Board games/indoor games have been depicted in many ancient Indian paintings, sculptures and literature of ancient periods. Playing these games has been a part of many civilisations. Games not only re-energised people but also culturally bound the teams. Sometimes, the games would also create angst and enmity among people.
From the 2nd century BCE onwards, the depiction of the Chaturanga board games became a subject of great interest. Although there may have been some social stratification in ancient society, some beautiful and intricate depictions of the games show that it was quite inclusive—people from different strata of society enjoyed it. References to this game also feature in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Artists adopted the visual imagery of various games to narrate their stories. Although there are diverse depictions of board games, Buddhist narratives were the first to visually depict these games. For instance, the very popular Jataka stories of the Buddha have many references to these games. For example, Vidurapandita Jataka has an elaborate description of the board game.
The story of Vidurapandita is based on the game of dice, which is an indoor game like modern-day chess. It consists of a narration of a board game played between the king and his brilliant minister Vidurapandita and a Yaksha. Vidurapandita was an unchallenged expert of the Chaturanga game. The very fact that Vidurapandita and Yaksha Kunnaga played this game is important enough to be depicted in paintings and sculptures. The artists used the narrative content of the episode and synoptically represented the event in their own creative ways.
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Apart from the Buddhist accounts, the Hindu Puranic accounts also speak of games like Chaturanga-Aksha Krida and many others. Ramayana has ample references to the various games played by Rama’s brothers, and Mahabharata refers to the games played by the Pandavas and Kauravas. In fact, the most popular one was the game of Chaturanga-Aksha Krida. It was the leading cause of all issues connected with the Mahabharata war. The Aksha Krida—a dice game the Pandavas and Kauravas played—finally led to war. It also caused Draupadi’s vastrapahara.
One of the earliest sculptural depictions of the board game can be found on a slab of the Barhut Stupa. The Stupa sculptures have been preserved in the Indian Museum in Kolkata. The Ajanta murals (5th Century CE) also have beautiful depictions of this. For example, Cave II of Ajanta has a beautiful narration of the board game as part of the Vidurapandita Jataka. Here, the game board is oblong with square blocks that remind us of the Pachisi (Parade) of cloth with knitted or painted houses. The oblong board is kept diagonally on the ground, with Vidurapandita and Yaksha seated across it. The oblong pattern became a common feature in later depictions as well.
From the 5th Century CE onwards, board games are depicted in Brahmanical sculptures in Indian art. Textual sources have a good number of references to the same. Mahabharata has the dice-playing incident that has been invariably portrayed in Indian narrative sculptures. Another important theme that features the Aksha Krida game is the Siva Parvati theme. Elephanta and Ellora rock-cut temples are fine examples of the narratives. Karnataka and Odisha temples also have several examples of the theme. Siva and Parvati are the protagonists of the narrations.
An interesting depiction of an early Chalukya version of Siva and Parvati playing dice is on the mukhamantapa pillar of Virupaksha temple (dated 743/5 CE) at Pattadakal (Bagalkot district). The composition of the sculpture is highly imaginative. Siva and Parvati are seated across the main board game in an action of playing. The board, which is placed diagonally between the couple, reminds us of the painted board in Vidurapandita Jataka of Ajanta that has been mentioned earlier.
The interesting part of the composition is the diagonally placed game board plank with eleven houses on each side. The part that amazes one is how artistically rendered the figures are—they seem very involved in the game yet jovial at the same time. There are images of two-armed Ganesha, Skanda and Nandi in the composition.
A few attendants around Siva and Parvati are also part of the composition.
But a subject that was very common was the Chaturanga game between the Pandava and Kaurava brothers. The theme was given so much importance that Hoysala temples have numerous depictions of the same.
A fine narration of the subject is delineated in Amruteshwara temple (dated 1196 CE) at Amrutapura in the Chikkamagaluru district. As part of Mahabharata’s narrations, the dice game is found in the outer part of Kakshasana (back of the bench).
The composition depicts the Pandavas and Kauravas sitting on opposite sides as rival teams as they indulge in a game of Chaturanga. Their postures and hand gestures appear to be dramatically coordinated in harmony with the theme. Several temples have such depictions of Mahabharata narratives. Aksha Krida’s episode finds mention of this in nearly all narrations of Mahabharata. The sculptures in Belur, Halebidu and a few other places show the skill, imagination and wit of the Hoysala-era artists.
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The depictions of these board games did not stop there. It travelled through time, into each Indian century. Mysore King Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799–1868), a great patron of art and a scholar of high merit, composed and created many board games. His games were part of Kautuka Nidhi, one of the volumes of the well-known work, Sri Tattva Nidhi.
All this just goes to show how board games and indoor games were an important part of ancient, medieval and modern Indian life. Be it paintings, sculptures or literature, games in Indian society were treated as symbols of auspiciousness and spirituality.
R H Kulkarni
Professor & HOD, Art History, College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath
(rhkulkarniarthistory@gmail.com)