Board Game Patterns found in Khajuraho India

[samaiya....@gmail.com]

Hello All, 

In my recent visit to Khajuraho in Central India, I found a few board board game patterns engraved inside some of the western group of temples. Can anyone help in identifying/informing about what these games could be? I'm interested to know more about the history, cultural significance or any other information related to these game patterns. 

Sharing the image on the drive here.

Thanks, 

Regards

[Thierry Depaulis]

Hello Swapnesh.

This is very interesting!

As far as I can say (but I am not an expert in Indian traditional games), most of these carvings are easily recognisable.

MG-4572 is a merrels board, although somewhat hybrid, for a game of alignment

IMG-4508 is a three-men’s morris board, Murray type D, although it is surprising to find a large hollow in its centre (could be something else, not necessarily a game)

IMG-4505 is an ‘alquerque’ board, for a war or a hunt game

IIMG-4504 is a classic merrels board (‘nine men’s morris’), Murray type G, for a game of alignment

See a example here: https://ludii.games/details.php?keyword=Tule%20Paid

IMG-4574 does not look like a recognisable gameboard, but may be for a game we do not know

Of course, it is impossible to assign a date to these graffiti. They are certainly much later than the Khajuraho temples.

But they do not look like having been carved recently...

IMG-4584 is definitely the most interesting and intriguing. It is why I have redrawn it for clarity (attached).

It strongly reminds me a game described in Harikrishna’s Krīdākauśalya (written in Aurangabad in 1871), that the author calls caturviṃśati kōṣṭhaka, the "game of 24 squares".

It is here:

https://archive.org/details/kridakaushalyabhashatikastartsfrompage49missing180183khemrajpublishers/page/n75/mode/2up

(See left page.)

Here is a modern re-creation. There are also two crossed cells, although they are not exactly in the same places

Cheers.

Thierry Depaulis
(Paris)

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[Dr V. Balambal]

The first four games are of the Nine men  Morris Game type-jumping and cutting game.The 5th one is not complete. The last one looks like  Ludo(Tayakattam)game.I was also in Khajuraholong back. Wonderful piece of art.

Thanks.

Bala

[Swapnesh Samaiya]

Thanks a lot Thierry sir for clarifying. I'll definitely look more into the links that you shared. I didn't know about this important work Krīdākauśalya that you shared, just going through it, really a gem.

Yes, the last one IMG-4584 intrigued me the most as well, the image is a little blurry, sorry about that. I should have taken a few more clearer pictures. Thanks for redrawing it. 

Thanks Dr. Balambal, I remember seeing a pattern similar to the fifth one but couldn't recall, yes maybe it is not complete. Yes, Khajuraho indeed is magical.

Regards,

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Swapnesh Samaiya
https://samaiya.in/

[Dr V. Balambal]

thank you

vb

[Raamesh Gowri Raghavan]

Hello Swapnesh,

Sophie Ahmed has often talked about you.

The identification by Thierry is quite on the spot. Indeed, this is the first I see of Chaturvimshati Koshtaka etched on a floor anywhere, although I am sure it has a folk name if you ask the people resident in Khajuraho. Did you notice anyone playing the games? (Though I suspect they would get shooed away by the ASI.)

t would help if there is more spatial information you can give us with respect to the location of the boards within the temples. The work of Singh, Dharmendra and Gowda is very illustrative of graffiti games, and the spatial location helps with identifying social factors, such as caste.

Yours truly, 

Raamesh Gowri Raghavan 

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[samaiya....@gmail.com]

Hello Raamesh,

Hope you are doing well. Yes, I was helping Sophie aunty in documenting her game collection, but unfortunately, we couldn't make much progress on that. She talked about you also often.

About the spatial information, I found most of these patterns on the outside area of the temple, after climbing up the stairs just before when we enter to see the idol.[see attached image1 for reference]. Though there was one pattern that I found on a vertical pillar which I'm not sure if it was playable, all the others were either on the floor or on top of the thick window like structure where people can be found sitting or sleeping during hot summers. [see attached image2 for reference].

Also, looking at the booklet of Singh, Dharmendra and Gowda was the first thing that I did after coming back, to see if any of these patterns were already documented. :)

Thanks 

Regards,

[Raamesh Gowri Raghavan]

Hi!

Apart from their booklet, also look up Gowda's paper in the Playing with the Past proceedings. He also records a vertical scratching. One hypothesis is that the game was played by workmen on the pillar, lintel etc. before the architectural item was slotted in place. Similar things appear in Egyptian temples as well.

The verandah does seem like a natural place to play; the general location seems to suggest a mixed caste group had access to these games (excluding lower castes who would not be allowed to enter the temple).

Please do get your findings in press soon.

Yours truly,

Raamesh

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Yours truly,
Raamesh Gowri Raghavan

आम्हां घरी धन शब्दांचीच रत्नें | शब्दांचीच शस्त्रे यत्ने करु ||
शब्दचि आमुच्या जीवांचे जीवन | शब्दे वाटू धन जनलोकां ||
तुका म्हणे पाहा शब्दचि हा देव | शब्देचि गौरव पूजा करु || 

[Jacob Schmidt-Madsen]

Dear Swapnesh,

Thanks for sharing this important documentation of graffiti boards from Khajuraho. I don't have much to add to what has already been said, except for a few remarks on chaturvimshati koshthaka (and the related ekapanchashattama koshthaka found on the right page of the Kridakaushalya linked to by Thierry).

