Chowka bhara

Chowka bhara, also known as Ashta Chamma, is a traditional two or four player board game from India played on a board marked with a grid of squares arranged in a plus shaped pattern. Players move a set number of game pieces around the track according to throws of cowrie shells or dice used in place of modern dice, aiming to move all of their own pieces around the board and into a home area before their opponents, while capturing opposing pieces that land on the same square to send them back to the start. The game combines an element of chance from each throw with strategic decisions about which of several pieces to advance or hold back, and about when to risk moving a piece into a position where it could be captured versus safely defended. It is played widely across the Indian subcontinent under a range of regional names and slightly varying rules, and belongs to the same broad family of cross and circle race and capture games found in many other cultures, sharing its core mechanic of throw driven movement combined with capture on landing with better known relatives elsewhere in the world.