From Temple Floors to Family Floors: Where Indians Played Board Games Before Game Boxes Existed

Today we expect a board game to arrive in a box.

Board. Pieces. Dice. Instructions.

But traditional Indian board games did not always need manufactured equipment.

Sometimes the playing surface was already beneath your feet.

Games carved into stone

Game boards have been documented on floors and stone surfaces at historic sites in India. Examples of boards and playing patterns have been reported at caves and temples including Bhaja, Ajanta and Ellora in Maharashtra.

Boards for traditional games have also been recorded at temples in southern India. At Lepakshi's Veerabhadra Temple, for example, a tiger-and-goat type game has been documented on the mandapa.

These traces offer an intriguing possibility.

A temple or public structure was not necessarily experienced only as architecture.

It could also become a social space.

A board could be extremely simple

Many games require only a pattern.

Draw some lines.

Make a few squares.

Dig pits in the earth.

Collect seeds, shells, stones or small counters.

You have a game.

This portability helps explain how games could survive across generations even when no commercially manufactured set existed.

At the other extreme stood royal games

India also gives us spectacular examples of play on an enormous scale.

At Fatehpur Sikri, the complex built under Emperor Akbar contains the famous Pachisi courtyard. Historical accounts associate Pachisi closely with Akbar's court and describe elaborate royal play.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art also holds a Mewar painting depicting Maharaja Sovan Singh playing Pachisi with a courtier, showing the game's place in elite social life.

So Indian board games occupied remarkably different spaces.

Palaces and temples. Courtyards and verandahs. Cloth mats and stone floors.

Perhaps that is the real heritage of these games.

They belonged wherever people had a little space, a little time and someone to play with.

Discover Indian traditional games for today's homes.