Who invented snakes and ladders? - Mallstuffs · 2020-01-12 · This game reached United States in 1943, where it was called as Chutes and Ladders by Milton Bradley. In US, current

I bet y ou must hav e play ed this game at least once in y our lifetime? Didn’ty ou? I don’t know about the western world or countries outside India, butwhat I know for sure is that this game is play ed in ev ery nook and corner ofIndia. Ev ery Indian must hav e play ed this game at least once in his childhoodday s. But as an Indian, did y ou ev er thought on why this game wasinv ented or who inv ented this game or from where did this game originates?F rom my experience, I can say v ery few of us must hav e thought about it inour school day s. We were alway s bothered in w inning the game ahead of allour friends and were nev er bothered on who inv ented this game or why thisgame was inv ented? In early adolescence, when I got to know the motive behind thegame, I found it very interesting and I thought to share it withyou since it explains a good spiritual side of our life. Before that,let us see some details about the origin of this game

Who invented snakes and ladders? Regarded worldwide today as a c lass ic game, Snake and ladderwas invented in India. Though the exac t date and place is notknown, Government of India credits the invention of this gameto poet cum spiritual guru ‘Gyandev’, also known as Jnanashwar,of the 13th century AD. C onversely, according to lates tarcheological evidences , this game exis ted in 2nd century BC .O riginally called as Mokshapath or Moksha-Patamu(Path tosalvation), this game was transported to wes tern world by Britishrulers in 1892. They called it snakes and ladders, the name If ind less fascinating compared to Mokshapath(Path tosalvation). They also stripped off the moral and religious valuesof this game thus making it even less fascinating. In Sanskrit,this game was also known as 'P arama P ada Sopana P atam',meaning the chart showing the ladder that leads to the ultimates tate

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Mokshapath- original snake and ladder game O riginally, Mokshapath had 132 blocks with a different pic ture ineach square. Each square represented a human quality or aliving c reature. Human quality meant that you have achievedthat quality as per your deeds while a living creature meantthat you have become that creature because of your deeds.



Vaikuntha palli- a variation to mokshapath For example, block 8 represents a frog which means that youdid bad deeds which made you a frog in your next life. Block 51represents horse which means you got the power of agility andquickness . Similarly each block had a particular meaningassoc iated with it. O nce the player reaches the las t block, hehas to wait for the right number to fall to win the game.

Mokshapath is more interesting than currentsnakes and ladders Doesn’t it sound more interes ting than the wes ternized snakeand ladder game we played in our childhood days? Sadly, I don’tfind a s ingle shop where I can get the original mokshapat game,courtesy of the des truc tion done on Indian culture by the Britishrule. I f I had a big resort or something, than I would havecreated such a game in my lawn and I am damn sure that allvis itors to the resort would have yearned to play their childhoodgame in a new interes ting avatar once again.


Snake and ladder game played publicly

Spiritual meaning of Mokshapath T raditionally, this game was invented by Jnaneshwar as a morallesson to young kids . In the original game, Ladder symbolizedvirtues (Good karma) such as faith, generosity and humilitywhile snakes symbolized vices (Bad Karma) such as anger, lust,murder, and theft. C ombination of several good deeds (ladders )will take you to heaven while a s ingle bad deed (Snake) isenough to take you to hell.


Variation of Mokshapath

This game teaches us that we do many good and bad deeds inour life and accordingly, we move up and down towards our


ultimate goal (Materialis tic or spiritual). i.e. this game teachesthe law of karma. This game was used not only forentertainment but also to teach children’s on what they shoulddo and what they shouldn’t in their future life. Thesedos/Don’ts results in divine punishment or reward, ethicalvalues , morality and determines the charac ter of an individual.

Mokshapath depicts the laws of karma andreincarnation This game also explains the H induism concept of reincarnation.This game says ultimate goal of life is ‘Moksha’. Each block inthis game represents a house. Snake bite means you do badkarma and soul is reborn as lower life forms (dog, chicken, frogetc) while ladder means you do good karma and soul is reborn ina wealthy prosperous family. This cyc le of life and death repeatstill the soul is liberated (Moksha) O riginal game was all about karma and des tiny. In the originalgame, each ladder was represented by a good human qualitywhile each snake was represented by a bad quality. Dependingupon the quality one attains to, he ascends or descends in thegame. For EX: The snake at hinsa (V iolence), a very bad quality,will take you down to block of mahanarak (Great hell) whileladder at V idyabhyas (education), a very good quality, will takeyou up to block of Shas tras (knowledge). Similarly, a ladder atA scetic ism will take you to god (kailasha<http://veda.wikidot.com/kailasa>(Lord shiva), vaikuntha<http://veda.wikidot.com/vaikuntha>(Lord V ishnu), brahmaloka<http://veda.wikidot.com/brahmaloka>(Lord brahma)) while aladder at murder will take you to hell. Whenever the person does a good deed, he ends up in the househaving bottom of ladder and is promoted upwards more closer togod in the path of attaining salvation


http://veda.wikidot.com/kailasa

http://veda.wikidot.com/vaikuntha

http://veda.wikidot.com/brahmaloka

A slightly different version used in Australia

Number of ladders and snakes in Mokshapath O riginally, snakes (Evil deeds) outnumbered the ladders (Good


deeds) which is the usual case with all humans . Humans aremore attrac ted to bad deeds in search of materialis tic pleasuresins tead of good deeds in search of Moksha (salvation). I t alsomeans following a good path is very tough compared to followinga s inful path. V arious good qualities (Ladders) in the original game were 12 - Faith 51 - Reliability 57 - Generos ity 76 - Knowledge 78 - A scetic ism. V arious bad qualities (snakes) in the original game were 41 - Disobedience 44 - A rrogance 49 - V ulgarity 52 - Theft 58 - Lying 62 - Drunkenness 69 - Debt 73 - Murder 84 - A nger 92 - Greed 95 - P ride 99 - Lus t 100 was the square of N irvana or Moksha. P layer has to reachthis block to win the game

