Ancient indian sports and games

From indoor games to outdoor sports, some are now played internationally. Here is the history behind some of these games. Chess was devised in India, and was known as Ashtapada which means 64 squares. Unlike how the game is played today, it used to be played with a dice on a checkered board, but without black and white squares. A few years later, the game was called Chaturanga quadripartite.

It was divided into four parts called angas , which were symbolic of the four branches of an army. Just like the real ancient Indian army, it had pieces called elephants, chariots, horses and soldiers, and was played to devise war strategies.

In CE, Persians learned this game and named it Shatranj. A strike-and-pocket table game that is popularly played throughout South Asia and in a few Middle-Eastern countries, carrom is said to have originated in the Indian subcontinent. You can find an ancient glass carrom board in Patiala, Punjab. Carrom gained popularity after World War I, and is now played at family or social gatherings for fun.

Earlier in India it was called Pachisi , and the board was made out of cloth or jute. A depiction of Pachisi is found in the caves of Ajanta in Maharashtra, showing that the game was quite popular in the Medieval Era. In the late 19 th century, different variations of the same game were played in England; in , a similar game appeared that was called Ludo, and thus the name was patented. Created by Sant saint Gyandev in the 13 th century, this game of vice and virtues was used in Hindu Dharma to teach good values to children.

The snakes represented vice and the ladders virtues. The squares where the ladders were found depicted virtues; for example, square 12 was faith, 51 was reliability, 76 was knowledge, and so on.

Similarly, the squares where the snakes were found were known as vices; square 41 was disobedience, 49 was vulgarity, 84 was anger, et cetera. The hundredth square represented Moksha or Nirvana. With time, the game underwent a number of changes, but the meaning remained the same: if you do good deeds, you go to heaven, and if you do bad deeds, you will be reborn.

If certain accounts are to be believed, oblong dice were found in excavations at Harrapan sites like Lothal, Alamgirpur, Kalibangan, Desalpur and Ropar. These dice were earlier used for gambling. Dice then spread to Persia and became a part of popular board games there. Early mentions of dice are also found in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 1 month ago. Active 1 year, 6 months ago.

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Featured on Meta. Badminton also originated from India as it evolved from an old children's game referred to as Battledore and Shuttlecock. Badminton fully started when the British were ruling in the 19 th century. The game was played by British army officers that were posted to Pune.

Pune was formerly called Poona, and so the game was called 'Poona' which the British officers played well. There is also the game, Kabaddi. Kabbadi is a contact team sport where physical contacts are needed to score points and win the game. This game became popular in different countries other than India in the 20 th century. Notwithstanding, Cricket is the most popular sport in India, and they have proven times and times over to be the best at it. Asides all that has been said, other noteworthy facts about Indian Sports and their players too.