CHESMAYNE

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Chaturanga - Shatranj

See ‘History’.   Chaturanga: literally, the four corners, referring to the four divisions of a traditional Indian army - the infantry (PAs from peons, pedons ‘foot-troops’), the cavalry, the arches (now called BSs because of a misinterpretation of their medieval helmets) and the elephants which used to carry wooden structures on their backs called ‘castles’, from which the warriors could take aim at the enemy.   In Europe the elephants were omitted, but the remaining ‘castles’ were still moved across the board as the elephants had been, even though the true ‘castle’ in chess is formed by the ‘rochade ’ move (castling, %Q, %K).   Pavle Bidev in his thesis ‘Sah simbol Kosmosa’ concluded that Chaturanga was invented between 606-620 AD.   Chaturanga is essentially the same game as Shatranj.   It used an unchequered board (called the ‘ashtapada ’ meaning ‘eight square’) and is regarded as the precursor of traditional chess.   It is believed to have been adopted from a race game related to ‘parcheesi’, the forerunner of the game of Ludo.  

Monogram: Name:

1 KI = King

2 AD = Adviser

2 RO = Rook

2 KT = Knight

2 MR = Minister

8 BQ = Baidaq

Each side has 16 MPs/mps

The AD (AD1 and AD2) moves 1 cell diagonally in any direction.   The MR (MR1 and MR2) moves 2 cells diagonally in any direction jumping over the intervening cell.    BQs (BQ1 to BQ8) move forward one cell at a time.   Castling is not permitted.    Stalemate is a win for the side giving it. 

For many people, the oldest ancestor of Chess is a game for 4 players, called Chaturanga.  It is depicted as a diced game where four teams of 8 pieces fight for a final victory. 

Simplistically, this game is supposed to illustrate a remote period when India was divided into several rival kingdoms, always at war.   Later on, a wise man would have come and proposed to gather the pieces in two opposing teams.  One extra King per side would have been given the role of a General, the chance would have been eliminated for pure combination: Chess was born! 

This is a very seducing story.   Simple, understandable, bearing some logic.  This story is so nice that it is now widely repeated and copied on hundreds of pages on the Internet.   Now, I’m sorry to be so disappointing: 

CAUTION : SO FAR,
THIS THEORY IS WRONG !

If you are involved in teaching, writing, publishing, please stop copying this tale, get informed! 

HOW IT BEGAN 

Sir Williams Jones (who first remarked the links between Indo-European idioms), asserted in 1790 that Chess had been invented by the wife of Ravan, king of Lanca (Ceylon), in order to amuse him while he was besieged in his city by Rama.   This was happening in the “second age of the world”, in the 4^th millennium before Christ!   His informant was the Brahman Radhakant who was referring to the Four-Handed Chess (which was played in India until the XIX century), apparently evoked in the Bhavishya Purana.  

Several forms of Chess were played in India until very recently, maybe it is still true.   Chaturanga, from Sanskrit and meaning “four limbs” is the word used for Chess.   It refers to the four members of the Indian army; chariots, elephants, cavalry and infantry.   Besides the more conventional Two-Handed Chaturanga which is very like the Persian Chatrang, there is in India a Four-Handed Chaturanga, also called by some authors Chaturaji (meaning “four kings”).  

This Chaturanga was undoubtedly the oldest ancestor for Captain Hiram Cox in 1801 who claimed that it was the rudimental game of Chess and that the 2-Handed game was a modification of it. 

Duncan Forbes wrote ‘The History of Chess’ in 1855 where he developed the complete theory: a primitive 4-Handed dice-Chess was practiced first, and, from the difficulty of always securing four players, the game gradually became 2-Handed.   Later on, the dice were abandoned, maybe under religious pressure.   Forbes rejected the legend of Lanka, however he kept relying on the Bhavishya Purana which were then estimated 3000 or 5000 years old. 

However, the Dutch historian, Anton van der Linde, pointed out in 1874 that these texts were not older than the 10^th century AD.   This was too hard to believe for authors like Edward Falkener (1892) who was convinced of a very great antiquity. Also, the famous American ethnologist Stewart Culin made his personal hypothesis that the respective apparition order of board-games in mankinds history should have been: race game for 2, race game for 4, chess for 4 and, finally, chess for 2.   He had no fact to sustain this theory which appears somewhat artificial today. 

The final word went to the great historian Harold James Murray who cleared the question in his never surpassed monument: ‘History of Chess’, more than 900 pages of erudition published in 1913.   He wrote that definitive sentence: 

“I find this hypothesis incredible”.

