any day.

No noisy, raucous sound effects of the gizmo games accompany a board game unless you mean the feral roar of the supporters of the loser.

Neither is there any danger of developing prehensile thumbs like our primate cousins, which are now proven occupational hazards of those obsessed with gizmos games.
The board gamesman develops the superior aura of a Samurai warrior while playing a game like Pachisi or Aadu-Huli aata ... a stoic exterior even if he thinks the dice are against him or that he has lost four goats in a row even as he ignores calls for instant beheading by the kith and kin on the sidelines - if the moves that you make are an insult to a child of six with water on the brain.

From the Japanese game of ‘GO’ which has all those samurai types with hair tied up like David Beckham or Tom Cruise in ‘The Last Samurai’ to the the variations of snakes and ladders played from Timbuctoo to Kandy, from Cote d’Azure to County Shropshire, from Mcleodgunj to Mysore,we, in India like to infuse it with some spirituality.
You do not get to levitate or become ‘The Last Airbender’ but the game of snakes and ladders or Gyan Chaubar as we call it ( there are other aliases too )is said to teach you the Goan attitude of Soccegado that is take the good with the bad, the ups with the downs till the time comes for you to cash in your chips!

That’s the philosophical idea behind the game and is meant to make you feel a guilty when you play the game just for fun!

What the heck! Just pull that paper on cloth snakes and ladders game board from under that pile. Set it up and Presto, the game gets underway!
Enlightenment at the end of the game or the knowledge that enlightenment is at the end of the board! That’s the spirit!

Egos take a battering at Traditional Board games mela !

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May 10 was tumultuous day when scores of youngsters and the young-of-heart from the heritage city of Mysore and a fair sprinkling of tourists and the foreign yoga students making a beeline to the inauguration of Kreedaa Kaushalya , the celebratory Mela of traditional board games organized by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP)every year since 2005.
The venue was the RKP’s Pratima Gallery located above Aamarapali showroom on the Nazarbad main Road. The sounds of mayhem and bloodletting will guide you to the place!
Think of those quaint village fairs that still take place in England, where tradition is celebrated by glorifying simple games like darts and other games of skill. Straight out of one of PGW’s Blandings Castle episodes where Bertie Wooster makes a priceless ass of himself at the Shropshire village fair.
Kreedaa Kaushalya too was a challenge for many to pit their wits and much-vaunted IQ against wives, sons, daughters, aunts and uncles, friends and foes and many a time, come a cropper with several egos bruised.and battered.
There’s nothing more horrifying than being beaten by a bubbling, six year old at a game of Aadu-Huli Aata or Tigers and goats.
No amount of pondering and furrowed brows like Vishvanathan Anand by the father could stop this six year old from getting his goats to effortlessly checkmate his father’s tigers into impotent rage.
Worse, the kid studying in one of the lower classes, a shade below primary school, used his toes along with fingers when asked to count up to 15!
It is possible the father felt like throwing the nearby dice lying there like Virata did to Yudhishtira! The utter ignominy of being beaten by a midget of a kid!
There in that corner going ballistic at the sight of hundreds of traditional board games on display and the arena on which several board games with counters, dice and cowries invitingly strewn on dhurries was an entire family of at least a dozen female members.
Pagade was the game that drew this gaggle of females from this family who made themselves comfortable and started a game of Pagade which soon acquired all the hallmark of a no-holds barred battle royale or the final stretch at the Derby or Man U beating the Hotspurs and the crowds in the bleachers beating one another up!.
It was possible that sooner or later there would be a certain amount of coldness creeping in among the gamesters since the dice favoured one section and no amount of praying seemed to help the other lot.
Faced with impending doom, the losers relied on cold hauteur while the winners brought down the roof in utter joy, making faces!
The spirit of enjoyment was infective since many others also took part or sat on the sidelines encouraging the players with word ( Are you a moron!) and deed ( a clip behind the ears).
What is it about board games that lures even one who is addicted to his Ipod games. For one, playing computer games is dumb.
You have a gizmo quacking. There is a lot of background score made by a mad DJ and then the game is itself played on a dinky little screen and you have to screw your eyes to see what is happening.
Worse, after a few years of playing computer games you are liable to develop a simian prehensile humb and could act as an extra in ‘The Return to the Planet of the Apes.’
Not so a game board. This is real time. The noises, whether background or otherwise, are made by real people.
The game board is large and you do not need spectacles to see what is being moved and where. Then you are playing with an opponent who is sitting right there in front of you, grinning nastily and lastly there are a voiciferous onlookers who are free with encouraging or discouraging advice. ( ‘Do not worry, play a six and you are home’ or ‘ You had lost during the second move. You just were putting off the inevitable.’ ).
Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) who have been organising this game board celebrations since 2005, would not have imagined that what seemed harmless about these traditional board games had all ingredients of Tarantinoesque violence!
RKP is a registered trust, established in 1995, for the nurturing and fostering of traditional handicrafts including games in the country.
This traditional games mela that celebrates this heirloom heritage of board games of this country, is both an exposition of the incredible diversity of board games from across the country but also an invitation to possess game board sets that have been specially commissioned by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP).

