Thayaam
Thayaam Board
Alternate Names
Thayaam will here refer to a family of very ancient race games that are concurrent today and are most common in and around the countries of India and Sri Lanka. I will here discuss a variety of games all using the same mechanisms, that is, they are race games played on a square board. These include the game of Thayaam which is probably equivalent to or very similar to the games of Ashtam Changam Pe, Sadurangam, Chowka Bhara (also spelled Chowka Bara), and Tammām (from the coastal regions of Somaliland). Saturankam, Ashtapada and Dosapada effectively amount to the same thing as these, but played on a larger board. Ashte Kashte (also called Koli kaDam) is also very similar to all these, but here, the counters follow a different route around the board. Many of the names are as fluid as the games themselves and one name may apply to several different games played on different boards.
No. of Players
Typically, two or four players will play these games. When playing with four, they may play each to himself or in teams of two.
Equipment
In addition to one of the boards described and shown here, a number of counters for each player and dice are required for play. The boards are often marked in the dirt or on the ground. The center position of the board is called the castle and represents the final landing place of a counter, although it is sometimes required to bear off after landing here in some variations. Boards have positions marked at each of the four sides. These are sometimes called palaces and serve both as the starting point for a counter entering the board and also as resting places where counters are safe from being captured. A cell on the board may be required to house four counters at a time during the course of the game, so if creating a makeshift board, make sure that the cells are large relative to the counters. A set of four Cowry shells are often used as the traditional binary dice for the play of these games, but tamarind seeds, half-cylinder sticks or coins have also been used as well. Four distinctively marked counters, sometimes called pawns, per player are usually required for the smaller boards, but larger ones often call for only two.
History
These are all ancient and traditional games originating out of India and Sri Lanka. They are mentioned in ancient Indian literature such as The Mahabharata. One of them is likely to be ancestral to the game of Pachisi and all of its derivatives. The board used for Ashtapada is often considered to be ancestral to the 8x8 square grid used for the play of Chess in much of the world today.
Objective
In all of the Indian square board race games, players are attempting to move their counters around the board until finally arriving at the center square or castle. Some versions say that the first player to attain the center square with all of their counters is the winner, but other versions require an additional bearing off of the counters after they have reached the castle by the throw of 1. Additionally, counters may only bear off after all four friendly counters have reached the castle.
Play
With the two or four players are seated symmetrically around the board, each player has all of their four pawns in hand and alternate turns ensue casting the dice. With the cast of 1 cowrie mouth up, a player may enter one of their counters onto the palace at their side of the board and roll again. With alternating turns, each player throws the dice and moves their counter the according number of moves, shown in the table, following the route shown in the illustration. A cast with 0, 1, or 4 cowrie mouths up allows the player to cast the dice again after their move.
When a player moves onto a cell occupied by one or more opposing counters, they are then either placed back at its starting square or removed from the board to be entered again, depending on the variation being played. Either method will work, but it is important that players agree to which version they are playing before the game commences. The palaces and castle, all cells marked with an X, are safe havens and opposing pieces are not captured at these cells. These cells may be shared by multiple opposing or friendly counters at once.
If a player lands two of his own counters on the palace on the opposite side of the board from which he is seated (eight from the start), he may declare them a "twin" counter, and thereafter move them as one. The distance they move, however, is only half the distance normally indicated by the dice, and if it is an odd number, the odd one is lost. For example, casting three cowrie mouths up allows a player to move a twin counter only one space. A twin may only be captured by another opposing twin and does not itself capture opposing singletons. Once captured the twins are split up and must be entered again individually. Twins are also split up upon reaching the castle and must bear off from here as individual pieces.
Counters must attain the castle by exact throw of the dice and then will safely stay there until all four of that player's counters reach the castle. At this point they can begin to bear off by exact throw of a 1 (unless players have agreed to the simple version, in which case the game is won by the first player to attain all four counters in the castle).
Variations
Quicker games may be played that do not require counters to be enter or bear off. The counters simply start at their starting palace and finish at the castle.
A game of Thayaam may be made to last longer than the simple game described above by increasing the size of the board or by increasing the number of counters per player. The website Board Game Geek mentions King's Thayaam, played on a board double the size (presumably 10x10 square cells) and utilizing eight tamarind seeds as dice instead of four.
The route around the board, shown here for the player at South, is the same in the standard versions of Thayaam, Ashtam Changam Pe, Sadurangam and Chowka Bhara.
Thayaam board variations can be larger with more resting places.
Route Used On the Larger Thayaam board
Chowka Bhara is very similar to the smaller Thayaam. It usually has four players with four counters each and uses the same board and the same route for counters. The dice and roll values are also the same, but a player is not rewarded and extra throw for casting a 1 in Chowka Bara. Also, all of the pawns start at their player's home palace, on his side of the board. A player does not need to enter his counters, or bear them off from the castle at the end. A victory is achieved by getting all of one's counters to the central castle, by exact roll. A player may only begin moving one of their counters out of the home palace with the roll of a 1, 2, or 3. They may however, cast again, if throwing a 4 or 8. Counters hit by opposing counters are returned to their starting palace. In order for a player's counter to enter the central castle, that player must have hit at least one opposing counter (with any of his counters) earlier in the game. A player that has not yet hit any opposing counters and is otherwise eligible to move a counter into the castle, will not do so, and will lose that turn.
