A history lover traces ancient India’s contribution to board games and martial arts | Books and Literature News,The Indian Express
The five-part series aims to explore the oft-overlooked contributions of ancient India to various fields of learning
A senior information-technology professional with a degree from IIT Bombay, Joglekar has great interest in history and has set out to provide glimpses of ancient Indian wisdom in an accessible manner. He is not himself a professional historian or researcher, but has read deeply and his account is based on many sources through which he has enriched himself over the years.
The choice of topic in the opening volume of a series of five books is brilliant. Even though chess was invented in India, we had no presence on the international scene till the rise of Vishwanathan Anand. Now, we have more than 75 Grand Masters, and many more titled players. Martial arts are, of course, very popular in the country, with classes in every residential locality. Yet, India’s contribution to the popular martial arts, thought to be from China, Japan or other Eastern countries, are less well-known. Exposing young readers to these contributions could get them to be interested in contributions in esoteric subjects such as mathematics and philosophy.
The first section of the book, devoted to board games, begins with the mention of Chaturanga in the Mahabharata and describes how the game first flourished in northwestern India and gradually spread across the subcontinent, undergoing many changes until it acquired its modern form. From India, the game travelled to Persia, then to Arabia, Spain and the rest of Europe. In the process, the name changed from Chaturanga to the Persian Chatrang to the Arabic Shatranj to the European Chess, the last being based on the Latin word “sacci”, which refers to the pieces used in the game. The author describes the evolution of the rules of the game over the centuries and its many variants, interspersing the discussion with interesting asides and anecdotes.
India also has a rich tradition of board games, some of which have been around for millennia. A mural in the cave temple of Ellora shows Shiva and Parvati playing chaupad, a game that also plays an important role in the Mahabharata.
All this and more are recounted in this section. Joglekar speaks of Ashtapada, described in his book Mahabhashya by the grammarian Panini; he also covers Pachisi and how the latter acquired the name Ludo in the West. There is also an interesting section on dice in this segment.
Rating: 5