Kreedaa Kaushalya - battle royale

2013-05-14T12:45:00.000+05:30

The inaugural day, May 10 of Kreedaa Kaushalya, the celebratory Mela of traditional board games organized by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP)every year since 2005 was the scene of a battle royale with a six year old doing his best to beat his mother at Pagade by attempting to bend the rules a little.
The venue was the RKP’s Pratima Gallery located above Aamarapali showroom on the Nazarbad main Road.
The six year old decided once well into the game that he could make up a few rules as he went along and caught red-handed by his sister, was about to be beaned with an umbrella by his mother, sending onlookers into peals of laughter.
Then the beastly kid tried another tack. Play two games at the same time.
The tigers and goats with his older sister and Pagade with his mother at the same time. Rules were flouted with impunity as the kid steam-rollered his way to victory that was suitably crowned by tap on his head by the umbrella wielded by his mother.
The sight of this family having a whale of a time was enough to encourage another family to sit down and play a game of tigers and goats.
More chaos with good natured squabbling lent an atmosphere of joy which soon infected other visitors.
The display of varieties of board games , from cloth based ones coffee tables that doubled as pagade and chess board, this was a feast for the ultimate gamesman or games-woman.
Ranged alongside boards were Kalamkari game board sets of Aadu-Huli, Dash Guti, Chauka Bara, Snakes and Ladders , Solapur handwoven games board sets of Huli-Kuri, Aadu Huli and Chauka Bara, Batik Chauka Bara sets as well as silk embroidery Chauka Bara sets, Solapur Hand woven Nine Mens’ Morris sets, Kalamkari Panchi sets, Solapur Hand woven Sepoy Mutiny sets and of course a variety of Aluguli sets in rosewood, inlaid onto to miniature coffee tables and four-handed chess sets.
This four handed chess set is attributed to Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, the Master of the Board.
There was also a huge at least six feet by six feet chess set that could be folded into squares. The King, Knight and elephant were more than 10 inches tall while the pawns were about six inches tall. All the chessmen were intricately carved figurines.
There were several other chess boards that were carved with inlay work onto smaller chess boards.
The exhibition and sale of these artistic traditional game boards will conclude on May 26.
Ramsons Kala Pratishtana hopes that the the next year’s edition of
Kreedaa Kaushalya will include a board games tournament first at the Mysore District level, followed by State level and National level.
The Kreedaa Kaushalya al fresco tournament described at the beginning of this blog was not officially authorised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana but such was the infectious gaiety that the mini arena does not exclude anyone from taking part.
The only credo is the love for board games and the only language is the language of the games.

Why Play Games?

2013-05-07T21:50:00.002+05:30

If you want your child to learn and also have fun at the same time, that too at a fraction of the cost, play a board game, say experts.

A 2007 study by Carnegie Mellon University showed in a group kindergarten children playing a board game with numbers, such as Snakes and Ladders, helped them improve their performance on mathematical skills.

A board game is a game in which counters or pieces are placed, removed, or moved on a pre-marked surface or 'board' according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies and most current board games are still based on beating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position or accrual of counters.

For majority of board games, any plain flat surface can become a makeshift board game when a game pattern is drawn on it with a piece of chalk or charcoal or a sharp object. Any small enough objects like pebbles or twigs or seeds or bangle slivers can be improvised as game counters while cowries or split tamarind seeds serve as dice. At the end of the gaming session, the board and other gaming paraphernalia are abandoned. Another time and another place, a new gaming session starts with the drawing of a new game pattern. But for games like Chess, Pachisi and Snakes and Ladders, it is quite difficult to prepare game boards by oneself and have to rely on readymade boards and pawns.

Kreedaa Kaushalya 2013 - Brochure

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Ramsons Kala Pratishtana

invites you to

Kreedaa Kaushalya

a summer biennale of traditional board games of India

10 to 26 May 2013

10 am to 7 pm

Pratima Gallery

91, 1 Floor, Above Aamrapali Sarees

In front of Reliance Fresh

Nazarbad Main Road, Mysore 570010

T: 0821-2445220. M: 9880111625

A lonesome Sita sitting beneath the Ashoka tree, wakes up from a reverie in which her beloved Rama has come to her rescue. Indeed since Hanuman's visit and his word that he would return with Rama, Sita had been transformed. Gone was the despairing sadness, now replaced with the excitement and anticipation of seeing Rama… seemingly endless wait, an impatient Sita digs up two rows of pits, seven in each. She yanks off her pearl necklace, the pearls drop into the pits and starts playing the solitary game of Sitadevi Ata!