THE STATUS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE

First, the Purana are no more considered 5000 years old, but 2500 for their oldest parts.   Then, three texts refer to the passage cited by Jones and Forbes.    It has been demonstrated (Murray, 1913, p48-49) that the three of them go back to the same source, the Tithitattva of Raghunandana, a writer of the late 15^th or early 16^th century. Moreover, it has been since proved that neither the Bhavishya Purana (which was not accessible to European scholars until the end of the 19^th century) nor the Bhavishyottara Purana contain no Chess passage.  

There are Indian texts mentioning the 4-Handed Chaturanga which are older than the Tithitattva.   The first ones are Somesvara’s Manasollasa circa 1,110 and Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, a metrical chronique of the Kings of Kashmir, dated 1148-9. However, the most important  and earliest account of this game is a foreign reference, an Arabic work.   It is the’ Tahqiq ma li l-Hind’, a travel account in India by the Persian al-Biruni, written circa 1,030.   Al-Biruni was born at Khiva in 973, lived at Hyrcania on the shore of the Caspian see and died in 1048.     

His rules are not always clear.   Most of the details we know come from Raghunandana. 

Starting position (left) and movements of pieces (right)

COMMENTS

Then, the oldest reference for this 4-Handed game is 1,030 only.  The 2-Handed game precedes the 4-Handed game for about four centuries. 

The 4-Handed appears to have been known and practiced in India only.   If it had been the ancestor of the 2-Handed form, it will have yet to be explained why it was not transmitted to other neighbouring peoples and why all sources, literal or archaeological, are silent over such a long period of more than 400 years. 

It is true that Indians did not pay much attention in writing the rules of their games as the Persians or the Arabs did.   There are several texts which mention Chaturanga in India before 1,000, but none clearly state what was the number of players.   The defenders of the 4-Handed game can argue that the first Indian source to mention it unmistakably deals with 2 Handed version (because it named the Mantri, the counselor) is the Bhagavantabhaskara composed as late as the 17^th century! 

Again, we find more information in a foreign source: al-Adli, an Arabic master who wrote about 840.   He gave the difference between the rules and play of Chess in India versus the ones he knew.   He gave them in deep details and he never mentioned any game for 4 players.   We can safely conclude that al-Adli was not aware of any 4-Handed Chess in India.   If it existed, it escaped his attention, which would be surprising, although possible.  

The fact that the 4-Handed Chaturanga makes use of dice has been often emphasized to assert its great antiquity.   However, this is not a sound argument at all. In those old times (let’s say before 1,500), Chess was not that model of pure combination that it is today.   The game was slow, maybe was it a little boring.   Old times masters were more attracted by theoretical problems (openings, endings) than real plays.   Playing with chance was not a shame, it engaged a dialog with Gods.    The success of games like Nard (kind of Backgammon), Pachisi, Chapur and many other Indian games are here to testify that.   Nard was at its summum of popularity in India between the 7^th and 10^th centuries, and the Indian cruciform race games (Pachisi, Chaupur) could been invented at the same period.   Then, it is not surprising that a game for 4 was more appreciated with the help of dice to add some drama into the play.  In addition, it should be insisted that Chess and dice were by no mean incompatible.   Muslims played ‘Oblong Chess’ (over a 4 x 16 board) with dice, dice were often used in medieval Europe as an alternative of the regular play (for instance in Huon de Bordeaux, a French romance from the 13^th century).   That completely kills the point.  

Another strange aspect of 4-Handed Chaturanga has been put forward to assert his antiquity: the use of Ships instead of Chariots and their switched positions with the Elephants, here placed at the corners of the board.   However, this is merely a  reflection of Chess habits in India and is in complete line with the situation of 2-Handed Chaturanga at the same period.   Let’s see: The use of Ship (Nauka) is only accounted in Raghunandana’s Tithitattva which comes not before the late 15^th century.   Al-Biruni had a Chariot (Rook).    This is probably a consequence of the use of the Arabic style piece - the Rook which was depicted with a large “V” slot, which could be interpreted as a boat shape.   Nauka has been often used later, in Bengal especially (the Tithitattva is written in Bengali by the way).   Placing Elephants in the corner and the piece with the Rook move close to the King is also a long Indian tradition, noted by al-Adli in 840.    Then, the situation becomes very confusing, and the names of the pieces have been switched as well.   In short, in Indian Chess description, the Elephant is given either the a1 or c1 square, and 3 possible moves, depending on the source: a 2-step diagonal leap (like in Shatranj), a 2-step orthogonal leap or a Rook move.   Al-Biruni himself was not clear: in the same text, he gave two different moves (the 1^st and the 3^rd) for the Elephant!    In that sense, the description made by the Tithitattva is well in line with its contemporary Indian descriptions and proves nothing regarding a supposed antiquity of the 4-Handed game. 

Murray’s opinion is still the most probable: the 4-Handed Chaturanga has been an Indian local variant of the regular 2-Handed game. 

