G is for.... Genesis ... n ... Gambles

This is one of the first indie rock bands of India with their first song, Gotta Keep Rolling. They formed waaaay back in the 1970s, when the general public was still hungover from Beatlesmania and the ongoing political upheavals in Calcutta n wider Bengal at that time. Read more about The Great Bears  and the genesis of rock here.

And then a fresh new band formed less than a decade ago, here's The Ganesh Talkies with The Great Indian Freak Show.

Ending with Ghawrkuno Ghash from Anupam Roy, a track from a popular Bengali songwriter, composer and singer.

Games and Gambles

Modern replicas of Lewis chessmen from the son's hoard. 

In the Mahabharata, an Indian epic composed between 3^rd century BCE and 3^rd century CE, the protagonist is ruined by a gamble - his kingdom and self, his wife and brothers all forfeited by a throw of dice. There is an Indian tradition of gambling on Diwali which is derived from the mythology of Goddess Parvati playing at dice with her consort Shiva. The game put her in such a good mood  - she obviously beat her husband hollow. The all powerful third member of  the Hindu Trinity, lost his trident and all his possessions one by one in a series of throws. So Parvati in high good humour decreed that all those gambled on Diwali would prosper throughout the year.  In fact, Hindu mythology bristles with references to games of dice, though gambling is generally a no-no in Hinduism. Gautama Buddha in the text Vinayapitaka, laying down rules for a monastic order, warns people against playing a game called Ashtapada (lit eight-limbed) a reference to an 8X8 board. 

Ancient chess pieces and dice. Price of Wales Museum, Mumbai.
(Currently called Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya)

Some of the world's oldest dice have been found in Mohenjodaro, Harappa and Lothal - the Indus Valley Civilisation sites, dated to some 4500 years ago.  The oldest reference to chess is more recent at around 6th century CE. India therefore has a long and deep history of board games. 

In fact, the Rig Veda - the oldest religious text in the world,  composed around 1700-1100 BCE, has references to gambling and dice games. The Atharva Veda, composed a little later, also has similar references. The rules of the games are lost in the mists of time but ancient dice from the IVC sites are solid evidence of games played in antiquity. The dice are of two types - an elongated cuboid shape, apart from the conventional cubic ones.  In ritualistic texts written around 800 BCE, there is a mention of dice games being part of the consecration ceremonies of kings, which were played with golden cowries, kept  by a special officer, charge d'cowries if you like, and which the new king must always win.  The skill with dice and cowries evolved to include the art of divination as well.

Credit

By the 6th century CE, there are references to a game called Chausara and Chaupara in Sanskrit texts (Chau=prefix for four, sara/para=road/side/parts. i.e. that which is made up of four roads, or crossroads, clearly a reference to the shape of the board) Here is an illustration of it, it's made of cloth actually. Looks familiar, right? 

Fast forward to the medieval times and in the Mughal court of Akbar  the Great (ruled 1556-1605), court historian Abu'l Fazal recorded that 'from times of old, the people of Hindustan have been fond of this game.' The Emperor was so passionate a player that in Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's fort in Agra, he had a lifesize Chausara board built in the palace grounds. 

Credit Akbar's life-size  Chausara in the place gardens at Agra.

In time, a variant played with cowrie shells by the common people came to be known as Pachisee (Twentifiver), based on the highest value of the throw. In 1867, one Mr John Hamilton applied for a 'copyright' on a game called Pachisee in America, so this game was introduced commercially there at around that time. It was patented as "Ludo" in England in 1896.  

And what about chess? Fourteenth century Persian texts mention  that in the 6th century, ambassadors from the Indian court presented a board game called Chaturanga to Khusrow I (531-579) the king of Persia. Clearly, board games remained important to the court culture throughout ancient and medieval India.


Chaturanga (Chatur=Four, Anga=Part) evolved as a tool to teach young princes about military strategy, about the four parts of the army - the infantry, the cavalry, the war elephants and the chariots. Chess is mentioned in the Ramayana, the oldest Indian epic composed in the 1st millennium BCE. Ravana, the demon king and the overall villain, invented it to amuse his virtuous queen, who promptly beat him at it, an obvious foreshadowing of the battle outcome between Ram (the righteous prince) and Ravana (the abductor of his wife princess Sita) which is the main conflict of the Ramayana. 

The Indian texts are replete with this motif of wives beating their husbands at the men's games, you will notice.  Ancient Indian philosophy itself presents the material world as a result of the 'lila' or play of the gods, with men for the pieces and the earth for the board. But I digress.  

Chanakya (remember him? the advisor to Chandragupta Maurya and possibly the author of the oldest political treatise, Arthashashtra) mentions Chaturanga as a war game and describes how it is played.  As mentioned before, games of Chaturanga were presented to the Persian courts, from where the Arabs took it westwards, calling it 'Shatranj,' which diffused back east so that it remains the name chess is called in Hindi and Urdu. There is another school of thought which believes that chess went west with the Greeks, as part of the Maurya-Greek exchanges between Chandragupta and Seleucus. However that may be, chess reached the Moorish court in Spain, and then the court of Isabella in  the 15th century as the Moors lost ground. 

It was during the reign of Isabella that chess was given the form it is played in today - the queen became the most important piece. Rules  and moves were formalised. From Spain it diffused to other countries in Europe. Read more in this article by Vishwanathan Anand, Indian chess grand master and World Champion 2000-2002, 2007-2013.

And so two board games which originated in India went right round the world; both continue to be played by millions today.

Did you know that the Arabic names for some of the pieces remain as translated from the original Indian - 'Elephant' (Bishop), 'Minister' (Queen) and 'Soldier' (Pawn)? Have you ever played Ludo or Pachisee? 



I'm getting a larger than normal bad strikes on the master list this year. Yesterday was particularly dispiriting. Each time I come upon a blog gone missing, I feel a spike of unease as to why. I hope they are well. 


My blog pick for today is : Lisa's Garden Adventures in Oregon. Loved the greenery and the images in this one. 

A-Z Challenge 2020