Was the first ever board game an invention of a bored mind? We wonder! What may have begun as a simple race of counters, soon evolved into board games that encompassed the intricacies of hunting, of warfare, of coups and counter-coups and strategies unlimited... all on a board. Migrations of people, conquering armies, traveling guilds all contributed to the evolution of board games even as they incorporated regional elements. Men and women, young and old, even the gods and goddesses, kings and queens, heroes and damsels, witches and villains were not spared from the lure of board. Interestingly, an unwritten rule was that the Kings were never to turn down an invitation to either a battle or a game of dice! There are instances where kings have lost kingdoms, their beloved all in the throw of a dice.

For instance, the legendary Nishadha of yore was ruled by the handsome king Nala and his wife Damayanti. The kingdom was prosperous and peaceful. Nala's scheming cousin Pushkara with an eye on usurping the throne challenges Nala to a game of dice. Nala loses the game and his kingdom. Banished to the forest, Nala undergoes many hardships and ends up in Ayodhya as Bahuka. As a servitor of king Rituparna, Nala gains his friendship. Rituparna a master of ‘Aksha Hridaya’, the art of rolling dice, teaches Nala (the painting on the cover of this brochure depicts this episode). Thus armed, Nala challenges Pushkara to another game of dice; wins back his kingdom. Happiness thus restored.

This legend from the multi-layered epic, Mahabharata, clearly shows that games of chance are not merely for entertainment but help forge the mental sinews to face the ‘slings and arrows’ of life! Games either for two players or more hone the intellect as well as analytical skills, importance of team work, develop leadership qualities, ’master’ opponents with foresight and forethought and strategy. Hence savants, the sages and the seers made ‘game’ playing an integral part of teaching . Game patterns on the stone courtyards of temples, palaces and forts and even pilgrim shelters of yore are proof that games enjoyed wide popularity.

Game! What wrong did thou commit?

Devious men used thee to gamble.

Be it a race, wrestling bout or cricket,

‘Hit or miss’ itself is a gamble.

‘Kreedaa Kaushalya’ exhibition then is a festival celebrating the tradition of games. It is a mela of colour, incredible forms encompassing most variations of games dreamed up by man for his entertainment, for his enlightenment. ‘Kreedaa Kaushalya’ in its fifth edition is an exotic spread of board games that is a feast for your eyes and will entice the ‘gamer’ in you. Come, be a catalyst in this rejuvenation of our tradition.

Games that make you go ballistic!

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Pacem in terris! Peace on earth! Not bloody likely!

A barnyard thespian like Donald Duck is likely to go ballistic when every throw of card leads one closer to that abyss of no return. But not if you are a hero from an epic. Then it’s all about being calm and exhibiting a stoic front while inwards you are on the boil, ready to go ballistic. This is what happens when you are on the exhibition of your best side when involved in a game of cards using Chad or Ganjifa cards of the erstwhile Mysore kingdom!

It was one a visit last year to Board Games Mela organised by Ramsons Kala Prathistana (RKP), a registered Trust set up in 1995, that the extraordinary collection of boards games from every nook and corner of the country and made of every conceivable material was on display both for the discerning buyer and the curious visitor.

Among the various board games were the quaint Ganjifa playing cards.The fact that cards could be circular was intriguing and since circular cards could not be hidden in the sleeve or back of the shirt collar, how could a card sharp hide the ace up the sleeve?

A question that had the organisers at Kreeda Kaushalya flummoxed!

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country.

May 10th is the D-day for the next board games mela that will be held here in Mysore.

With a set of Ganjifa cards and a set of rules on how to play, it wasn't long when at the usual Saturday night card game session, the regular deck was set aside and the Ganifa set brought out!

Incredulous looks and disbelief notwithstanding the game gets underway with several minutes of fumbling about since one could not hold the cards the regular way. It took awhile to get the hang of it.

It appears that though Ganjifa cards are Mysorean by domicile, they owe their origins to the Persian cards, Kanjafah, but that is another story. It is possible that the craftsmen from Iran, Greece and Afghanistan who followed conquering armies as mercenaries or craftsmen brought the game to Mysore.

Still searching for history, one discovers that in the magnum opus of Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, the Sri Tatva Nidhi, the ninth Nidhi (Kautuka Nidhi) deals with board games, their history, rules of the game as well as the variations devised by Mummadi apart from a descriptions of 13 card games that require anywhere between 36 and 360 cards using the Mysore Chad or Ganjifa cards.

