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in inspiration. Some of the Hindu boards following the 9×8 pattern, i.e., 72 squares in all, are found in Nepal as well where it is referred to as nagapasa or snake-dice. Surprisingly, both
Persian and Devanagari script have been used in the squares. In one of the board games of early 19th-century
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Gyan chauper influenced the creation of morality games such as "Virtue
Rewarded and Vice Punished" (1918) which evolved during the British Raj into the English game of Snakes and Ladders. It is played with the same rules except here the idea behind it is how an individual's karma effects his
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Gyan
Chauper reached England around the 1890s. In the beginning, the game was also moralistic like the Indian version, but later due to the slowdown of the European economy in the 1940s due to the wars only numerical plan game boards were made. This design since then has remained ubiquitous.
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dwar akin to the head of the cosmic being. A protruding square on the extreme bottom left and one square on each side of the board is indicative of its legs and arms. Even the way the snakes and ladders have been placed on the board does not change whereas they vary widely in
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Each player starts from the bottom Narak Dwar and takes turns to roll dice and moves forward according to the number generated, towards Swarg (heaven) & ultimately reaching their goal of uniting with the
Supreme One, seen as a crescent shape right on top.
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is counted. It is written in Arabic or
Persian. There are 17 ladders and 13 snakes. It shows direct ladders from fana fi Allah to the throne. Later with slight modifications, it is known as "Shatranj-al-Arifin" or "The chess of gnostics.
200:. A recent excavation from Rakhigarhi in Haryana discovered game boards and game pieces in terracotta and stone. Many pyramid-shaped game pieces made in stone, ivory and terracotta have been discovered at these ancient sites.
123:. The central concept of the game is the liberation from bondage of passions. So the players move from the lower levels of consciousness to higher levels of spiritual enlightenment and finally to
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Gyan
Chaupers are standardized with 84 numbered squares in a 9x9 pattern. The board game is in the human shape-the universal being. The topmost part of the board is the heavenly abode or the
119:. It was from India that it spread to the rest of the world. It was a very popular game that was played not only for entertainment but also as a way to instruct on
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211:(small brown nuts) as dice. This tradition of ritualistic gambling is still seen today as Hindus play the modern version of this game during Diwali.
172:. Ivory and bone objects of all shapes and sizes, some with dots on them, and interpreted as "dice" and/or "gaming pieces", have been found at
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from the late 17th or early 18th century. It is 100 square gyan chauper which represents the number of names of god or 101, if the throne of
532:
Shimkhada, Deepak (1983) "A Preliminary Study of the Game of Karma in India, Nepal, and Tibet" in
Artibus Asiae 44:4, pp. 308–22
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316:. Another notable feature of this board is the unusual 14×10 grid, the whole playing area being divided into four separate zones.
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spiritual journey. Therefore, each player the jiva progresses upwards overcoming hurdles in the form of snakes representing vices.
551:
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299:(the heaven of Vishnu) being the winning square in most of the Hindu boards point to the fact that these boards were mostly
535:
Topsfield, Andrew (1985) "The Indian Game of Snakes and
Ladders" in Artibus Asiae 46:3, pp. 203–26; pp. 85–86.
538:
Topsfield, Andrew (2006) "Snakes and
Ladders in India: Some Further Discoveries" in Artibus Asiae 66:1, pp. 143–79
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283:. These formats are supposed to have developed over a period of time. The terminologies included on the board are
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mentions Shiva and
Parvati playing a game of dice. This scene has been beautifully shown in a sculpture in the
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279:. Traditional Hindu gyan chaupars boards have greater diversity in terms of the format than those of
207:, which expresses the lament of the player over his loss of wealth and spouse. The Vedic people used
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The Gyan Chauper board is in a grid pattern. The Hindu Gyan Chauper has numerous formats whereas the
239:, a 10th-century text from Rishabhapanchashika. It was mostly played on painted cloth called patas.
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192:, and so on. Fragments of game boards have also been found at various sites. A potsherd with a
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Amarendra Nath, “Rakhigarhi, a Harappan metropolis in the Sarasvati Drishadvati divide”,
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468:"From board to phone, India's ancient games are being reinvented as apps - The Hindu"
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Jain Gyan Chaupar on cloth, National Museum (India, 19th century)
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The game has also been adapted for play on a phone application.
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times, though game boards and pieces have been found in the
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version of the Gyan Chauper was more popular with the
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203:Dice playing is also mentioned in a hymn in the
490:The art of play. Board and card games of India
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164:Dice games have been played in India since
233:The Jain gyan chauper is mentioned in the
196:design drawn on it has been discovered at
218:also mentions the game of dice in which
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95:(ज्ञान चौपड़ in Hindi sometimes spelt
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222:loses everything to his cousins. The
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466:Singh, Shiv Sahay (14 April 2018).
319:The Muslim version was used in the
331:The Gyan Chauper exhibited at the
295:, all underlining devotionalism.
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509:Games and Pastimes in Mānasôllāsa
308:, Vishnu is shown in the form of
16:Traditional board game from India
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1:
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488:Topsfield, Andrew (2006).
333:National Museum, New Delhi
339:version with 84 squares.
170:Indus Valley civilisation
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552:Traditional board games
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507:Arundhati, P (2004).
492:. Marg Publications.
456:Topsfield(2006):85-86
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115:, popularly known as
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83:entirely based upon
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557:Indian board games
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117:Snakes and ladders
46:Chutes and Ladders
43:Snakes and Ladders
260:Specific versions
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97:gyan chaupar
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93:Gyan Chauper
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20:Gyan Chauper
384:, 28, 1998.
343:Modern Uses
314:Maharashtra
216:Mahabharata
85:probability
37:Other names
546:Categories
518:8190170821
482:References
382:Puratattva
190:Alamgirpur
186:Kalibangan
111:played in
109:board game
58:Board game
472:The Hindu
301:Vaishnava
297:Vaikuntha
236:Dhanapala
209:Vibhidaka
166:Shramanic
101:dice game
75:Minimum 2
66:Dice game
62:Race game
277:Brahmins
247:Gameplay
205:Rig Veda
154:Buddhist
121:morality
335:is the
310:Krishna
293:Vedanta
285:Sankhya
194:chaupar
178:Harappa
160:History
105:chaupar
99:) is a
72:Players
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306:Marwar
182:Lothal
152:, and
150:Muslim
141:Moksha
125:Moksha
80:Skills
54:Genres
351:Notes
325:Allah
304:from
281:Jains
273:Hindu
146:Hindu
513:ISBN
494:ISBN
337:Jain
289:Yoga
271:The
214:The
137:Jain
107:, a
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