Moksha Patamu

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Gyan Chaupad Board

Moksha Patamu , also Mosksha Patamu or Gyan chaupad , is an Indian game and the forerunner of the game Snakes and Ladders released by FH Ayres in 1892 .

The game has a religious character and is used to meditate on the possibility of entering nirvana by ascending faster through virtues and sinking back with vices. The game gives very concrete moral answers: The paths of virtue (symbolically represented as ladders), such as belief, reliability, generosity etc., shorten the path to nirvana; the ways of vice (symbolically represented by voracious snakes), such as disobedience, vanity, meanness, etc., throw back. The symbolic character was forgotten in Europe.

The game dogs and jackals , which was known in the ancient Egyptian 12th Dynasty, is very similar to Moksha Patamu.

Game board

The game board represents a symbol of life that has to be mastered. The Hinduism teaches that good ( punya ) and evil ( pap ) accompany the people, you have to opt for one of the two sides. It is therefore of great importance which paths the player takes. However, the decision does not always lie with the player, but also with fate through the game of the dice.

Game board

The game usually has 72 fields. Variants with 81, 84, 100, 124 and 342 or 360 fields are known. Each field has its own meaning. The ladders stand for the good things in life that move you forward and thereby shorten the path to your goal:

  1. Loyalty (field 12 to 36)
  2. Persistence (field 51 to 91)
  3. Charity (box 57 to 75)
  4. Piety (box 60 after 97)
  5. Amount (field 63 to 85)
  6. Pity (field 66 to 88)
  7. Knowledge (field 76 to 94)
  8. Penance (box 78 after 100)

The snakes are symbols of viciousness that lengthen the path to the goal:

  1. Disobedience (box 41 after 4)
  2. Vanity (box 44 to 23)
  3. Unchastity (box 49 after 10)
  4. Theft (field 52 after 7)
  5. Lie (field 58 after 19)
  6. Drunkenness (box 62 after 21)
  7. Debt (field 69 after 31)
  8. Murder (box 73 after 1)
  9. Anger (field 84 after 13)
  10. Desire (field 92 to 34)
  11. Pride (box 98 after 26)
  12. Lust (field 99 after 29).

Style of play

David Parlett describes the playing style of Gyan Chaupad as follows: Each player receives a game piece . You roll one or two dice . The number must be drawn. If a player lands on the head of a blow at the end of his turn, the token is eaten and must be placed on the field of the tail. If a token comes to the beginning of a ladder at the end of its turn, the token is placed on the space where the ladder ends. Several tokens can be placed on the same space. The target (field 100) may only be drawn with an exact throw. If more is thrown, the player moves the figure the remaining steps backwards. The winner is the player whose pawn arrives in the target area with the exact number.

Peter Huth describes the rules: Before the game starts, the lot decides who can start. To do this, the players in turn roll the dice and the one with the highest number starts. In order to bring his pawn into play, a six must be rolled. Then you have to roll and draw again. The rest of the rules are analogous to those of Parlett.

literature

  • Andrew Topsfield: The Indian Game of Snakes and Ladders. In: Artibus Asiae, Vol. 46, No. 3, 1985, pp. 203-226

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b David Parlett , The Oxford History of Board Games , Oxford & New York, 1999, ISBN 0-19-212998-8 .
  2. ^ A b c Erwin Glonnegger , Das Spiele-Buch , Ravensburger Buchverlag, Ravensburg 1988, ISBN 3-473-42601-6 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Peter Huth : Malicious snakes and virtuous ladders . Berliner Zeitung, September 3, 1994.
  4. ↑ Andrew Topsfield, 1985.