Description

"The game of Chandal Mandal"

A variation of Chaupar, the national game of India. Chaupar later became Parcheesi - aka Ludo - in the west. Invented by Akbar the Great, ruler of India, who lived from 1542 to 1605.

Think of it as 16 player Chaupar, with 16 arms instead of 4, and you are a long way there. The board is made out of 16 parallelograms arranged in a circle around a centre. Each parallelogram is divided in 24 fields, in 3 rows of 8. Each of the 16 players get 4 pawns each. Four (traditional) dice are used, with the longer sides marked 1,2,10 and 12. As in Chaupar, the pieces are moved anti-clockwise, and go around the whole circle. The first player out wins the agreed amount from all other 15, and each subsequent finisher also gets that same amount from whoever is still left to finish. So the last player loses the most.

His Majesty seemed to play 12 broad variations:

1. No pawn can remove another pawn, but it moves on by itself instead.
2. Single pawns may be captured, and are sent back to start.
3. With each throw two pawns are moved at a time (with or without the option to capture).
4. Three or four pawns are moved like this.
5. The dice are thrown four times, and four pawns are moved at each throw.

Usually players would all move in the same direction, but sometimes some players would move anti-clockwise, whilst other would play clockwise.

6. A player is out when he reaches the starting point of the player directly opposite, moving from the middle row of his opposite number into the empty centre space. Longer games would require players to reach the starting point of the player sitting on the left.
7. Each player has three throws. On the first throw two own pawns are moved, on the second throw, the player moves one own pawn, and one pawn belonging to the player on the right. On the third throw, again, one own pawn gets moved, plus the player on the left may also move one pawn belonging to that player. Pawns belonging to neighbours cannot be removed, and when they land in the same row as a player's own pieces, they are moved as if they belonged to the throwing player.
8. Two pawns together may hit two other pawns, but single pawns cannot hit each other.
9. Four pawns combined can remove 3 pawns, 3 pawns can hit groups of 2, 2 can hit single pawns, but single pieces cannot remove any.
10. A player whose turn it is moves according to the dice rolled, the player opposite him moves at the same time, but uses the eyes of the bottom side of the dice, whilst the players on the left and right also move, but according to the eyes on the left and right face of the rolled die.
11. Five dice are rolled. The active player moves the sum of the two highest rolls. The next highest roll is used by the person on the opposite side of the board. The lowest two rolls are used by the players sitting on the left and right.
12. Five dice and five pawns. At every throw, the result of one of the rolled dice is given to the player on the right. In a variation to this, the thrower would name four players before rolling, and would give one result to each of these players, keeping only the fifth die. And when only a few points are left to get pukhtah, the remaining points go to those near to where the dice come to rest.

If the game was played by less people the board and the number of dice thrown would be amended accordingly. It is highly likely the boards were frequently life-sized and groups of slave girls were sent around the track, dressed in appropriate colours.

Brief history: ask anyone to name great rulers of history and you are unlikely to hear the name Akbar, ruler of the Mughal Empire (1556-1605). Leaving remarkable military and administrative successes, and a fondness for alcohol and women to one side, the illiterate and, at times, brutal man, also had a passion for religious tolerance and class harmony. He surrounded himself with scholars, thinkers and poets, and was persuaded by the Plato school that argued that a great ruler should be like a philosopher-king. Whilst trying to unify the different religions, he became a great patron of the arts and literature, for which he is best remembered. Thanks to the recordings in the "Ain I Akabari", third volume of the "Akbarn?ma", a detailed biography and history record kept by his close advisor and court scribe, Abu'l Fazl, we know that the good bloke also had a weak spot for games, and had even invented a game of his own. It is because of Abu'l Fazl passion for detail and accuracy that the rules of this elaborate Chaupar descendant have been preserved to this day, as part of a seperate chapter on Amusements.