The king divested of temporal power by the machinations of the British and local henchmen had taken to his first love, board games. He is said to have devised complex card games to be played with Ganjifa or Chad cards. That’s where the problem rises. How does one hold 36 cards which are circular, let alone 360 cards also circular. A little practice is all that it takes.

The going ballistic part comes when you have a full hand and you are not aware of it since you are used to a regular deck. The other players declare their hands and the winner takes all, while you as the loser with a full hand is left holding the empty pot!

Board Games - the cut and parry of fight !

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The omnipresent Greek chorus of grandparents and other denizens who have crawled out of the woodwork the moment they heard the click- clack of dice being cast on the floor, gather around the players who till then have been quietly trying to outsmart each other, set up a bedlam of yells of encouragement and criticism till you are benumbed into losing the game and handing it on a platter along with your head to the young niece, who, if not for the wafer thin veneer of civilization, is ready to do the dance of the seven veils! This is the result of losing a couple of games of Pagade (Pachisi or Chaupar) in a row !

Board games like Pachisi, Aadu Huli, Aliguli etc. tend to bring out the dormant devil in a man or woman. Like Wolverine, for instance !

No matter if he or she is a Harvard TamBram from Nantucket or plain old Mysorean from Ohio State U, put him or her in a dhoti and a nine yard saree, roll out the mat, place the game board in the middle and utter the deadly words, “Let’s play,” all hell breaks loose.

This is family time at its best. Raucous, rowdy and no holds barred!

Before the advent of the TV and the nascent radio (huge valve sets!) was still in its infancy, board games was the most common form of entertainment for family and friends.

Indeed, Ramsons Kala Prathistana (RKP) a trust formed in 1995 for the nurturing and fostering handicrafts and crafts-persons across the country, conducts the biennale Kreedaa Kaushalya.

This celebratory Mela of board games of India, presents the vast collection of boards games ranging from ornate Pachisi boards, finely crafted chess sets to exquiste Pagade and Aliguli boards and many others too numerous to count.

If you could go back in time to Circa 1955, Ittigegud, in Mysore was a backwater residential colony with nary any sound of traffic but only the roaring of lions and hysterical laughter of jackals at dusk in the zoo which was next door.

Sometimes one could hear the long drawn out sawing roar of a leopard crossing the Chamundi Hills, close at first and slowly becoming faint. Children gathered in front yards, lamps would be lit in the Tulsi katte
(pedestal pot for the holy Basil) and mats would be spread and games like Aadu-Huli would be played till it was time for supper!

Normally placid friends who would scarcely raise their voice would turn into veritable tyrants. Tears would be shed, accusations of doctored dice made and some would walk off in a huff with victors gloating in their triumph. But it was all temporary and the games would begin anew the next evening. And evening and evening after!

It is possible that many of these board games channeled energies that on any other playing field could have led to bloodied noses and years of rancor to the game board where one opponent could finish off the other with a minimum amount of bloodletting.

Even the older grandparents who had lived their sunset years in quiet prayer and ritual could now, when the game is in progress, call for the occasional "off with his head" without any eyebrows being raised at them!

Instant Karma’s going to get you

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‘Instant Karma is gonna get you; gonna knock you right on the head’ sang the late John Lennon. Did he or did he not have the game of Gyan Chaupar (Paramapada) in mind since he must have played the game when camping out with other Beatles at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the foothills of the Himalayas.

Gyan Chaupar or better known as ‘Snakes and Ladders’ was much more than an entertaining past time for children and adults across the length and breadth of the country where it was known by several other local names.

It is a moot point whether the Beatles played this game during their ashram sojourn for entertainment or spiritual liberation but the fact remains that this game in many of its more complex forms was meant to be a spiritual quest for liberation from the bondage of Karma and a way of overcoming obstacles like baser passions.

Heavy stuff, right?

The Late 10th Century work, ‘Rishabhapanchashika’ attributed to Dhanapala, translated by scholar Micaela Soar in an article in ‘Board Games in perspective,’ runs thus: “Like gamesmen, the living beings on the gaming board of Samsara (the cycle of rebirths) are carried away by the dice (or senses), but when they see you, O Jina, the place of refuge (or square on a game board), they become free from possession by prison, slaughter and death.”

An elaborate visual depiction of this theme can be seen in the Jain painted cloth boards or Patas as they are known. These boards lay bare the detailed doctrinal system of Karmic classification.

Gyan Chaupar on cloth. Collection & Copyright: RKP

The Hindu Gyan Chaupar boards are just as elaborate if not more complex involving terminologies of Sankhya, Yoga, Vedanta or Tantric philosophy.

