Abstract

Our knowledge of Indian gaming boards used for chess and related board gamesis based to a large extent on textual evidence contained in the mythological liter-ature (e.g. the RÅmÅyaœa; PurÅœic literature); in grammatical and lexicogra-phical works like those of Patañjali and Amara; in various poetical works (e.g. RatnÅkara’s Haravijaya, Amaracandra’s BÅlabhÅrata, BhartŸhari’s VairÅgya±ataka) and in some reli-gious writings of the Buddhists and Jains. All these texts clearly show that already in ancient times there existed several terms signifying a gaming board, the most frequent of which are the Sanskrit words a„ÊÅpada, phalaka as well as a number of Sanskrit expres-sions meaning “cloth”. Many of these literary sources have already been referred to in ear-lier books and articles (cf., e.g., Murray 1913: 33ff.). It seems necessary, however, to follow, with respect to the relevant literary data, a more systematic approach. I propose to investigate the history of each of the above-mentioned terms as reflected in various Indian texts separately, to give a tentative dating of the contexts in which they occur and to see if and how they are interrelated with each other. In this connection, it also seems desirable to deal with a number of texts which have been largely neglected so far. Unlike the literary documents just mentioned they have nothing to do with mythology or religious matters, but are concerned with a pure de-scription of the rules of chess and related board games. The most important among them are the MÅnasollÅsa, the VilÅsamaœimañjar≠, the Kr≠ØÅkau±alya and some others. For the present investigation they are especially interesting as they contain some more names for gaming boards in addition to those just mentioned as well as a variety of expressions relating to the details of these boards. At the same time, these observations invite the question whether all these terms were in any way differentiated. In other words: it has to be asked whether certain terms were possibly reserved for a specific board used in a particular game. Thus, the present investigation will concentrate on the terminological aspects of the Indian gaming board, leaving aside for the time being other aspects like the representations of boards preserved at archaeological sites and in art history.