Enlightening games

Once upon a time, an ardent Hindu devotee called Bhavaji travelled to Tirumala in Tirupathi on a pilgrimage. He was so fascinated by the deity of Lord Balaji in the temple, he decided to stay there forever. In spite of repeated visits to the temple, he could never get enough of the Lord. In fact, his visits aroused the suspicion of the priests, who then prevented him from entering the temple.

Unable to exist without seeing Lord Balaji, he began to pretend that he was spending time with the Lord by playing a game of dice. He would throw the dice and move his pieces and then throw them again imagining that the Lord was playing with him.

One day, the Lord, in the form of a man, actually did visit him and they played together. This went on for many days until something happened. While leaving Bhavaji's room after a night of playing, the Lord left his diamond necklace behind. Bhavaji picked up the necklace and kept it safe, planning to return it the next night.

When the priests opened the temple the next morning, they found the deity missing a diamond necklace. Immediately, an alert was sounded and the hunt for the necklace began. Some of them remembered Bhavaji's frequent visits to the temple and wondered if he had been checking out the place prior to the theft.

Sure enough, when they reached his room, they found the necklace. Bhavaji pleaded innocence, but they would not listen to a single word. When he told them that Lord Balaji had been visiting him every night to play a game of dice, they mocked him.

Finally, he was thrown into a room filled with sugar cane under the condition that he had to consume all the sugar cane by the next day to prove his innocence. 'Ask Lord Balaji to help you!' they said mockingly and went away.

Sure enough, as an answer to his prayers, an elephant appeared in the locked room and ate up all the sugar cane. As Bhavaji fell on his knees thanking the Lord, the elephant trumpeted. Hearing the sound, the priests came to investigate and were amazed to see an elephant inside the room. Meanwhile, the elephant broke free and ran away.

When questioned, Bhavaji had only one word to say— 'Hathiram'. When asked who that was and how the elephant entered the prison cell, Bhavaji told them that Lord Rama (an incarnation of Lord Balaji) had come to his rescue in the form of an elephant.

Everyone was amazed at his devotion. He was appointed as the head priest of the temple and hailed as Hathiram Bhavaji or Hathiramji.

This fascinating story led me on a quest to find out more in the temple town of Tirupathi. Once there, I tracked down the Hathiramji Math and was shown a shrine with a stylized rendering of a rather corpulent man playing a game of dice with Lord Balaji.

I was amazed. Here was a shrine with a picture of a game similar to the ones I had been researching for years. I stood there mesmerized, thinking of all that had happened to lead me there. As my eyes moved towards the lamp, I saw something more—a cloth game board laid out as an offering to the Lord.

This cloth game was similar to Chaupad. The game of Chaupad played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross has long been ascribed as the game of the gods in legends and myths. While most people are familiar with the dice game in the Mahabharata and in the tale of Nala and Damayanti, there are numerous stories of the game of dice played by Shiva and Parvati. Most modern renderings of these stories depict the game of Chaupad.

Now there is no real evidence to indicate this is the game from the myths, but the popularity of the game of Chaupad and its versions across the country cannot be disputed.

So How Do You Play?

The game is played on a board shaped like a symmetrical cross with eight squares arranged in rows of three along each of the four arms. It is a two-to four-player game with four game pieces assigned to each. A player starts on his side of the board and his game pieces travel up and down the arms moving along the board in a clockwise direction till they return to the home side. Then the game pieces travel along the middle line of the arm to reach the safety of the large central square.

Interestingly, the Aztec game of Patolli bears a number of similarities to the game of Chaupad. Patoli is believed to carry a heavy focus on gambling. The story goes that there was a time when Spanish priests forbade people from playing the game during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, presumably because they were selling themselves and their families into slavery over it. It is believed that those who were caught playing Patolli had their hands burned as a punishment!

Some versions of Chaupad have arms that are only six squares long, and in South India, some of the boards have a corner square where one arm joins the other. Versions differ in rules and in throw pieces, with some using long dice and others using cowries. Some versions of Chaupad have arms that are only six squares long, and in South India, some of the boards have a corner square where one arm joins the other. Versions differ in rules and in throw pieces, with some using long dice and others using cowries.

The purpose of the game is to take the game pieces safely around the board and bring them home to the large central square. If the opponent cuts a game piece by landing on it, that piece has to start again. The crossed squares are safe squares and a place to stop and take a breather when dealing with the opponent.

There is a twist. Players can move their game pieces in pairs. A pair can only move with an even throw of the dice and half the number of spaces. So, if the throw is six, the pair can move three places and if the throw is four, the pair can move two places. There is another twist—a pair can only be cut by another pair. Interestingly, this rule has now been adopted by Ludo. However, 30 to 40 years earlier, it did not exist.

Another twist that adds further excitement to the game is that a game piece that has reached the safety of the central square can choose to come out again as a 'ghost.' No rules apply to this game piece now. It moves in the anti-clockwise direction, can kill a pair, can kill on safe squares and can spread mayhem. This piece can only be stopped by another 'ghost'. The havoc played by such piece in a game is very akin to a large-scale disaster where all rules are flouted. We witness such situations in life, where nothing is safe anymore, nothing is sacred and nothing can be controlled— earthquakes, tsunamis, riots, war and pandemic. These have the capacity to turn our lives upside down.

(Excerpted with permission from Vinita Sidhartha's Just Play; published by Rupa Publications)