Welcome to BGSC 2027 at Mysore
Dharmendra Raghu
WELCOME TO MYSORE
XXIX BOARD GAMES STUDIES COLLOQUIUM
22–26 February 2027 | Mysore, Karnataka, India
A HISTORIC GATHERING IN THE CITY OF PALACES, CULTURE AND GAMES
Dear Madam/Sir,
It is with great pleasure and pride that we invite you to Mysore, the historic and culturally vibrant city of southern India, for the XXIX Board Games Studies Colloquium, to be held from 22nd to 26th February 2027.
For the first time, the international community of Board Games Studies will gather in India—and in Asia—to explore, discuss and celebrate the fascinating world of traditional and historical games.
And there could be few places more fitting for this occasion than Mysore.
MYSORE — A CITY OF CULTURAL LEGACY
For more than five centuries, Mysore was associated with the Wadiyar dynasty, whose rule began in 1399 and continued until 1950 CE. Twenty-five rulers shaped the destiny of the region, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy of administration, architecture, agriculture, education, the arts and cultural patronage.
Mysore became a centre where scholarship and creativity flourished. Its royal court nurtured music, dance, painting, theatre, literature, architecture, handicrafts and textiles, traditions that continue to give the city its distinctive cultural character.
Today, Mysore is celebrated as the cultural capital of Karnataka, renowned for its palaces and heritage, its artistic traditions, its festivals, its crafts and its enduring spirit of learning.
It is a city where the past is not merely remembered—it continues to live.
THE MAHARAJA WHO CELEBRATED GAMES
Mysore's connection with the world of board games acquires particular significance through the remarkable personality of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III (1794–1868).
The 22nd Maharaja of Mysore was a polymath, scholar, artist and passionate patron of the arts. His interests extended across theatre, music, dance, literature, painting and numerous intellectual and creative pursuits.
He was also deeply interested in traditional Indian board and card games.
Through the discovery, documentation, revival, invention and manufacture of games, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III played an important role in preserving and popularising the rich gaming traditions of the Indian subcontinent within the princely state of Mysore.
His legacy provides a remarkable historical connection between Mysore and the study of games—making the city a particularly meaningful setting for the 29th Board Games Studies Colloquium.
A CITY WAITING TO BE EXPLORED
Mysore offers much more than a venue for a scholarly gathering.
The city and its surrounding region are rich in archaeological, historical and artistic heritage. Ancient sites, temples, monuments and landscapes preserve traces of India's long cultural history, including examples of game-board patterns and gaming traditions.
The remarkable legacy of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar III and his engagement with board games can be explored at the Jaganmohan Palace, one of Mysore's important repositories of art and cultural history.
For those who wish to venture beyond the colloquium, Mysore offers magnificent palaces, museums, traditional crafts, temples, historic neighbourhoods and a distinctive culinary tradition—along with a wealth of heritage sites in the surrounding region.
Every journey through Mysore reveals another layer of its past.
A HISTORIC FIRST FOR INDIA AND ASIA
Ramsons Kala Pratishtana, a Mysore-based non-governmental, not-for-profit art foundation dedicated to research, conservation, education and the promotion of India's traditional arts and crafts, is honoured to host BGSC 2027, with the support and collaboration of Dr. Jacob Schmidt-Madsen and Mr. Tiago Hirth.
We warmly invite scholars, researchers, historians, archaeologists, artists, collectors, enthusiasts and everyone fascinated by games and their place in human culture to join us.
This colloquium is more than an academic gathering.
It is an opportunity to meet fellow researchers from across the world, exchange ideas, discover India's remarkable gaming heritage and experience a city whose own history is inseparably connected with the study, preservation and celebration of games.
COME. DISCOVER. PLAY.
MYSORE AWAITS YOU.
We look forward to welcoming you to BGSC 2027 and to sharing with you the history, culture, hospitality and extraordinary gaming heritage of Mysore.
For details regarding registration, Call for Papers and the programme, please visit the official BGSC 2027 website.
Welcome to Mysore.
Welcome to India.
Welcome to the XXIX Board Games Studies Colloquium.
22–26 February 2027
Mysore, Karnataka, India
H.S. Dharmendra (Raghu)
Art Historian, Curator & Designer
Ramsons Kala Pratishtana
1160, Ramsons, In front of Zoo
Mysore 570010
Swapnesh Samaiya
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Souvik Mukherjee
Best regards,
Souvik
Dr Souvik Mukherjee | Associate 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) | Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s), Representations (Bloomsbury India 2022)| Indian Boardgames Colonial Avatars: Transculturation, Colonialism and Boardgames (De Gruyter Brill 2025)
Associate editor, Simulation and Gaming; Affiliated Researcher, Centre of Excellence in Game Cultures, Tampere University.
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