There is even a Sufi game of Chaupar where some of canons of Islam and Sufi mystical paths have been integrated to create a karmic game that teaches one faith fortitude and the need to tread a righteous path.

A Sikh guru, Sant Kripal Singh (1894-1974) is supposed to have said, 'Life is a game of Chaupar.'

But if you do not hear the sound of one hand clapping then play the game for the fun of it!

Or better still drop by if you are in Mysore or are planning to take a trip down here to the biennale Board Games Mela, Kreedaa Kaushalya organised by Ramsons Kala Pratihstana (RKP) in Mysore.

This year’s mela is scheduled for May 10th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. You could look up the website of Ramsons for more details. Also if you send an email requesting for the email-invite, they'll send one during all exhibitions.

A Lime for a Knight

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A tomato for a Bishop, a chillie for a Rook ... The Saeed Jaffrey character, Mirza, in the film, ’Shatranj ke Khilari’ Satyajit Ray’s adaptation of Munshi Prem Chand’s novella, is finally forced to picking vegetables from the kitchen to take the place of chess pieces which his exasperated wife and thrown out.

She had tried cuckolding him but seems to have drawn a blank with the squeaky voiced Mirza saying he has no time to listen to all her twaddle as Mir is waiting for the game to start.

The chess board is not one of those ornate one but a squarish cloth with the squares in coloured embroidery. Mir just rolls up the chess board and Mirza carries the vegetable basket!

Many of the depictions of board games show that almost all of them are portable!

The vegetables, not really, since pieces, counters and dice were also stored in small wooden boxes or containers.

You carried them with you that if you were living in Delhi during the reign of Akbar or walking up the main street leading to the Virupaksha Temple amidst the jostling crowds in the heyday of the Vijayanagar Empire.

Examples of board games made of cloth, paper and foldable, hinged boards can be seen in some of the national museums and in museums abroad.

It is conjectured that the very concept of making game boards including chess came into popularity in the 16th Century in Gujarat and Sindh which in those days were great centres for inlaid furniture for the European market.

Along with draught-boards, writing cases and assorted elegant chest of drawers, game boards too began to be manufactured.

The innovative craftsmen soon began making multipurpose boards that were designed for playing more than one game and quite often configured with several compartments to store pieces or counters.

But from these which could not be tucked under the arms and carried to the nearest orchard, many game boards of wood could be folded and carried like a satchel.

But then if that were not possible then the next best thing was to scout around for a bit of stone or brick and draw a game on the sand or the temple floor, collect some pebbles and a few stones that would take the place of dice and Eureka, all the makings of a game would be ready.

But one place where you can see the largest number of game boards from every part of the country is the biennale game boards exhibition organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) of Mysore. The exhibition called Kreedaa Kaushalya is scheduled for May 10th . This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country.

The Beats and Board Games

2013-05-03T12:58:00.000+05:30

Some of the more complex boards games to be popularised across the world and whose origins was India was due to the Beats and Hippies in the early 60s and 70s. Hundreds of young men and women abandoned the Pacific Coast and headed straight for Nepal and then well-toked up, head down to India reciting 'Howl.'

Herman Hesse's cult books Sidhartha and later Magister Ludi or the Master of the Board Game, books by Kerouac and Ginsberg, small zen books fuelled by the mystic references to the spirituality of Chess, the Japanese game of ‘Go’, and ‘Snakes and Ladders, ’ hippies floated down the old river routes to the plains of the South!

Surrounded by the acrid smoke of Grass, hippies would huddle in some ramshackle shack or ruins of a temple either in Varanasi, Manali or Hampi to play a Karmic game of ‘Snakes and Ladders.’

Most hippies carried in their cloth bag apart from a spare Tee or lungi and a couple of clay chillums, some kind of game board or the other and almost of all these game boards were made in cloth that was painted and heavily embroidered. The dice and counters would be in the form of colourful beads, tiny carvings of figurines and in one case representations of some of the milder erotic sculptures of Khajuraho.

They would camp out in the open on the beaches of Candolim in Goa, fry a couple of fish and play the game of "Snakes and Ladders'... heavy karma, man!

One other game that was popular was the clever game of ‘Tigers and Goats ‘(sheep or deer!) which called for no special board but a piece of charcoal or broken bit of brick or even a twig and the game board could be scrawled on sand, on the temple courtyard floor.

One more game that was in the repertoire of the beat generation was 'Go' which is an equally ancient Japanese board game. From Trevanian’s ‘Shibumi’ to the ‘Tales of Genji’, and in the film, ‘A Beautiful Mind’, where Go was mentioned and rudimentary rules which one could not make head and tail of, the game itself found a place in the better-than-average Hippie's cloth bag.