Mokshapat in south IndiaA different vers ion of this game exis ted in south Indian culturewhere it was called as ‘V aikuntapalli’ or ‘P aramapada Sopanam’.Along with moral values, this game was intended to developskills and quick thinking in the child mind. In this variation, two


players compete on the board and collec t coins , shells or seeds .P layer which collec ts the maximum number of coins becomesthe winner. There were nine more variations to this gameaccording to regional, religious and cas te differences . Thesegames were very popular among Indian women’s s ince they hadto s tay indoors or c losed areas for majority of their time.

A short mention of dices in Indian culture This game was played us ing a dice. T radition of us ing dices ingames is very old in Indian culture, references of which arefound in rig veda and Mahabharata. In fac t, the deadlies t war ofall times ‘Mahabharata war’ which killed more than 6 million liveshappened because of dice. Earlies t excavated dices were foundin the harrapan s ites which are supposed to be of theMahabharata era.

Mention of snakes and ladder meaning in salmanrushdie bookSalman rushdie, Indian born writer, in his book “Midnight'sChildren <“A ll games have morals ; and the game of Snakes andLadders captures , as no other ac tivity can hope to do, theeternal truth that for every ladder you hope to c limb, a snake iswaiting jus t around the corner, and for every snake a ladder willcompensate. But it's more than that; no mere carrot-and-s tickaffair; because implic it in the game is unchanging twoness ofthings , the duality of up agains t down, good agains t evil; thesolid rationality of ladders balances the occult s inuos ities of theserpent; in the oppos ition of s taircase and cobra we can see,metaphorically, all conceivable oppos itions , A lpha agains tO mega, father agains tmother.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M idnight%27s_C hildren>’”


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight%27s_Children

desc ribed the moral of this game as follows

Western Variations of this game The firs t variation of moskhapat was done by the British rulersruling India when they transported this game in Europe assnakes and ladder in 1892. The most common version of Snakesand Ladders in Britain is the Spear's Games vers ion.


British Spear game version of snakes and ladders

US Chutes and ladders


This game reached United States in 1943, where it was calledas C hutes and Ladders by M ilton Bradley. In US, current chutesand ladder game is played us ing a spinner ins tead of a die.Moreover, for some block, other players award the player with acandy or s imilar such incentives .

American Chutes and ladders A ccording to an A merican survey, a player needs and averageof 39 .6 spins to move to square 100 from the s tarting point. O hgod, A mericans do survey on everything :) E ric Edelman, a collagis t, writer and sculptor based in New YorkC ity, c reated a s lightly different vers ion where he showed the


snake and ladder game as a chakravyuh(C irc le of birth anddeath). A person reaching at the centre of the board wins thegame. Same like, the person who enlightens the Soul s ituated inthe centre of the body to attain salvation. H is works is verypopular and are usually displayed in private museums, private

galleries and ins titutional collec tions .


Eric Edelman snakes and ladder

This game was introduced in C anada by Canada Games Company<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C anada_Games_C ompany>. A fterthe demise of C anada Games C ompany , C hutes and Ladders produced byMilton Bradley /Hasbro became popular in C anada. In recent years , this game has been released in form of variouspopular televis ion cartoons like "Dora-The Explorer" and"SpongeBob Square P ants " In A pril 2011, Yazino introduced the firs t online, real-time,multiplayer game where you compete agains t your friends to win


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Games_Company

game and some money. In wes tern world, this game is usually played in homemadecons truc ted board where the players themselves s tands on theboard and throws a dice to move ac ross the board. Interes ting!Isn’t it?


Big homemade constructed snakes and ladders

Conclusion: Today, many variations of mokshapath are copyrighted byprivate companies . I t jus t makes me wonder if India would havecopyrighted this game than the whole world would have beenpaying royalty to India. I f India would have copyrightedmathematics than today, no doubt, India would have been theriches t economy of the world. Why it didn’t happen? Well, Indianseers never desired materialistic pleasures. Their goal was onlySalvation (Moksha) and preaching of good moral values in


society. They did all their invention for gods and betterment ofthe soc iety. Still, many Indians have forgotten their culture andin their endeavor of attaining all modern comforts and pleasuresare gradually following the westernized world, discarding theirancient rich cultural heritage and true purpose of life. Hope, werealizes the importance of our cultural values and the good times comes again!


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Who invented snakes and ladders? - Mallstuffs · 2020-01-12 · This game reached United States in 1943, where it was called as Chutes and Ladders by Milton Bradley. In US, current