There are also different rules governing twins in Chowka Bhara. Twins, or doubles of two friendly counters, may be formed on any square of the board, and any twin formed on the outer square will block all opponents from passing it for one turn. After that turn, the opponent's counters may go past or "cross" the double. This does not apply to twins formed in the inner squares of the board. Once formed, a twin may move together as one piece for the rest of the game unless it is captured. Some versions of the rules I have seen state that a player may also break up his twin piece and start to move them separately again, but I am not sure why anyone would want to, as the twin is more powerful and requires less casts to move. A singleton may not capture or even land on the same square as a twin. Only another twin can capture a twin and a twin may also capture a singleton in this variation.
Chowka Bhara itself has variations, mostly concerning the size of the board. The size of the board may increase to an NxN square cells configuration, where N is any odd number. Using this board, each of the four players will then have N-1 pawns, and more safe squares are symmetrically added around the now larger board.
Sadurangam from India and Sri Lanka is played on the same board as the smaller Thayaam. Here, there is no entering or bearing off of pawns, but otherwise seems to follow the rules of Thayaam.
Gavalata from southern India also closely resembles Thayaam. It is also played on the 5x5 square grid and has pawns follow the same route, but Gavalata has an extra safe-house or palace on each of the four squares lying diagonally between the center and side palaces.
Ashte Kashte; also called Koli kaDam in Hyderabad, India; is a race game played on a 7x7 square grid in Bengal, India. It is often considered to be the direct ancestor to the game of Pachisi, although there is no tangible evidence for this. Movement is controlled by throwing cowry shells for dice with each player controlling four counters, all beginning off board. A piece may be entered onto the board by any throw (it is not required to roll a 1, 2, or 3 as in similar games). There are four square cells at the outer center of each side of the board where players enter their counters at their respective color onto the board. These areas are also resting squares where a counter cannot be captured. The cowrie shell determine movement exactly as in Thayaam, with rolls of four or zero upturned mouths granting an extra turn to the player.
The rules governing double pieces, or twins, mostly follow that of Chowka Bhara as described above. The differences are that doubles may never be passed over singletons, friendly or opposing. Here double pieces may also form at any square on the board, may move as one piece, and may not be captured by opposing singletons.
There is no bearing off of counters in Ashte Kashte, but they must arrive at the central castle by exact throw.
Saturankam, also played in India and Sri Lanka, is another square race game for two, three, or four people. It is played on a 9x9 board of square cells with a spiraling labyrinthine route like that of Thayaam or Ashte Kashte, only stretched over a larger board. Each player's two counters are entered into their home palace and move forward based on the throw of two four-sided dice called kemadi. The sides of the kemadi are marked 1, 3, 4, and 6. With alternating turns, the players throw the dice and moves one or both of his counters along its route according to the value shown on the dice. The total of the two dice may be used to move a single counter, or the total may be split in any convenient way to move both counters. For example, a throw of three and six may be used to move one piece four and another five spaces, but the full total of the dice must be used. Throwing doubles on the kemadi allows a player to cast again after moving his counters. Once a counter is one, three, or four spaces from the central square, it cannot move further and must be borne off of the board by throwing a double. For example, a player who has a counter that is three cells from the center must throw a double three to bear off that counter. A game is won by a player who bears off both of his counters.
Opposing counters are captured by landing on them or "hitting" them, except that all counters are safe when parked at one the specially marked palaces. Captured counters are re-entered, by any throw, at the player's home palace. Although two friendly counters may share the same square, there are no special powers granted to twins and they must move separately. Presumably, two friendly counters sharing the same cell are both captured when an opposing counters lands at their square.
Main Pachih is a game from Penang, Malaysia that is probably the same as or very similar to Saturankam.
Ashtapada meaning "eight square" is another ancient Indian race game for two, three, or four people. It is reputedly one of the games that Gautama Buddha advised his followers not to play in The Vinayapitaka from the 5th or 6th centuries BCE, as he believed it to be a waste of time that distracted from the pursuit of enlightenment. Ashtapada is also considered a significant part of the history of Chess, and many prevailing hypotheses hold that the origin of Chess comes about as a derivation from Ashtapada, or, more precisely, from the 8x8 board used to play Ashtapada.
Movement of a players two counters is controlled by casting four cowrie shells, similar to Thayaam. Here, however, a roll of 0 mouths up grants the player no forward moves and the turn is effectively lost. After throwing the dice, players move forward 0, 1, 2, 3, or 8 spaces (with a roll of four mouths up). Entering a counter or bearing off a counter are both done by "grace points" and one grace point is earned from the roll of 3 mouths up. One grace point allows a player to enter a counter into their home palace (the one on their left side) or to bear a counter off the board from their castle at the center. Opposing counters that are hit are removed from the board and must be re-entered.
Dasapada meaning "ten square" is another game disavowed by the Buddha and was presumably just a larger extension of Ashtapada.
Ashte Kashte Board
Ashtapada Board
Saturankam Board
The route around the Ashte Kashte board is a continuous counter-clockwise inward spiral.
Saturankam Route for South Player
Ashtapada Route for South Player
Dasapada Board
Sources