In the Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, Valmiki offers one of the earliest and most vivid descriptions of a city layout.
Chitram ashtapadakaram nar-nari-ganair yutam
Sarv-ratna-samaakirnam viman-grah-shobhitam
“(Ayodhya was) wonderful to behold, laid out like an ashtapada board, teeming with throngs of men and women; rich in every kind of gem, adorned with seven-storied palaces”
Bala-Kanda Sarga 5, sloka 16.
Ashtapada is an ancient 8×8 checkered game board which though similar to chess, predates it and differs in its mechanics and gameplay. While the original game was perhaps a dice game, Chaturanga, which could be played on the same board, appeared sometime around the 6th century in India.
The description of the city of Ayodhya underscores the perfect grid plan — symmetrical squares, and meticulously divided quarters — believed to be an ideal of order and prosperity.
Rooted in the sacred text of Vastu Shastra, the concept of the Vastu Purush embodies the spiritual principles that govern the relationship between human dwellings and the cosmos. Vastu Purush was a cosmic being defeated in a fierce battle between the gods and demons, then cast to Earth, where he was subdued and pinned down by the gods. Each part of his body was held by different gods, thereby assigning specific energies to each location or direction. This mythological story laid the foundation for Vastu Shastra, a text that guides architectural practices in India by aligning buildings with cosmic energy.
The Manasara Vastushastra, a classical text on architecture and urban planning, provides detailed guidance on the layout of villages. Each layout with its own form, measurements, street layouts, and key features was aimed at creating harmony between human settlements, nature, and the divine order. They were designed for specific terrains, population sizes, and functional needs.
Across the world, a great deal of literature on city descriptions often emphasised cosmic order and geometry but seldom mention game boards explicitly. However, the use of game analogy in describing cosmic order is more common. In the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám the poet uses a chequered board to symbolise the world itself:
Tis all a Chequerboard of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays…
Here, the game board is a metaphor for the ordered but merciless cosmos that moves human lives like tokens. While not about a literal city, this resonates with the same idea: the world and its cities are subject to a larger strategic design.
Another interesting example from Europe is Zamos´c´ in Poland explicitly celebrated as a “living chessboard” city where “its street grid, squares and axes [give] the sense of a giant chessboard”.
From ancient Sanskrit epics, authors reached for board-game imagery — especially the 8×8 checkerboard — to convey the harmony, strategy, and cosmological order. Valmiki’s Ayodhya stands out by explicitly naming the game-board: illustrating that urban space was conceived as a realm of cosmic order and strategic design, where everything has a deliberate place and purpose.