Ancient Indian Boardgames: Digital Documentation

Title (dcterms:title)

Chalar

Description (dcterms:description)

This is played on a 5X5 board. Four women play at a time with four gaming pieces of four different colour {sari) made of broken bangles, and four cowries as dice. In the absence of cowries, broken pieces of earthenware can be used as dice by colouring the upper side in white.

Alternative Title (dcterms:alternative)

Chowka Bara

Rules (dcterms:instructionalMethod)

The gaming pieces are placed on the peta or crossed rectangular boxes on each of the four sides and moved in an anti-clockwise direction. The player first rolls the four dice between the palms and then throws them along the ground. The player then moves her gaming pieces according to the count numbers. The aim of the player is to take her gaming piece in the middlemost box as early as possible. The game can start only when the count is 4, which is called chukki. Again, the cowrie counts or values derive from the upturned or 'teeth' fall of the cowries, and are 0=0, 1=1.2=2, 3=3,4=4. The starting position of the game is decided mutually among the players.

Source (dcterms:source)

Indian Boardgame Survey by R.K. Bhattacharya, Irving Finkel, L.N Soni

Rights (dcterms:rights)

Anthropological Survey of India

Format (dcterms:format)

Boardgames

References (dcterms:references)

Indian Boardgame Survey by R.K. Bhattacharya, Irving Finkel, L.N Soni

Spatial Coverage (dcterms:spatial)

Jaisalmer,Rajasthan

Variants (dcterms:isVersionOf)

Chowka Bara : Downloadable Game

Chowka Bara, Handmade

Entered by (dcterms:accrualMethod)

Souvik Mukherjee

Tags (dcterms:conformsTo)

Chalar

Rajasthan

Cowries

Four-player

Chowka Bara