There is a true attraction in India for 4 players games.   It would be interesting to search if this can explain the birth of Pachisi from Nard which might be contemporary of the apparition of Four-Handed Chaturanga in the last centuries of the first millennium. 

 

An Indian Elephant

Subj:   CHATURANGA 
Date:   4/7/01 9:54:30 am Pacific Standard Time 
From:  PR@wanadoo.es (Spain)
To:      service@chess-poster.com

Please let me know if you know a place in Spain where I can obtain info about Chaturanga.  If there is no place in Spain, where can I get information and the game?

Thank you very much. Regards.

chess-poster.com

Hello, PR@wanadoo.es (Spain):

Although we believe there are Chess websites in Spain with information related to the ancient Chess game Chaturanga, unfortunately we do not have knowledge of any site there.

Next, we provide you with some links containing information about the game of Chaturanga.  These sites in turn may yield more information pointing to other links about the game and a possible Chaturanga board game salesman.

http://www.chaturanga.com/
http://www.ishipress.com/origin.htm
http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/shatranj.html
http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/chaturanga.html

Thank you for visiting our website.
chess-poster.com  4-08-2001

 

Chaturanga

Scientists generally assume that Chaturanga, played in India, in or before the 7^th century after Christ, is the oldest known form of chess.   Resemblances, both with the current chess, and with Chinese chess

 are remarkable.   The rules below are after Murray and Gollon. 

Opening setup

The game is played on an uncheckered board of eight by eight squares. 

White
King e1; Counsellor d1; Rook a1, h1; Knight b1, g1; Elephant c1, f1; Pawns a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2.

Black
King d8; Counsellor e8; Rook a8, h8; Knight b8, g8; Elephant c8, f8; Pawns a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7. 

Moves of pieces

The king moves as usual king, but additionally has the right to make one knight-move during the game, provided that he hasn’t been checked before he makes his knight-move.   Castling doesn’t exist. 

The counsellor moves one square diagonally.  

The elephant moves two squares diagonally, but may jump the intervening square.  

The knight moves as a usual knight.

The rook or chariot moves as usual rook. 

The pawn or soldier moves and takes as a usual pawn, but may not make a double step on its first move. 

Promotion

Pawns can promote when they arrive at the last rank of the board, but only to the type of piece that was on the promotion-square in the opening setup, e.g., a white pawn that moves to b8 can only promote to a knight.   Additionally, promotion is only possible when the player already lost a piece of the type, so the pawn moving to b8 will only promote to a knight, when the white player already lost a knight during the game. A consequence is that pawns never promote on e1 or d8.  

Mate and stalemate

Object of the game is to mate the opponents king.   The player that stalemates its opponent loses the game.  

Play It! 

Use Zillions of Games to play this game!   If you have Zillions of Games installed, you can download this game and play it. 

From ‘Chess Variants’ web page. 

 

Proto-Chaturanga

The origin of chess is still a riddle.   Many think the first form was Chaturanga, an Indian name, or Chatrang, a Persian name, known from the 7^th century after Christ, as the oldest known form of chess.   Others, think that the Chinese Xiang-Qi presents several older features and should come from an earlier ancestor.   The question is still open.   If it draws your interest, have a look on the pages of the INITIATIVE GROUP KOENIGSTEIN. 

For some reasons (detailled elsewhere) it has been interesting to study what could have been a seminal so-called “Indo-Persian” game with only KI and PAs.   Such a simple game could be classified as a race game.   We must be clear - this is pure speculation and such a game has never been attested in any sources (so far?).  However, it is already fun to play and shows what could have been the origin of the awkward moves of the PA and its promotion.  

A Zillions-of-Games file is available, so you can play this game (below). 

Another reconstruction is the Proto-Xiang-Qi on the “Chinese” side of these reconstructions.  

Opening setup

The game is played on an uncheckered board of eight by eight squares/cells, also used for the Ashtapada a very old race game of India.  

:A
KI-E01; PAs - A02, B02, C02, D02, E02, F02, G02, H02.  

:B
KI-D08; PAs - A07, B07, C07, D07, E07, F07, G07, H07.  

Moves of pieces

The KI moves 1 step/square/cell in any of the 8 directions as usual KI.   Of course, castling doesn’t exist. 

The PA moves 1 step/cell/square straight ahead and captures 1 step/cell/square diagonally ahead as a usual PA.   It cannot make a ‘double step’ on its first move. 

Promotion

PAs can promote to a Firzan when they arrive at the last rank of the board.

The Firzan moves 1 step diagonally.   (4 directions). 

Mate and stalemate

There are three ways to win: checkmate, stalemate or isolate (leave it alone) the opponents KI. 

Would you like to play Proto-Chaturanga?

You can play Proto-Chaturanga if you own Z-o-G.   Download this zip-file below?

West-Protochess.zip.