‘Go’ acquired a kind of cult status. Go is a war and tactics game and must have had its origins in Chess. The goal of this game is to expand one's territory while surrounding the opponent’s pieces. Very Chess- like but in this game the players get to role play pretending to be Samurai of this dynasty or the other, with the Bushido code in tatters (can we call it bullshitting the Bushido!)

Other hippies stuck to the heavily beaded and patchwork cloth Pachisi boards that the long-haired lot picked up from the lanes of Paharganj in Old Delhi and later sold them off to others at the old flea markets on Anjuna beach. It was not unusual to find several kinds of board games for sale in a lean-to every Wednesday when Anjuna came alive! Remember this was in the late 70s! Not its all kitsch and cheap cardboard ludo and chess boards!

But there is one other place where you are likely to see the largest collection of game boards in India and even see small groups of people playing such games.

This is the biennale Board Games Mela, Kreedaa Kaushalya organised by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP) in Mysore at its Pratima Gallery. This year’s mela is scheduled for May 10th .

This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country.

Snakes and Ladders under the rafters

2013-05-03T12:34:00.002+05:30

In one last rummage of the attic under tiled rafters in the old ancestral house in Mysore’s oldest extension, Lakshmipuram whose many conservancy lanes in the good old 50s had appeared Kabir Lane with Lakshmipuram, of course, masquerading as Lawley Extension in many of the late R K Narayan’s novels.

But that story can keep for another day. Pulling out dog-eared copies of Blackie’s and London Illustrated News with the odd issue of Punch, one discovered a folded cardboard. Unfolded it emerged as the board game of ‘Snakes and Ladders.’

In the wooden chest where this lay was in a corner surrounded by dead roaches and other insects of indeterminate origins, a pair of dice, once pristine Ivory but now yellow and chipped.

Clambering down the ladders that could be folded and pushed up to seal the attic, one had under one’s arms a copy of Punch and London Illustrated News and the board, the dice in one’s trouser pocket.

Polishing off the Sunday lunch which used to be known as Iyengari cuisine, one called out for players. The lack of response took one back to one’s school days when a game of Snakes and Ladders was played in practically every household across the country.

Where did this game come from? It was taken for granted that they came from the well-known bookshop! However it seems the game goes back to 1735. But that’s not so long ago! The provenance of the game is still shrouded in mystery. But what is known is that the game had spiritual connotations and it was meant to teach the player all about fortitude, faith and that there are always Ups and Downs in life. There are many versions of the game with the squares ranging from 53 to 342!

Sit down for a game outside the Dargah of the Sufi saint in Ajmer, you are likely to see a small crowd around a couple of players of Snakes and Ladders on a board that has 100 squares. There are 72 and 84 squares boards used in Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat and UP.

There is even an ancient Tibetan version of the Snakes and Ladders that is called, ‘Determination of the Ascension of Sages.’ In this version the player progresses according to the throw of the dice ‘hell states and other inauspicious states by way of the Tantric Path to Buddhahood or Nirvana.

The only place you will see these boards is the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and private collections in the USA!

The next closest place is the annual mela celebrating the board games of India, Kreedaa Kaushalya, hosted by Ramsons Kala Pratishtana at its Pratima Gallery in Mysore.

Mark May 10th on your calendar for that’s when this mela takes off in Mysore at RKP’s Pratima Gallery. This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country.

The Alu-guli in the attic

2013-05-02T13:02:00.000+05:30

Blame it on being born in the wrong place at the wrong time since the discovery in the attic of the old family house in Malleshwaram, Bangalore, what looked like some strange object that one assumed belonged to the kitchen!

The fact that it was made of wood and had brass or copper inlay work on it and sheen of teak wood could be seen here and there led one to the illusion that here was one item that could be put up on eBay and a quick killing made!

The triumphant climb down the stairs with the discovery was greeted with amazed cries, “That’s Aliguli... where did you find it... let’s have game...’ from the female members of various clans who had gathered in this ancestral house for one last shindig before the builders razed it to the ground and yet another concrete monstrosity came up in its place.

With dreams of an eBay auction fading, the only thing one could do was watch the ladies get down to a bit of blood-letting! One gathers that Aliguli is a Counting game (which becomes a nasty treasure hoarding game) in which the player who gets all beads is the winner. I bet Uncle Scrooge would have loved this game.

