Chaturanga

This article is about two-handed ancient game Chaturanga. For four-handed version, played with dice, see Chaturaji.

Chaturanga pieces
	Ràja (King)
	Mantri (Minister)
	Ratha (Chariot or Rook)
	Gaja (Elephant)
	Ashva (Horse or Knight)
	Padàti (Foot-soldier) (Pawn)

Chaturanga is an ancient Indian game which is presumed to be the common ancestor of chess, shogi, and makruk, and related to xiangqi and janggi. (See Origins of chess for more information on the ancestry of chess.) Chaturanga has been played since the 6th century or earlier, hence Chaturanga is most commonly believed to be the oldest version of chess. Chaturanga is the direct ancestor of Shatranj, which was the form that brought chess to medieval Europe.

Contents 1 History 2 Rules 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

History

In Sanskrit, "Chatur-anga-bala" literally means "an army comprising (4 parts , viz.) elephants, chariots, cavalry, and infantry". The game too reflects fourfold division of the ancient Indian army. Besides the king and his counsellor or general in the center, the army consisted of the following units:

• Infantry represented by a line of advancing pawns.
• Thundering war elephants near the center of the army.
  • Later, this rather weak piece was thought not to be a suitable representation for the power of the real elephant in war in India. This caused a change of move and of name, and often in India nowadays the rook is called the elephant and the bishop is called the camel. (Note: The name Camel is also used for a fairy chess piece with a different move, a (3,1) leaper.)
• Mounted cavalry represented by the horse with a move that facilitated flanking.
• Chariots on the wings which move quickly but linearly and became the rook in Europe, but a ship as chess moved north into Russia.

Chaturanga was played on an 8x8 uncheckered board, called Ashtāpada. The board had some special markers, the meaning of which is unknown today. These markers were not related to chaturanga, but were drawn on the board only by tradition. The great chess historian Murray has conjectured that the Ashtāpada was also used for some old race-type dice game, perhaps similar to Chowka bhara, in which these markers had a meaning. An early reference to a chess-like game is sometimes attributed to Subandhu in his Vasavadatta (c. 600):

The time of the rains played its game with frogs for chessmen which yellow and green in color, as if mottled by lac, leapt up on the black field squares.

However, it is no more considered talking about Chess, even by those supporting the idea of an Indian origin. The word translated as chessmen, nayadyutair, is not specific to the Chess and can indicate the pieces of any boardgames. The colors are not those of the two camps, but mean that the frogs have a two-tone dress, yellow and green. Lastly, some translate "black field squares" by "black edges of the irrigated fields"; and in any case, the chess-boards used by the Indians were unicoloured, the black squares being an European invention with the Middle Ages. Banabhatta's Harsha Charitha (c. 625) contains the earliest reference to Chaturanga:

Under this monarch, only the bees quarreled to collect the dew; the only feet cut off were those of measurements, and only from Ashtâpada one could learn how to draw up a Chaturanga, there were no cutting off the four limbs of condemned criminals....

All the text plays with puns. If there is little doubt that Ashtâpada is the gaming-board of 8x8 squares, the double meaning of Chaturanga, as the four folded army, is controversed. There is a probability that the ancestor of Chess was mentioned there. However, some disagree and see in this text an allusion to the giant Purusha, often represented with his limbs folded on a square 8x8 or 9x9 diagram. The vedic mythology says the Gods caught him with a net, and with his sacrifice, the World was created. The point remains open.

Rules

The exact rules of Chaturanga are not known. However, chess historians believe that the game had the same or very similar rules to Shatranj. Nevertheless, there is uncertainty about move of the Gaja (elephant), the precursor of the Bishop in modern chess.

• Ràja (King); also spelled Raja, Rajah - Moves like the King in chess, as in Shatranj.
• Mantri (Counsellor); also known as Senapati (General) - Moves one square diagonally, like the Fers in Shatranj.
• Ratha (Chariot); also spelled Śakata - Moves like the Rook in chess, as in Shatranj.
• Gaja (Elephant) - Three different moves are described in ancient literature:
  1. Two squares in any diagonal direction, jumping over one square, as the Alfil in Shatranj. This is likely its oldest move.
     • The same move is used for the Boat in a four-handed version of Chaturanga, Chaturaji.
     • The Elephant in Xiangqi (Chinese chess) has the similar move, but without jumping. (The name Elephant is used for a fairy chess piece with this move: a (2,2) leaper, but one that cannot jump over an intervening piece.)
  2. One square forward or one square in any diagonal direction (think of the four legs and trunk of the elephant).
     • This is the same move as the Silver General in Shogi.
     • In Makruk (Thai chess) and Sittuyin (Burmese chess) the elephant moves in the same way.
     • This move was described ca. 1030 by Biruni in his India book.
  3. Two squares in any orthogonal direction, jumping over one square.
     • A piece with such a move is called a Dabbābah in some chess variants. This move was described by the Arabic chess master al-Adli ca. 840 in his (partly lost) chess work. (The Arabic word dabbābah in former times meant a covered siege engine for attacking walled fortifications, and nowadays means "army tank").
       • The German historian Johannes Kohtz (1843-1918) suggests, rather, that this was the earliest move of the Ratha. [1]
• Ashva (Horse); also spelled Ashwa, Asva - Moves like the Knight in chess, as in Shatranj. (This is the distinctive move that marks a game as a likely descendant of Chaturanga.)
• Padàti/Bhata (Foot-soldier); also spelled Pedati, Bhata; also known as Sainik (?Warrior) - Moves like the Pawn in chess, as in Shatranj.

Al-Adli also mentions two further difference to Shatranj:

• Stalemate was a win for a stalemated player. This rule seems to be quite illogical, however it appeared again in some medieval chess variations in England ca. 1600. According to some resources, there was no stalemate, though this is improbable.
• The player, who is first to bare the opponent's king (captures all the pieces except the king), wins. In Shatranj this is also a win, but only in the case that the opponent cannot bare the player's king on the next move in return.

See also

• Chaturaji, four-handed version of Chaturanga
• Origins of chess
• Chess in early literature
• Chadhurangam, an ancient Tamil version of the chess.

References

• A History of Chess, H.J.R. Murray (1913), ISBN 0-936317-01-9.
• The Oxford Companion to Chess (second edition), David Hooper, Kenneth Whyld (1992) ISBN 0-19-866164-9.
• The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, D.B. Pritchard (1994), ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
• The Oxford History of Board Games, David Parlett (1999) ISBN 0-19-212998-8.
• Games Ancient and Oriental and How to Play Them, Edward Falkener (1892, re-issued 1961) ISBN 0-486-20739-0

External links

• Chaturanga, from Chess Variants