Ancient Indian Boardgames: Digital Documentation

Title (dcterms:title)

Chaupar, Bhaja

Description (dcterms:description)

This is a chaupar grafitti board documented in Bhaja cave number 12 which is the chaitya griha of the bhaja cave complex. According to anthropologists K. Ravi and Jaya Sankar Rao and the classification of HJR Murray in his book, The History of Boardgames Other Than Chess, Chaupar is categorised as a Race Game. It is typically a four player game and the pieces belonging to each player is distict from the others. It is played with four pieces and a throwing of either cowrie shells or two oblong dice. There are various terminologies used for the safe squares, or the throws which differs from one region to the other. For example, in Haryana the central home which is a flower here is called 'charon ka ghar' (Bhattacharya, Finkel and Soni 2011). Interestingly, it can be played by a throw of six cowrie shells or even more depending on the variant. As this etched board is from Maharashtra, it is difficult to understand the exact throw of dice or cowries used or the rules made to play this game. There is currently a version of chaupar in Maharashtra called Saripat.
Bhaja is one of the oldest rock cut cave complexes of the Hinayana period.
The board is etched on the floor of the main chaitya griha on the left hand side facing the stupa. The limb facing the stupa is 42cm on both sides. The middle square or rectangle is 15cm facing the stupa. The width of the limb is 14cm on both sides approximately. On all limbs, there are 6 safe squares. Safe square on the 4th and 7th square is situated on both extremes while square number 3 and 6 is situated in the middle column. There is a floral pattern in the centre.
Etched games or games inscribed have been documented by scholars and board game researchers from many sites of India, both at religious and secular spaces. From sites like Lothal (Indus Valley) to game pieces found at Mohenjodaro, to reference of scholars at books like Sedentary Games and The Boardgame complied by the Anthropological Survey of India, etchings of game boards have been found on stone slabs of places where people gathered, in temple porches or floors of temples and stupa complex.

Alternative Title (dcterms:alternative)

Chausar, Pachisi, Pagaday

Rules (dcterms:instructionalMethod)

Four 3x8 rectangles arranged in a cross with a large empty square in the center. Two teams of two players, or by two players playing with two sets of pieces. The pieces move along the outer track of the board according to the throw of three four-sided dice with values of 1, 2, 5 and 6. The values of each die must be played individually, except in certain cases. Each player has four pieces, which begin on the sixth and seventh space of the central row and the seventh and eight space in the right hand row of the arm of the board belonging to the player. If a piece lands on a space occupied by an opponent, the opponent's piece is sent back to the starting position. If two of a player's pieces are on the same space, they cannot be sent to the beginning. In addition, when three pieces are on the same spaces, if triple sixes are thrown the pieces may move twelve spaces together. The same rule applies for threes and twos, moving six and four, respectively. After completing a circuit of the board, the pieces then move into the central row of squares in the arm where the player began. The player must then move off all of their pieces by an exact roll. If a player has removed all of their pieces from the board and their partner is still playing, the player rolls on what would be their turn and the partner moves according to these rolls in addition to their own turn. The player or team to remove all of their pieces from the board first wins.

Contributor (dcterms:contributor)

Souvik Mukherjee and Adrija Mukherjee

Rights (dcterms:rights)

Creative commons

Format (dcterms:format)

Graffiti boardgame.

Medium (dcterms:medium)

Boardgame carved or etched on basalt rock

References (dcterms:references)

Chaupar rules and description by The Digital Ludemi Project

Bhattacharya, Ranjit Kumar, Irving L. Finkel, and Lok Nath Soni. The Indian Board Game Survey. Anthropological Survey of India, Government of India and British Museum, London, 2011.

Murray, H. J. R. (Harold James Ruthven). A History of Board-Games Other than Chess. With Internet Archive. Hacker Art Books, 1978. http://archive.org/details/historyofboardga0000murr_p4b9.

Temporal Coverage (dcterms:temporal)

The Bhaja Caves are dated to the 2nd century BCE

Spatial Coverage (dcterms:spatial)

Bhaja Cave Complex, Maharashtra

Variants (dcterms:isVersionOf)

Chonpa- A Variant of Pachisi

Pachisi

Pachisi: Downloadable Game

Chaupar: Downloadable Game

Chaupar, Handmade

Chaupar, Pataleshwar (Incomplete)

Chaupar, Pataleshwar (3)

Chaupar, Pataleshwar (2)

Entered by (dcterms:accrualMethod)

Adrija Mukherjee

Notes (foaf:status)

Starting from the reference of Bhaja Caves in the travelogue of George Annesley, to the works of John Wilson, James Fergusson, Burgess, S Nagaraju, and many others later who have worked on documenting the inscriptions, sculptures and the architecture of the caves of Bhaja it is our contention that the focus on these gameboards have been neglected. Although here and in some other caves some of these games have been documented and identified, more precise work needs to be done and further questions need to be raised for example geotagged locations, identification of play patterns etc.

Tags (dcterms:conformsTo)

Chaupar

Dice

Pachisi

Stone

Etched

Four-player

Cowrie