This antique Aliguli board was hinged at one end and a tiny clasp held it together at the other end when closed. You undid the clasp and the two halves unravelled themselves and lay side by side. The hollowed out line of parallel pits was the game arena while two larger pits were to store the beads. The beads in this case were an assorted lot of chipped ivory beads, small cowrie shells and tamarind seeds. One gathers some of the ivory beads must have vanished the way of the Dodo and the easily available tamarind seeds taken their place.

Anyway the game was underway with a couple of 80-90 year old grannies egging on the players with cries of encouragement and advice, some so excited that their dentures were in danger of flying across the room like unguided missiles.

Aligulimane or Chennemane or Pallanguli (Mancala) as it is known in some quarters was once the staple form of entertainment for the entire family when the radio was on the blink and TV was still in the far horizon. One is told that every household had one or several of Aliguli boards but not anymore.

It was the very distinct possibility of games such as these fading into indistinct memory that one learnt that the Mysore-based Ramsons Kala Prathistana (RKP), a trust set up to revitalise board games and the nurture crafts-persons who make these board games, had been hosting an annual game boards exhibition, Kreedaa Kaushalya, at its Pratima Gallery in Mysore.

Those who had visited earlier editions of Kreedaa Kaushalya say that this board games mela presents the vast extraordinary of boards games from every corner of the country.

Succegado and Pachisi

2013-05-02T12:56:00.002+05:30

Succegado and Pachisi seem tailor made for each other though in this part of Goa it is known by its Konkani moniker, Gurpaallayn.

We are seated in a dimlit tavern in the little island of Aldona in North Goa. A river runs around it and winds its way down through Panaji as the Mandovi and welcomed by small pods of dolphins, enters the sea.
Aldona is a sleepy little village home to several expat and Indian writers of renown and of course Goans themselves.

It is in Aldona that the true spirit of Succegado permeates life. Succegado does not mean the Bollywood version of wearing awful shorts, jaundice inducing colourful Tees and singlets and listening to Bollywood songs at 130 decibels.

Succegado is a way of life, of taking things as they come and having time for others.

This is what finds a few of us seated at the little tavern, the smell of calamari being fried is in the air. A bottle of the first distillate of fenny known as Urrack occupies a part of the table with the centrepiece being the Pachisi cloth board.

The hour is 11 am and the time for every gentleman of the old school to partake a liquid refreshment!

Pachisi (the word means '25' in Hindi) used to played for stakes and many of pictorial depictions of the game show usually royalty or nobility playing the game with bags of money by their side!

People across the country play the game which is known by many other names like Pagade (kannada), Chaupar (Hindi), Chausar (Hindi), Chopat (Hindi), Pachisi (Hindi), Sokkattan (Tamil), Dayakattam (Tamil), Pagdi Pat (Marathi) outside the country as Parcheesi in the USA.

The cloth board with elaborate embroidery that runs along the four arms with playing squares which are known as ‘Houses’ was sourced by the former Chief Secretary of Bihar, a true Aldona man who has now settled in his 400 year old ancestral house. The dice that he has now placed are real ivory antique ones.

The ceremony of the first sip of Urrack in the traditional way, sipping a little water, a little Urrack, a tiny pinch of salt and squeezing a drop of lime juice on to the tongue.

The dice are cast and the game begins. Each of the four players come from different walks of life. There is Mike who drives a taxi during the ‘silly season’ when hordes of Brits land in Goa, there is Couto the retired bureaucrat, a British novelist and yours truly.

Each of the four players competes to send his counters down the centre of the arm from the middle, counterclockwise around the perimeter and back to the starting point. Skill is needed to thwart and block the enemy and ‘killing’ opposing pieces during the race.

But the ‘kills’ made here in this little taverna with curious crowd of other fenny drinkers is leisurely with discussions on the price of fish and scarcity of Kingfish, the latest book by Amit Chaudhri who also lives close by and whether that Solti recording is better than one by Toscanini!

The game moves slowly as the level of Urrack goes down gradually and at the conclusion when the winner is declared, a glass is raised in his honour and the crowd disperses only to meet again later in the evening when the Sun sets.

Peace on earth? Not likely if there is a game in the offing

2013-05-02T12:48:00.003+05:30

Pacem in terris! Peace on earth! Not bloody likely!

Not if you are involved in a death struggle in chess played by the masochists at the annual gathering of the family clan in Mysore. The motive to commit hara kiri was a visit a couple of years ago to the Board Games Mela, Kreeda Kaushalya, organised by Ramsons Kala Prathistana (RKP), a registered Trust set up in 1995. This celebration of board games of India is just one of the many initiatives of RKP to revitalise the handicrafts industry of the country and provide a fillip to crafts persons across the country. May 10th is the D-day for the next board games mela here in Mysore.