Both games have always struck me as kind of strange as I have not seen them attested anywhere else. They are clearly alquerque-style war games, but a more obvious use of the boards would be for tab-style games.

The descriptions in the Kridakaushalya do not mention the cross-marked squares on either board, though we might infer that they were used as safe squares. Safe squares are not commonly found in tab-style games (at least not to my knowledge), but we do have a few examples in South Asian contexts.

A 3x12 graffiti board with two cross-marked squares in the central row is found on p. 166 of the Playing with the Past proceedings mentioned by Raamesh. The board is presumed to be for a tab-style game, and if we head north to Nepal we do indeed find a tab-style game played on similar boards in the Kathmandu Valley today.

The game is called kasimala paya by the locals, exemplified by a 3x17 board with 5 safe squares in the central row here:

https://sajhaentertainment.com/one-of-the-most-popular-ancient-game-kasimala-paya/

I have also seen the game played on a 3x13 board with 2 safe squares in the central row as seen in this brief video I shot in Bhaktapur in 2016:

https://gyanchaupar.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/kasi-mala/

The 3x8 board from Khajuraho could of course have been used for a game like the one described in the Kridakaushalya, but unless more documentation is forthcoming I would think it more likely that it was used for a tab-style game.

Incidentally, a tab-style game played on a 3x8 board without safe squares was documented by Hem Chandra Das-Gupta in British Garhwal in modern day Uttarakhand in 1926. He records the local name as bheri-bakri (sheep and goat) reminiscent of hunt games, but the rules are clearly those of tab.

Best regards,
Jacob

PS: The modern rule set for chaturvimshati koshthaka shared by Thierry leaves out the rule that players can make two moves on their first turn. Otherwise the first pawn moved into the central row could immediately be taken by the pawn in the opposing row (unless, of course, the cross-marked squares were used as safe squares).

[Swapnesh Samaiya]

Dear Jacob, 

Thanks a lot for sharing the wonderful information, this is really helpful and amazing to explore though it would take me little time to go through all the reference material that you have mentioned, please excuse me for the lack of knowledge on the subject. I'm just starting out doing research on this out of my own interest and I'm really fascinated by the things that you have shared, trying to absorb it slowly.

thanks again, 

regards

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[Rane Rushikesh]

Rane Rushikesh	10:37 AM (3 minutes ago)
to bgs4ever, samaiya.swapnesh

Good morning Swapnesh,

Congrats on your discovery and wish you well for your future endeavors in the research of Board games. 

I have attached a pdf link to a book called ' Sanchitra Marathi Khelanche Pustak' which translates to Book about Marathi games. This gamebook comprises various games which were played in Maharashtra, India till the 1940s. 

If you refer to page no 152 you will see mention of 'Fare- Mare' which is Nine men's morris. You will see many mentions of different types of Board games in this book. Hope this helps.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lbJDzL_5rEl7z-dVI01uVnsDZKPv63bs/view?usp=sharing 

Regards,

Rushikesh Rane

Center for Heritage Management,

Ahmedabad University

On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 10:37 AM Rane Rushikesh <giteshrus...@gmail.com> wrote:

Good morning Swapnesh,

Congrats on your discovery and wish you well for your future endeavors in the research of Board games. 

I have attached a pdf of a book called ' Sanchitra Marathi Khelanche Pustak' which translates to Book about Marathi games. This gamebook comprises various games which were played in Maharashtra, India till the 1940s. 

If you refer to page no 152 you will see mention of 'Fare- Mare' which is Nine men's morris. You will see many mentions of different types of Board games in this book. Hope this helps.

Regards,

Rushikesh Rane

Center for Heritage Management,

Ahmedabad University

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[Swapnesh Samaiya]

Hi Rane, 

Thanks for sharing the book, I received this book from Mrs. Dnyaneshwari from project kheliya a few years back. I wish if we had an English translated version also available, it would have made it really accessible.

Regards

[Souvik Mukherjee]

Dear Rushikesh (if I may?),

Thank you for sharing Deodhar's fascinating book. I had lost the pdf somehow and this was very fortunate as I need it for my upcoming book. I was wondering, however

if there is a version with better scans of the illustrations. I would be very grateful if you could please let me know if you come across one.

Best regards,

Souvik

Dr Souvik Mukherjee | Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies | Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta| R - 1, Baishnabhghata Patuli Township | T +91 033 2462-5795 / +91 033 2436-8313 | ext. 207 | https://cssscal.org/faculty_souvik.php |sou...@cssscal.org | 

Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books (Palgrave MacMillan 2015) | Videogames and Postcolonialism: The Empire Plays Back (Springer UK 2017)

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[Erik Gottlieb Oestergaard]

Dear Swapnesh

Based on the video on Jacob's blog (...gyanchaupar...) followed by further information and discussions I am able to present a restored set of rules for what I consider as the classic game of Kasi Mala. See the attachment.

Best regards

Erik G. Østergaard

[Raamesh Gowri Raghavan]

@Swapnesh,

Have you published these graffiti boards anywhere?

How do we cite you?

Yours truly, 

Raamesh

On Sun, 27 Mar 2022, 02:32 samaiya....@gmail.com, <samaiya....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Swapnesh Samaiya]

Hi Raamesh! 

No, I haven't yet, but I want to. I need to do more study on this.

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