Blinded by the vivid, colorful display of display of board games from every nook and corner of India and the sight of hundreds of visitors crowding to see and buy, and watch a few intrepid souls ready to try their hand at some of the games, it was simply a matter of time before one succumbed, bought an ornate chess board with tiny pieces of chessmen!

The chess game was at the aforementioned annual gathering of the clan in the old ancestral house in one of the oldest extensions of Mysore, Lakshmipuram right next to the house where there lived once upon a time a girl who rose to become the leading lady of Tamil films and a Chief Minister no less. At least six or seven families descended and occupied rooms of choice. It was a mini Kumbha Mela! The late mornings and evenings would be given to games like Aadu-Huli aata, Pagade and chess.

Chess at these gatherings was not a quiet, silent affair and you were not expected to look like Prof. Dumbledore or Gandalf or any of the gents who wandered forests in search of the perfect tree under which to settle down crossed legged for the next decade or so! Tees and shorts and Yankee accents with the native Mysorean drawl that was even slower than a Texan’s filled the huge verandah.

The newly bought ornate chess board was laid out in the middle of the mat around which were thrown smaller mats on which hunkered various members of the clan sitting on either side of the players. The exquisite chessmen placed in their corresponding squares.

The very first move evoked anguished howls of agony from one or two members who having seen Vishvanathan Anand in person at Stockholm thought they had the moral right to call you a ‘cretin.’ Blood ties played an integral part here, the closer you were related the more incentive to call you names for every wrong move that you made!

Accompanied by yells of encouragement, imprecations and a general call to various gods and goddess to din some sense into the players, the two hapless players plod on, each playing worse than the other. One reckless and the other filled with a sense of fatalistic futility!

The game ends in a couple of hours.

The two players in the manner of Caesar’s senate members hug each other, each wondering where to stick the knife. (Et tu, Brutus!) “We must have another game” they tell each other.

The next evening, both have vanished and their places taken by two cousins. The battle begins anew and the life goes its merry way.

The Hunt game that brings out the animal in you!

2013-05-02T12:41:00.001+05:30

A far removed cousin given to pseudo-Kathakali mannerisms and a penchant for grabbing a chalk and drawing on one’s pristine floor, a game of Adu Huli Aaata (Tiger and Goats or Goats and Tigers, if you prefer) was responsible for involving the entire family, various loosely associated cousins and hangers-on in this simple yet calculatingly sadistic game.

The concept is simple. You choose being the guardian of the three tigers and the opponent picks his flock of 16 goats. You try to get the get the goats and he while trying to keep the goats one step away from being sheesh kebabs, will attempt to corner the tigers, pin them down into impotent rage. “All sound and fury, signifying nothing ” is what the goat-herd is trying to get the tiger to do. The far-removed cousin removed himself far away to some distant shore where he, one is informed through reliable sources, plays a solitary board game with his alter ego in a padded room!

The Adu-Huli Aata game board is three horizontal lines connected at the corners and a triangle of three lines that dissect the horizontal lines and meet at the top. In fact if you have read one of Erich von Daniken’s books, you will surmise that the game plan drawing of the Aadu-Huli Aata is like the landing strip for alien spacecraft!

If you have still not figured this out then a visit to the annual board games mela, Kreeda Kaushalya, organised by Ramsons Kala Prathistana (RKP), at its gallery in Mysore, should be on your walk-about tour of Mysore. Ramsons is located opposite the the city zoo and the games mela is held close by at Nazarbad, another old locality of Mysore.

Among the large collection of boards games from every corner of the country, you will discover Aadu-Huli Aata game boards of every kind and made of every possible material from plain boards to highly ornamented boards with pieces either painted with a touch of lac or quaintly carved pieces in a variety of wood.

If you are a Mysorean or one of the several visitors to this city, then a trip preferably by walk to the top of Chammundi Hills is a must, the darshan of the presiding deity of the City, the Goddess Chamundeswari is absolutely imperative. However as you climb and reach the Mahadwara (literally the great doorway) of the Chamundeswari temple you will see inscribed on the stone parapet the game of Aadu-Huli.

But it is just not this temple alone, the courtyards of the temples of Aihole, Pattadakal and Badami and the equally old temple ruins on the banks of the Tungabhadra river in Hampi have drawings of several kinds of games etched in large slabs of granite laid in the courtyard, and the steps of the temples themselves. In one case, at Belur, there are several games etched side by side on large slabs of granite.

The temple was the focal point around which the township grew. People met here to learn what was happening, gossip and relax by playing simple board games that seemingly innocent had all the hallmarks of major family fracas like the one that took place when members of two families, unfortunately related, gathered around to play this hunt game of Aadu Huli aata.

One won and the other lost and the two families are not on speaking terms to this day. One hears whispers of black magic!